Free morning tea, and a t-shirt!

A big thanks to Jane Patterson and Janette Blyth from Ironman NZ for hosting the NZ team gathering this morning. Given that we're from all around NZ, it was a good idea to get us together, put names to faces, and get a bit of kiwi culture going. Terenzo was mentioning that no-one apart from the Aussies understand our jokes. 'Beached as bro'.

Not only was there food and drinks on offer, but another 'goodie' bag from the IM NZ team. Contained within was a snazzy Ironman NZ t-shirt and cap for us to wear at this evenings parade of nations.

Gina Crawford, Cam Brown and me old mate Jon Ackland all gave some words of advice, and whilst these were probably more pertinent to first timers here, it was sage advice indeed.

I didn't train today. I was going to do a 60-90 minute bike, but with all the running around with the meeting, race registration and so on I figured that resting would be better for me. It think it was good choice.

This morning I also caught up with my coach, John Newsom, and his side-kick Bevan James Eyles. John and Bevan produce an informative, amusing and very kiwi weekly podcast on 'all things ironman'. http://www.imtalk.me/Podcast.html They're here to cover the race, and it was nice just to quickly check in with John and how I'm tapering.

We gathered for the parade at about 4.30 pm, and got under way at 5. I've got to say that I was pretty disappointed to see that only about half of the 40 kiwis racing turned up. I have no issue with the five pros (Cam Brown, Terenzo Bozzone, Andrew McKay, Gina Crawford and Jo Lawn) avoiding it, as racing is their livelihood, and they should be putting everything into the race. Everyone was happy to accept a free t-shirt and cap, so they should have felt obligated to front up for the hour or so that the parade took. Not good enough really.

We got plenty of crowd support, mostly,

I noted, from lots of vocal Australians (are there any other sort?) scattered along Ali'i Drive.

I have to say that it felt good doing the parade, and I'm glad that I attended. Its all part of the experience as far as I'm concerned.

Tomorrow is my last hit-out. I'll do a 30 min sea swim at 7 am, and a 30 min run at around 2 pm. Both sessions are really about just ticking the engine over, getting rid of a bit of nervous energy, and also feeling good about exercising as my body reaps the benefits of tapering - there is energy to burn.

Tomorrow's post is going to feature a bit of bike porn.