Melbourne Chronicles - Day 3

It's getting closer. The atmosphere is getting hotter, even if the weather is getting colder.

Today, we headed back to the expo because there was some stuff I didn't get to buy yesterday. Walked out with a 2XU Ironman fleece and an Ironman Melbourne t-shirt.

The obligatory Ironman Melbourne t-shirt. They don't give freebie race t-shirts here. 

A really great buy, since I didn't pack any warm clothing...

Senn got new tri shorts and top to wear on Sunday (so much for never trying anything new on raceday, huh?)

Senn's new tri kit

The highlight of the expo? Meeting the 2010 Ironman World Champion Mirinda "Rinny" Carfrae! I was looking at the map of the expo, turned around and there she was! I was star struck, but managed to calm down enough to ask for a picture.

A star-struck moment: Me and Rinny :)

Senn and Rinny

After that, we headed home and did a short run to test Senn's new tri kit. About 1km into the run, in true Melbourne fashion, it rained. So we turned back and got ready for the carbo load dinner.

Due to me misreading the race week schedule and a miscommunication with the GPS, we arrived at the dinner just as they were closing the buffet. We were then rushed to the nearby Palais Theatre for the Welcome Show. You really have to love the laid-back attitude of the Aussies; there were no formalities at all during the presentation and the whole event was a laugh-a-minute.

It started with a comedy intro by one of Australia's local comedians, then a musical number, followed by the event proper. Ironman Greg Welch came on to tell a funny story about one of his first Ironman races, which included being tricked into taking a shower at T2 by his friends who have pulled out of the race!

Then Chris Legh and Whit Raymond came on to introduce the top 10 men and women pros who will be racing. Among the pros,  Eneko Llanos, Luke McKenzie, Craig "Crowie" Alexander, Jessica Jacobs, Mirinda Carfrae and Rachel Joyce were invited on stage to answer some questions. Another star struck moment for me!

The pros up on stage, Luke Mckenzie being grilled

A few weeks ago I entered a Facebook competition to win a free trisuit from BikeSure, a company that insures bikes in Australia. I won! After the show, I met the Marketing Manager of BikeSure to collect my prize. Guess I'll be trying something new on race day too!

I'm now a proud member of the BikeSure Triathlon Racing Team!

The back of the suit. 

Day 3 was quite exciting but the weather was not very good today. We had very strong winds and our plans to do a swim to test Senn's new wetsuit had to be scrapped because the sea was way too choppy. Tomorrow's official swim practice has also been cancelled, I'm guessing due to choppy seas. We'll be heading down to Frankston anyway to try our luck and get a test swim in. They did promise better weather on Sunday.

Hope they're right, otherwise the inaugural Ironman Asia-Pacific Championship might be reduced to a duathlon, and Senn may not get to use her brand spanking new Rocket Science wetsuit :(