"Being relaxed, at peace with yourself, confident, emotionally neutral, loose, and free-floating - these are the keys to successful performance in almost everything."
-Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
The energy is building on the island and the weather is AMAZING!! Last night at the opening athlete banquet, it POURED for almost 30 minutes!!! Rain on this part of the island is not too common as most of the rain occurs in the mountains. More so, the Ironman World Championships is known to have 85-degree temps on race day but the black pavement and lava producing temps up to 115 degrees. Right now the weather is a "cool" upper 70/low 80 degrees and feels refreshing.
Of course, the winds are still brewing out on the Queen K so, without a doubt, Saturday (regardless of temperature) will make for an incredibly challenging day. Then again, there is no thing as an "easy" Ironman so it is what it is and we will all hope for a safe race day.
As I write this blog post early on Friday morning, the day before the 2011 Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, I must quote Shawn Burke on his FB post (Karel's coach and a many-x Kona qualifier) "Kona is cloudy and "cool" again this afternoon...1600 people hoping for it to be like this on Saturday means there is probably NO chance".
After Karel finished his 3.5 hr ride (with over 5300 feet of climbing), we relaxed (after I packed my transition bags), ate lunch at the condo and headed up to the mountains to Greenwell Farms for a coffee tour and lots of free samples of coffee.
Here's the website for more info: http://www.greenwellfarms.com/
I highly recommend this tour/visit if you get a chance to come to Kona. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and I learned a lot. Karel tasted all the different types of coffee and what a difference to taste hand-picked, 100% Kona coffee. Karel is the real coffee drinker as I enjoy 1 or 2 cups in the morning, but we both enjoyed the smooth taste of the delicious coffee from Greenwell Farms.
Around 4pm we were back in the condo and I had a little snack before resting my eyes for the second time on Thursday. I am a horrible napper as it is not easy for me to turn-off my brain and sleep in the middle of the day but coach Karel has been keeping an eye on me (and my bike) making sure that I am doing everything possible to prepare myself for Saturday. I seriously don't know what I would do without the support of my parents and Karel. Having them here with me is the best feeling in the world.
Around 5:45pm we made our way behind the host hotel for the outdoor, athlete banquet and dinner. The food was absolutely amazing!!! Not sure about the meat/fish selections but the Marni-friendly food was wonderful!!! I hade roasted veggies, pasta salad, potato salad, salad, fresh fruit, bread and veggie lasagna. Although the food was super delicious, the performances were great! The theme for the 2011 Ironman World Championship is Ko Aloha La Ea - Keep Your Love (http://ironman.com/events/ironman/worldchampionship/dawn-henry-describes-this-years-ironman-world-championship-theme#axzz1a28ITb9y)
and each performance was dedicated to the theme. The motivational words by announcer Mike Riley and the videos gave me chills. I have this indescribable feeling that my body and mind is ready and hungry to compete for 140.6 miles and I am honored to share the course with so many inspiring and motivated athletes from around the world.
