Melbourne Chronicles - Day 2

Today we headed down to St Kilda Sea baths for the first time. On Sunday night, this will be the place people turn into Ironman. Registration was also held here and the atmosphere was excellent.

St Kilda on any other day is a wonderful place to hang out. The streets are lined with cafes and there are quaint apartment buildings facing the beach. There are dedicated bike lanes so cyclists mingle freely with automobiles. If I ever move to Australia, this is where I want to live.

But this isn't any ordinary day, this is Ironman week, so everywhere you look, you see fit athletes on uberbikes and aero helmets zooming past. The expo and registration was held in a marquee by the beach, with an outdoor lounge, complete with easy chairs and beanbags out by the entrance.

Walk in and it's a tri geek heaven! Zipp, Zoot, Profile Design, Rocket Science, Trek and more were all in there. We must have spent at least two hours just gawking at the stuff. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring any cash so I couldn't buy much. I'll be back tomorrow.

Registration was simple: fill out a waiver, sign your name on the Wall of Fame, then go get your stuff. The goodie bag was awesome: the stuff inside was the normal shit, but the bag itself was nice. They gave us each an actual bagpack!

Sign your name on the Wall of Fame

Registration time

The goodie bag. Cool huh!

After spending so much time at the expo, we went off to drive the run course. It's a mind-job, for sure, but from the looks of things, you're never really isolated: there's always something out there to see, whether it's the coast or one of the lovely beach houses along the way. There's also quite a number of shops, so maybe I might bring some money to buy ice cream or something!

Well, that's it for today. We're headed back to St Kilda again tomorrow for the dinner and welcome show. This time, I won't forget to bring my cash :p