Guess it all caught up with me a bit on day 10! That my excuss anyway for this been late! The place is starting to change now as the masses start to arrive. The 1st week there really was just a handful of athletes so all very calm, but now every day more athletes arrive and the buzz of the place increases. This is where as a pro you probably want to start to hide away, just get the training done and then get back to your condo, but for everyone else this buzz is what is so special about this race so you sort of want to be out enjoying it. We did swim on the course and it was totally different to a week ago, you really need to look where you are going now!! A group of the pros including a lot of the top contenders were swimming some out and backs to half way and really were taking no prisoners – so if you happened to be in the way you got swam over – great practice for race day though!! It still is an amazing sport how these guys right at the top who are in total competition together train and hang out and really are good friends. I think this is still one of the best meories I had as a pro – my best friends and training partners where also my main rivals.
After the swim we drove out onto the course to about the 45km mark and then biked the back section – so this includes the climb to the turn and back. Quite a key part of the race and not because it is a tough climb but more because this is where the winds can really get strong and from the side – so the decent back down can be a bit hairy. Good ride though and it did include some efforts on the climb out. But must admit very tired after.
