Saturday 7th Sept

Saturday 7^th Sept was a strange but enjoyable
day.

At my B&B after breakfast I packed my bags.  At registration on Friday I picked up all my
required bags, tags race number and instructions.

So in my blue bag, went my cycling kit.  In my red bag went my running kit.  I laid everything out on the bed first.  I was really concerned that I would forget a
vital bit of kit!  The forecast for
Sunday was mixed and I had forgotten to bring a gillett.

My friend David, who I met on the Africa ride, text and we
arranged to meet up later. He was making me laugh with his questions about the bags.  He hadn't caught the Friday night briefing so was a bit unsure about the process.

It was late morning and I drove into Tenby and was lucky to
find a parking quickly, although it was on the outskirts of town.

I wasn’t alone, there were lots of others taking their bikes
out of cars and putting them together. 

I put the wheels on my bike and stuffed the blue and red
bags into my new Ironman rucksack.  With
this on my back I hopped on my bike and cycled into town up the steep
hill.  The roads were very busy with
traffic.  Spectators, supporters and
fellow competitors were streaming in. For once as a cyclist on the road I felt completely safe.  None of the drivers minded as I passed them
up the hill.

I made my way to the transition area, which was huge.  Then I realised I hadn’t put the number on my
bike.  I did that carefully and wheeled
it into transition.  Only the athletes
were allowed into the transition area. 
I feel a little odd calling myself an athlete, I am more a participant .

I racked my bike at my designated place and could not
believe my luck.  There were eleven long
rails and my number was on the end of the number 9,  which meant I could find my bike easily after
the swim and find my racking place after the ride.  I covered my bike with the bag provided and
headed for the huge marquee set up as the transition area.  To access these places you had to show your ID race number bracelet.

I was impressed with the set up in the marquee.  Again more racks with the race numbers
on.  On one side you hung up your red bag
and on the other your blue bag.

In the middle were chairs so you could sit down to
change.  I checked my bags once more
before hanging them up as there would be no access allowed to them on Sunday
morning. 

 

The place was buzzing with nervous athletes and all were

friendly.

I wandered into town and bought a sandwich, I took my food

and sat on the harbour wall looking out to sea. As I ate I could see lots of activity on the beach where our race would
start.  Today was Ironkids and there were
hundreds of them taking part.

I looked out to sea and tried to imagine myself swimming
amongst hundreds.  A daunting thought
indeed.

 

Then I wandered down to the beach to watch the Ironkids in

action.  They had to run down to the water, run through knee high water around some little bouys and then back up the beach again.  It was a long way for
little legs but they competed in waves of age groups with gusto!

On my way back to town I met the same two guys from Cardiff

that I met when I came to Tenby a few weeks ago to ride the course.  It was good to see them and we talked as we
walked back to the Expo and transition area.

Shortly after that I met up with David and his coach.  We talked nothing but tri and all things

related.  It was very interesting to get
tips from a pro and I began to wish I had used a coach to prepare. 

David and I had diner together before going to the race
briefing.  Even though I had heard it the
night before, I was happy to listen again.

I gave David a lift back to his hotel and I went back to my
B&B for an early night.

I pasted on my race numbers on both upper forearms and was really chuffed with them.

I lay on my bed and went over the race in my mind, set some
ground rules ( like, do not chase anyone down, go at a steady pace ) and
visualised myself crossing the finish line. ( I had not seen the finish line in
reality)

At 9.30pm I turned the light out