Kona - Day Three...

I woke up this morning and got blog comments from Simon, Matty O and Doru that my participation in the Underwear Run is a MUST DO.

Thankfully I got up early enough to read the comments before the run was over. I had no choice but to get up early, my back was "killing me" from over-sleeping. Even after getting out of bed, it takes about 30 minutes for it to loosen up and I'm very careful to move slowly.

Today was "shave my body" day. It definitely helped loosen up my back. I felt like a contortionist trying to bend and reach around to shave those "hard to get to areas". For the first time ever, I even shaved my "armpits". With no wetsuit, I thought the hair might slow me down.

It's moments when I'm not "thinking clearly" that I'm glad I have a blog, I needed that "push" to NOT MISS the underwear run. I wasn't exactly sure what time the run was at 0r where it began, so I did some google searches and twittering and found out it was a 8 am about 200 meters from my hotel.

The Mark Allen Online breakfast was at 8:30 am and I figured I had time to do both. If I showed up to the breakfast a little late, I didn't think it would be that big of a deal, normally speeches are after breakfast anyways. I'm glad I listened to "the three stooges" and did the run.

Doing the Underwear Run was major fun. I couldn't believe the amount of people, it could easily have been 500 athletes and some of the "underwear costumes" were amazing. I wore Reid's Star Wars underwear along with the Captains hat.

As I was standing waiting for the race to begin, I met Emma. She's a friend of Simon's from Malaysia. It was great that she introduced herself and said "hi'. I loved it.

It was a relatively short, slow run, maybe a mile. In the heat, it didn't take long for everyone to work up a good sweat. Reid got a lot of good video. I wished our hotel had a faster Internet so I could upload it.

From beginning to end it only took about 25 minutes total, which was perfect for me. I was still able to get to the Mark Allen breakfast and even though I was a little late, I didn't miss anything. It all worked out perfectly.

Again, I'm so glad I did the Underwear Run, it was "a blast".

I'm also glad I didn't miss the MAO breakfast. I got a chance to meet the other Mark Allen trained athletes and get some words of advice from Mark and Luis. The primary message they gave was to "relax and don't put undo pressure on yourself". Which I've been doing.

I was starting to get a little freaked out when they were describing what could go wrong and you may have to deal with and then I had to self-talk myself back to, "forget about all the possible bad stuff and get back to relaxing".

It was really great meeting Mark and Luis in person. I was wearing the Captains hat and they recognized me right away. They were very gracious hosts and the atmosphere was very upbeat and relaxed. Luis gave a nice speech about "how tough it is to make it to Kona and you should all be very proud of yourselves".

It's was cool to sit in a room and know that all those beside you have experienced similar volumes of training to get to Kona. It's like being around "brothers and sisters in arms". Some even introduced themselves and said they "loved my video" of me wearing the Captains hat, cigar and beer.

Even though we don't know each other and haven't trained together, we "know" what each of us go through and feel like during our training sessions. At one point, everyone got up and introduced themselves, told how many Ironman's they've done and how they got into Kona.

I was impressed with a couple of things, the first was the amount of people that had been to Kona multiple times and the second was the physical shape of the women, they put most of the men to shame with their lean and mean looking bodies and veiny biceps.

I can't stress enough how gracious and supportive Mark and Luis were, they seemed to really care about us and enjoyed our company. They were very genuine. Before the group left, they gave us all shirts and we had a group photo.

Mark told me I have a great "comeback story". The best was when I told Mark I was definitely partying and drinking beer on Sunday and he said to let him know when and where and he'll join me for a beer.

From 11 am - 2:00 pm, I drove the bike course with Alice and Reid. When we got to the turnaround at Hawi, I saw a cool looking cigar store and we stopped. I met the owner and bought some post-race cigars. We then went across the street and got some carbo-loading "ice cream" before heading back.

Along the way, we pulled over to the side of the road and tried to do the "spell your name in the lava fields with the white rock thing". We were going to write, "Training Payne 2010", but it was too much work, so we just did "T.P." Most people will think it means "Toilet Paper".

I've been telling Reid about the "Curse of Hawaii" and that your not supposed to take Lava rocks home with you and if you do, it will bring you bad luck. I also told him that some people who have taken Lava home have "mailed" them back to the Island because they had experienced back luck after taking them.

Needless to say, as I was in the Lava fields spelling "T.P.", he slipped a small Lava Rock into my pocket.

We ate lunch at around 2 pm and by 3 pm I was really tired and decided to go back to the hotel room and rest. My plan for the day is to eat lots of carbs and then to eat lightly tomorrow. I'm still taking vitamins. I forgot to flush the toilet and Reid couldn't believe how "yellow" my pee is.

Rather than sleep, I decided to update the blog. I figured if I do it now, I can fall asleep a little earlier tonight. Two nights before is the race is the "most important" night to get a good sleep. I told Alice and Reid we're getting to bed early. Not that it matters, Reid's been asleep by 8 pm every night since we've got here.

With respect to putting any food in my mouth, I'm in "super paranoia" mode. I'm only ordering food that I think has no chance of giving me "food poisoning". I'm only going to eat bland, safe food. I didn't come this far to "eat stupid again".

Physically, I'm a little tired this afternoon and felt a cold sore coming on. I also aggravated my buttocks / hamstring injury during yesterday's run. It was a little uncomfortable sitting and driving in the car today. However, all things considered, I'm still glad I ran a little longer than I was supposed to yesterday. From here on it, I'll be doing A LOT of resting in my hotel room.

It's a good thing Reid is here. Alice and him play so well together. If it was just Alice and I, it would be too intense and boring for her. With Reid, the two of them are constantly "laughing" and "hanging out" together. I told them my day of fun will begin on Sunday. Post-race we are also going to start doing the "tourist" stuff.

The Carbo-loading meal was your typical pre-race meal. It had the basics of salad, pasta salad, mashed potatoes, lasagna, vegetables, fish, chicken and dinner rolls. It was a "lot of nothing" for $55 per plate. I hardly ate much and didn't dare try the Lasagna.

The pre-race speeches were about an hour long and it had "pomp and circumstance". I didn't mind it, Alice and Reid were "bored". After they were over, we left and I missed the athlete meeting. I couldn't put them through more "triathlon speak". It doesn't take a "rocket scientist" to realize that Alice needs a "break" from triathlons. Her eyeballs rolling into the back of her head was a tale tail sign.

By 8:30 pm we were back at the hotel and it's now time to rest until Saturday. I'm really looking forward to Saturday and whatever it may bring. I'm hoping, "it's all good" and I feel as good as I did for Ironman Lake Placid

Rest Day - Taper