Paul and Deanne in Hawaii

Written by Paul Attard

Thursday, 03 June 2010 13:15

Aloha! Deanne and I have arrived safely in Hawaii. The plane trip was not as painful as expected and so we have had a good start to our trip! Also travelling with us on our plane was Belinda Granger. So very cool to see some other pros heading here at the same time! Our Hotel is about half a mile from the official ironman start which is where we are going to be swimming later today. Most people here love the Ironman and all the locals are very friendly. Yesterday was an easy training day for Deanne and I so we headed out on the “Queen K” (ironman bike and run course) for a 90 minute easy ride. I found the conditions pretty comfortable and came back with the idea that I couldn’t see why people are saying that Hawaii is a hard place! Well, as I found out later, my assessment was guided by this easy ride in cool conditions with small winds and was just bit wide of the mark, but more on that later. Last night we went scuba diving with Mante Rays! It was awesome. You can only do it at night and apparently this is the only place in the world where you can do it in their natural habitat. I started to get sea sick on the boat and felt like I was going to chuck. That put a bit of a damper on boat trip but it was still fun. Deanne was loving it but then when I told her I felt like throwing up she turned around and hurled off the boat! That’s what you get when you eat Doritos! Tuesday morning and I’m off for a 60k ride with a few efforts to get the legs going. It was about 25C and not very windy at all. My legs felt good after the first small effort. I turned around at the 30k point and had few more efforts to do on the way back. I thought it was going to be tougher on the return leg but I was flying out there! I rode back with a local I met called Doug. We got chatting and he was very impressed with how fast I was riding. I didn’t think I was pushing that hard but guess I must be a bit excited to be here. He offered to give me a little tour of the Ironman course and as it was on the way I accepted. At the end of the bike course we arrived at the pier and start talking about the course and the swim. When I looked down at my watch and I had ridden 60k in 1.50 including ten mins of talking! That’s about a 36kmh average. It was then that I realized I went out too hard. Within a minute I was light headed and faint!  I could see it happening the whole way down but couldn’t do much about it. About ten people rushed over and help me. I felt OK but knew I need water and gels. I slammed some of these down and Doug waited with me for a while to ride the last km home to make sure I was OK. I felt like an idiot if but I think I have learnt a lot from that experience.  Hawaii can really surprise you.   Will try to keep these reports regular and update you all with our news as the trip progresses. Cheers for now.  Paul

Last Updated on Thursday, 10 June 2010 11:02