The journey so far has been fun and exciting, never thought I could experience such a fantastic wonder here in Gold Coast. Ever since I arrived I feel just like home, or better than home. The air is fresh; weather is cold and nice, pollution-free and beautiful landscape.
It has been really cold since I got here, still not climatized yet till today. I began to worry the moment I touched down in Brisbane International Airport; and when I step outside the airport, it was indeed really cold. I got to the hotel around 11pm; the sight is beautiful around Brisbane and Gold Coast. I got my bike set up the very night I arrived so I could test out the bike course the very next day.
Surprisingly, I didn’t have jetlag though I woke up at 5:30 in the morning. When I woke up, the sky was bright as the sun was coming up from the pacific. I thought it was getting 7am but to look at the time it was only 5:30am. People were already started down by the beach here in Surfers Paradise, cyclists were cycling on the street, while runners were out running by the beach. Since I woke up so early, I took my bike out to go to Southport to test out the bike course; it was freezing cold the moment I got out of the hotel here in Surfers Paradise. While cycling I was shivering and my hands started to feel numb. Then I knew I am gonna be in some trouble on the race day.
The bike course was flat, so it was expected to be a fast and lot of attacks leg. So as the run, a flat course of 2 loops of 5km. People here were in singlets, t-shirts, flip-flops and short pants; and it’s so cold for me that I had to be in my thermal gears and long sleeve! Even running was difficult with the cold, I hardly sweat at all though I cycled and ran really hard.
I went down to the Festival Village on Thursday right after the bike course test-run to do my registration. Yes, I was really the only Malaysian on the list of more than 2000 competitors. After the registration, I went around to the expo area. I got myself some 2XU gears; I always like 2XU anyway. When I got to the Felt Bicycles booth, 2 bikes looked very familiar to me because I knew I have seen them on magazine and TV. Then, I slowly look around those 2 bikes and it happened to be Jan Frodeno and Emma Snowswill’s bikes; without hesitation I asked the salesman if those were their bikes. Yes, true enough there were their bikes. Jan Frodeno left it there for display so he could pick it up that afternoon and go for ride. His bike is huge, XL in size if not mistaken and it’s got all the customized paint job done along with 5 Olympics rings as he was the Gold Medalist. So as Emma’s bike yet hers’ is so much smaller (customized accordingly to her size) with colored purple Zipp Wheels. I was allowed to touch and take pictures with the bikes; it felt like a touch of the golden throne!
Avanti Bikes was the best to look at because they were using the Shimano Dura Di2; it is really the best gear now! I got to see it first hand and experience how it works. The shifting is truly 100% precision, no more cables, smaller shifters, and of course it is much more advance than you can imagine. After all, the Festival Village was great!
I tried to swim the next day, just to get a feel of the water before race day. But when I got into the water, it felt freezing cold and that’s when problem come…I couldn’t breathe! I tried to swim, yet I couldn’t even finish 25m. So I decided to get a wetsuit when I get my bike check-in at the transition area. I quickly went down to the expo area to get the wetsuit; 2XU was too expensive, so luckily BlueSeventy was having a clearance sale so I bought at AUD$199, an Ironman Edition. I tried on the wetsuit when I got back to the hotel after I checked-in my bike, it felt stiff yet the buoyancy was really fantastic. So I was confident enough that I could finish the race the very next day.
*Pictures are in my Facebook*
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