Hello all,
I arrived at Sao Paulo airport on Sunday afternoon (5:45pm) after a 20hr flight with stop overs in New Zealand and Argentina. It wasn´t as bad as I was anticipating and I managed to sleep quite a bit.
Once off the plane, my biggest nightmare nearly became true when my bike didn´t turn up in the baggage claim area. There were about 10 people waiting for their luggages when the escalators stopped and the guy said that was it, WTF!!!!! So we went to the missing bags person and he said they received a call saying there was another flight due to arrive in half hour that could be bringing our bags. And I sat down and waited, and waited, and waited… until the bike finally and thankfully turned up!
So with that I was out of the airport and in the car for the remainder 3hr trip to the countryside where mum lives. We left to Florianopolis (race venue) a couple of days later and got here on Tuesday at around 4pm (it is a 10hr drive, roughly the same distance from Sydney to Brisbane).
Now if you think Sydney weather is unpredictable, wait until you come to Brazil. On Tuesday we had some sort of fog hanging around the place all afternoon. It actually looked like rain clouds, that´s how thick it was! I then wake up the next day to no fog and a forecast of 30 degrees temperature and humid, even though we had THE coldest day in May in about 20 years or so a couple of weeks ago.
So right now it actually feels like summer and I´m wearing board shorts and t-shirt. It´s nearly 8pm here… Race day is looking good at this stage so fingers crossed it will stay like that!
I had a look at the swim, run and parts of the bike course today. The bike looks fast but when I rode it this afternoon it was quite windy – easy 38km/h one way, struggling to sit on 30km/h the other. The run is mostly flat but there are a couple of hills that will put the hurt on a lot of people. For the sake of comparison it is steeper and longer than Mathew Flinders Drive (Port Mac IM course) but there is a 20m flat section right in the middle of it, before it picks up again. We hit it at around the 8km mark and then the other side of it on the way back at the 16km mark. The swim location is nice, water temperature is ok but overall it is a pretty average course IMO…
Both my runs on Monday and Tuesday didn´t feel great but today was different. I think I am getting rid of the jet leg and also acclimatising a bit. Still have 3 full days until race day so nothing to worry about. I´m glad to be here so many days in advance though.
The city is getting packed with triathletes now so the energy and excitement are building up! Overall, I´m feeling good and not letting the nerves get me (as usual). Tomorrow is a swim, bike & run day again. I will also pick up my race kit and take heaps of photos to post here in the next couple of days.
Take it easy, until next time.
Rog