Kona – Pre Race Tuesday Afternoon

The afternoon at Kona saw some cloud cover come over and the temp dropped slightly. We caught up with age grouper and cool surf board shaper dude Eden Saul. Eden is looking and sounding very relaxed. We had a coffee at Lava Java and chatted about everything. The guys at BSc sound like they have set Eden up well with nutrition and gear. A cool tee-shirts came with the catchup. Love it!

Australian Michelle Gailey stopped for a chat with seat post and seat in hand. She was looking very relaxed and couldn’t wait for Saturday. This year will see four Ironman / iron distance races which was also what Gailey did last year. Her first iron distance race was in Cairns last year when she came as an unknown quantity to run past some more fancied athletes to chase Rebekah Keat in to second. Four iron distance races in a season is a lot and possibly too much if she is going to have a real crack at Kona. It is still early days for Gailey in her ironman career. We wish her the best of luck against an elite female field.

Check out the mylist.com facebook app.We were chatting with the main guy from mylist while waiting for a coffee. He took us through how mylist works. There are all sorts of lists created by everyone. You can go to Ironman’s facebook page and click on the mylist app and see all the lists that have already been created. Lists like the one Crowie has made of items in his race kit. Check it out.

Josh Rix is looking very lean and race ready. After coming 11th in 8:22 at Melbourne this year he and also having a solid 70.3 season he will be looking forward to racing. He was having a catch up with Sam Hume and Gregory Farrell over coffee this afternoon.

Leading Victorian age grouper Sam Hume will be one to watch this weekend. He last raced at Kona in 2008. Now as a 37 year old he is back and better than ever. Sam was ninth overall this year at the Australian long course champs in Falls Creek beating home a few more fancied pros.

One of the leading ironman pros Dirk Bockel had an unfortunate accident while out training the other day. As his team was handing him a water bottle on the move the speed was misjudged and Dirk’s hand bore the brunt of a hit from the car (we believe). The result is a huge bump on the back of his hand where a bone is fractured. The talk his that he will be racing with a splint on his hand to take some pressure of his break. Let’s hope that it doesn’t bother him too much during the race. It could have the effect of taking some of the focus away from the leg pain later in the race. A years work and something like that happens. No one would wish it on anyone.

The Parade of Nations took place late this afternoon. Australia was massively over represented. Looked like the biggest team outside of the USA.

We saw many Australians we know well including these two Ironman Australia legends.

These guys have made Ironman a lifestyle. Stephen went better this year as a 50-54 year old age grouper than he ever has. He won his age group in 9:57. Stephen has done 27 Ironman races if we remember correctly. Mark completed Melbourne this year in 10:10. Not sure if that was the race that got him to Kona. It may have been another.

We grabbed some snaps of the Cervelo P5 and the Cannondale