Wednesday
Woke up feeling somewhat more refreshed than previous mornings, guess that was something to do with the 8 hours sleep we got.
This morning is the first open swim session (oh joy!), we get the bus from the hotel at 7.10am down to the swim start. When arriving I am pleasantly surprised at how flat and calm it looks, so I don the wetsuit and goggles and off I go into the blue yonder (well it’s kind of a brown yonder really!). The first 800m feel great then I turn into the last part of the swim course and suddenly don’t feel so great – it feels like I’m just not moving! I persevere and reach the end of the lap and say to Nick ‘Did you find that last bit hard? He answered that everyone was talking about the current in the water. Looks like another great swim time for me then !!! We left the swim start and made our way back to the hotel to have breakfast. Today is very overcast, we go and sit out by the pool and before our eyes the ocean starts to disappear by a big mist cloud, this then develops into a thunder & rain storm. We retreat back to our room for a while then decide to visit the Spa as we have heard about some pools there that you sit in and you get pecked by a load of fish (eating all the dead skin off your body apparently!) We go to the Spa and get in these pools and YES there are hundreds of little fish biting you all over – it was incredible – only in China. We stayed for about 1 hour and then left as the rain had stopped then went for a short bike which we did 5 minute efforts during. Got back to the hotel , got showered and went for something to eat. Another earlier night.
This morning is the first open swim session (oh joy!), we get the bus from the hotel at 7.10am down to the swim start. When arriving I am pleasantly surprised at how flat and calm it looks, so I don the wetsuit and goggles and off I go into the blue yonder (well it’s kind of a brown yonder really!). The first 800m feel great then I turn into the last part of the swim course and suddenly don’t feel so great – it feels like I’m just not moving! I persevere and reach the end of the lap and say to Nick ‘Did you find that last bit hard? He answered that everyone was talking about the current in the water. Looks like another great swim time for me then !!! We left the swim start and made our way back to the hotel to have breakfast. Today is very overcast, we go and sit out by the pool and before our eyes the ocean starts to disappear by a big mist cloud, this then develops into a thunder & rain storm. We retreat back to our room for a while then decide to visit the Spa as we have heard about some pools there that you sit in and you get pecked by a load of fish (eating all the dead skin off your body apparently!) We go to the Spa and get in these pools and YES there are hundreds of little fish biting you all over – it was incredible – only in China. We stayed for about 1 hour and then left as the rain had stopped then went for a short bike which we did 5 minute efforts during. Got back to the hotel , got showered and went for something to eat. Another earlier night.Thursday
Went open water swimming this morning again to try out the skin suits instead of the wetsuits. Temperature of the water was good but the current was very strong, when you were swimming against it you had to keep swimming for the whole time because if you stopped for 1 second you would start drifting backwards. A lot of people were starting to get a little bit worried about it.
Got back to the hotel for about 9am, got a quick shower and went for breakfast. We went over to the expo to pick up some gels, energy drink and gas canisters. Gas cannisters have not arrived yet and are not expected until tomorrow now! So we decide to go into town to one of the bike stores to pick up a hand pump each as a back up plan if the gas canisters never materialize. We get a taxi with the crazy Chinese guy, who seems overly excited to be taking us into town. We get to the bike shop and get a hand pump and also a gas trigger with a canister in it – result. The taxi driver came into the shop with us as he was waiting to take us back to the hotel – he was still very excited! On the way back we have to stop at a petrol station. We had to get out the car as your not allowed to sit in while the tank is being filled up. All of the gas attendents came over to us to say hello and there was this tall Chinese lad who was comparing his height with Nick’s, everyone found it very funny when Nick decided to spike his hair up to make sure he was taller. We got back to the hotel and went to register for the race. Pretty straight forward like all the others we had done. For the rest of the day we chill out by the pool and got to watch a few of the pro’s doing some swimming. Rasmus Hemming was so fast and graceful in the water, it was just a joy to watch. Tonight there is a get together in town for the IM athletes at Pizza Corner so we decide to head out to that. A few of the Pro’s were doing a Q & A session. We left at about 8.30pm for the hotel – I can’t get over how vast a city Haikou is and just how busy it was.
Got back to the hotel for about 9am, got a quick shower and went for breakfast. We went over to the expo to pick up some gels, energy drink and gas canisters. Gas cannisters have not arrived yet and are not expected until tomorrow now! So we decide to go into town to one of the bike stores to pick up a hand pump each as a back up plan if the gas canisters never materialize. We get a taxi with the crazy Chinese guy, who seems overly excited to be taking us into town. We get to the bike shop and get a hand pump and also a gas trigger with a canister in it – result. The taxi driver came into the shop with us as he was waiting to take us back to the hotel – he was still very excited! On the way back we have to stop at a petrol station. We had to get out the car as your not allowed to sit in while the tank is being filled up. All of the gas attendents came over to us to say hello and there was this tall Chinese lad who was comparing his height with Nick’s, everyone found it very funny when Nick decided to spike his hair up to make sure he was taller. We got back to the hotel and went to register for the race. Pretty straight forward like all the others we had done. For the rest of the day we chill out by the pool and got to watch a few of the pro’s doing some swimming. Rasmus Hemming was so fast and graceful in the water, it was just a joy to watch. Tonight there is a get together in town for the IM athletes at Pizza Corner so we decide to head out to that. A few of the Pro’s were doing a Q & A session. We left at about 8.30pm for the hotel – I can’t get over how vast a city Haikou is and just how busy it was.Friday
Woke up and went for breakfast. We made another visit to the expo to see if the gas had arrived and were told 3pm today. We found out yesterday that the organisers have had to change the run course round due to some local demonstrations going on – still flat so not that concerned about it. We went out on our bikes at about 11am, we decided to ride the run course, we went past the transition area which is beginning to look like one now. Did the run route then headed back to the hotel. Nearly forget to mention, Nick almost got taken out on the bike today by an old Chinese woman on a moped – he was riding along when suddenly she just crossed the road, he shouted and she stopped dead right in front of him, his right pedal and back wheel hit the back of her bike but he managed to stay upright - he wasn’t best pleased as you can imagine !! Went to the ‘Meet the pro’s’ at 2pm to ask a few questions, etc. Petr Vabrousek, Tim Marr, Edith Niederfriniger, Jocelyn Wong and Patrick Wallimann (who is a reall nice guy – 1st race as a Pro, he won his age group at Kona last year) were there, it was really interesting. We went back to the room afterwards, watched a bit of TV then got ready for the Welcome Party at 6pm. Oh and Nick went back to the expo and they still have no gas...maybe it will turn up tomorrow, but it’s not a problem now as Ken Glah from EST has very generously let us have some from his stock (Thank you Ken).
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