The Countdown has begun.

Aloha,

Thursday night, and yes I should be at the carbo party, but food sitting outdoors in the high 20's for a while has a touch of the '07 Faris & Norman's about it. I prefer play it safe and put the feet up as they are pretty sore from hoofing it everywhere with the kids 'n crew.

First up I have made a mistake. I have some photo's up from a previous day of a Cervelo P4. I even commented on the beefy BB. Not so, the offending beefy item is actually a startegically placed water bottle. What this does when the water bottle has been removed is make the frame look like a Great White has taken a nip out of the frame. Check it out sans waterbottle below. A thousand apologies Mr Cervelo. Still looks friggin' weird though.Wednesday was a funny day. A 50 min swim in the morning was totally awesome. Any predictions from myself of a fast swim went out the window as it was a bit up & down out there and bloody hard to get a good rhythm. If it's like that on race day it will be a looooonnnnggg swim for me. Oh well, so be it ! A major drama started before the swim with the trusty old Polar S720 heart rate monitor. It wasn't picking up my HR. A quick ride up the hill after the swim to one of the bike shops to get a new chest strap was fruitless, I tried a new one on but still no response, bugger..... A quick (2.5 hrs) of running around trying to find someone to test it confirmed that she's stuffed. So another couple of hours were spent looking at Garmin watches. The new 405 looks good but has to many bits that are unfavourable for Multisport so I looked at the 305. Many more Tri friendly functions on the 305 but the size of the face is the same as the width of my skinny wrists! So I've made the decision to not worry about my HRM and I'll do the race without it. As Tom say's I'll have to 'use the force' !! The day ended off with Fee & Marie getting stuck into another $2 Mai Tai, Martini and Margaritas at a happy hour, with DIRE CONSEQUENCES - See below (Marie downing a Martini in record time!).

Thursday (Today) started off with the famous 'Undie Run'. It is an absolute scream!! For the uninitiated it is a 'piss take' against the Germans who prance around Kona wearing their Budgies as normal every day clothing, much to the disgust of the Hawaiian locals. The 'Undie Run' was born to take the mickey out of the Germans and all proceeds go towards West Hawaiian Athletic development. About 400 people turned up wearing their undies and joined in on the Fun run. The crowds were HUGE, I think it was mainly due to Stevo running in his new Bundy Bear boxers and Compression socks. I turned up with Aussie flag boxer shorts and my ever present sponsors behind me (on my butt actually !!)

The big fella & I enjoying the sights of Kona and as you can see there is a lot to look at. The one over Stevo's right shoulder was pretty tidy for all the fellas reading this.

Finally here is a photo of me, as Marie calls it 'in skun rabbit mode'. All shaven up and ready to go. All my race stuff is nearly ready. I'll do a quick post tomorrow night then will have a few days off for obvious reasons. I may stick up a quick post the day after the race, of course this all depends on how the race and afterwards goes (Endura Afterparty etc). Until then, chill.

Mahalo, Matty