At the airport, a different aircraft had to be brought in because last evening's flight never made it to SFO, so all the people on yesterday's flight were put on or waitlisted for this morning's flight. While I was bummed that I missed the First Class upgrade by one spot, I was glad I was confirmed on this flight because about 20 people were bumped including at least one racer who was trying desparatly to make his case to the airline staff. Even better, once we were airborne, the pilot informed that we will be making up the time delay by an hour. TOTALLY LEMONADE!
I had fully visualize today's "pre-race" race against time during the flight. From the moment the plane touched down in Kona, it was game on! Grabbed TomCat, hopped into car rental shuttle then rental car, and the race down the Queen K begins - wow, this must be what racers at world championship feel except I'm barely breaking a sweat!
The next few hours were a blur:
~ arrived at Fairmont, the race expo
~ shuttle from race parking to expo
~ paid USAT fee
~ picked up race packet
~ dropped off T2 bag (thank goodness it was pre-packed and I had it with me)
~ finished a sandwich in less than a minute while gawking at Chris Lieto, the race's #1 seed
~ shuttle back to race parking
~ drove to Hapuna Beach
~ put bike together (thank goodness Colin helped me slapped it together in only a few minutes)
~ dropped bike off at T1
~ hurriedly back to check in at hotel before all the hungry athletes show up for dinner at my place, and when I say hungry athletes, I mean like I was getting messages in all CAPITAL LETTERS because I haven't yet check in so cannot inform where dinner was!!
6pm. Done. Not a minute earlier. A whole day's gone by but now it's finally time to sit back and relax. Our wonderful pre-race chefs, Allison & Liz, made all the racers a wonderful meal. THANKS ladies! Fueled and now ready for the real race!
Endurance Sport, Part III to be continued...
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