The day before race day!

We started off today the same way as yesterday; with our alarms set for 4am huddled around a TV that was full of infomercials - no fun!

The intention for today was to do a swim/bike/run, however each session was to be 10 or 15mins and with a break between them.  So our plan was to head down to the water at 7am again.

As we were sitting around whiling away the time we decided that we would do our run before the swim - I don't know why that didn't occur to us before!  So, away we went.  The morning was beautiful; it was still dark but it was light enough for us to see where we were headed with the moonlight and the street lights.  I felt good, I felt as though I could run for ages and I felt so much more comfortable running than sitting around in our unit waiting!

After our run we went back to relaxing in the unit until it was time to head down to the swim.  The swim was beautiful, it was much calmer than yesterday and the water was really beautiful.  I was out at one of the buoys chatting to a couple of girls and I looked around and wished I had a camera.  The sun was rising behind the snow capped mountains with the lake looking still and beautiful.  It really was tranquil and serene.  I imagined the chaos that it would turn in to just this time tomorrow!

After our swim we went for an easy ride to make sure everything was OK with our bikes prior to checking them in to transition.  Thankfully our bikes were all good.

Putting the bikes in to transition was exciting - we had our transition bags all packed up and dropped them off and then we were given an escort - a kind volunteer showed us where we racked our bikes and went through the whole process of where we were going to run in from the swim and where we would get changed and where there would be food and sunscreen and then to the bike and then out on to the bike course.  They were really good and thoroughly organised.

Once we had racked our bikes and deposited our transition bags we had nothing left to do but relax and hydrate and carbo load!  It also meant that my parents were released from their fantastic "Ironman support crew" duties and could actually go and do some exploring.  Their help over the last couple of days was brilliant - to running to the shops and getting last minute 'essentials' to fixing up bikes, to giving us a lift here and there, to Mum cleaning up the unit - they were always on hand to offer any assistance to all of us.  I didn't mean for them to come over and wait on us hand and foot so it was nice that they got this afternoon to go and do a bit of exploring!

Craig and I had a large bowl of arrabiata pasta for dinner with some fresh herbs and parmesan - this is a meal that we ate a fair bit prior to a long ride or run so it was appropriate for us to eat it before the big day.

Mum and Dad picked up Vanessa from the airport in the evening and then Keith, a friend of Faye's came over and we hung out a bit.  Craig, Keith and Faye even managed to have an alcoholic beverage!  I wasn't game to start drinking the night before the biggest race of my life!  Here is a photo of Keith, Faye, Craig and Vanessa - relaxing with a drink!