Final day before the off. I like the day before the race. Other than nerves at the very start and end of the day I tend to feel relaxed. I especially like the period between handing in your bike / transition bags and going to sleep. There is nothing to worry about as all your stuff is now set up for the race. Abit like the relaxing feeling you get once your luggage is checked in at an airport.

My free t-shirt count has gone up to 5 plus a couple for my nephews. Luckily I planned on this and came out with only a couple of t-shirts. This year I got my Cervelo shirt for being a Cervelo rider – very nice it is too. I think my nephews will be pleased when I give them each smaller versions of the same shirt to wear. I think Cervelo’s aim, based on the number of kids / baby t-shirts they had, is to have every child from age 1 month to about 12 wearing a Cervelo T-shirt.

Funny incident as I did a final test ride on the bike. Coming along Alii drive I had to come walk my bike – just behind some americans. They said they liked my wheels. Then said I looked fast. I said “Unfortunately looking fast is only half of it. You have to be fast and thats harder to do” … the american then said “We like this guy!”

Swam this morning again. It was swamped. Short easy swim with Paul to the Coffees Of Hawaii boat. Quite sensibly they are moving the boat closer to shore each day. As we swam out we did a large arc and it was clear some guy was just following us thinking we were sighting properly. When we stopped at the boat he looked up, realised he was way off course, turned through about ninety degrees and continued on. Then swam with Jane – even shorter and easier. Think she was quite surprised at how hard swimming in the sea was. Another chilled out breakfast at Splashers. John and Joan Collins (the originators of the Ironman) came in and the owner kindly introduced them to everyone. I hung out with my family, Roger and his wife, Mary initially and then as they left Toby arrived so I chilled for abit longer with him and Mark Booth plus his support crew.

Toby and I headed down to rack. Got another nice M-dot sticker on my bike. I’m proudly displaying two on my P3C now but you see some bikes with half a dozen or more ! It’s so well organised – you get a volunteer to walk you round transition and explain it all to you. This  year they made everyone leave their helmet on the bike – it was amazing looking round I reckon 75% of bikes had full on aero helmets on them. Made by old style Luis Garneau aero helmet look incredibly dated.

We headed for a coffee before getting about an hours rest and then heading to meet my family, Roger, Mary and Paul for some dinner at Bongo Bens Cafe. Excellent Cobb Salad – thoroughly enjoyed it despite the nerves really starting to kick in.

How am I feeling. Difficult to judge. Pretty darn nervous which I think tends to be a good sign. Not as well prepared as I’d hoped I’d be this time this year after last years race (if u see what I mean) but reckon that will always be the case. Feel recovered from Wisconsin and ready to race. Determined to get on the front line of the swim and try to get in a fast pack. On both the bike and run the aim is to keep calm early on and not over do it, I want to feel strong towards the end of each discipline.

Nearly time for bed. My bib number is #1100 if u want to track on Ironman Live. Good chance I’ll managed an update tomorrow night as normally I really can’t sleep after a race.