Australia Day 5 - Saturday 20th March

An easy day today. Well, that's what the schedule said. So I had in mind an easy hour on the bike and an easy half hour run. I was then going to visit the Billabong Koala Breeding Centre to see some kangaroos and more koala's.

At least that was the plan. Sometimes days just don't go as planed because better things occur.

I woke up at a nice early hour and had breakfast. Then feeling lazy just chilled out in the appartment sending emails, playing on facebook and then only set out for a ride at 9am. Figured that way I'd not get caught up in rush hour traffic. You can tell I'm on holiday and lost track of the days and it's only now as I write that it occurs to me that it's a Saturday and there shouldn't have been any rush hour traffic.

Anyway I set off a 9am for an easy ride. Set out nice and slow to Settlement point on the TT bike with aero helmet in my Tri-Anglia tri-suit. My TT bike I've called Dawn for a number of reasons that I'll elaborate on in a later post (perhaps). Anyway I was out and as I waited on Settlement Point considering waiting for the Ferry to the North Harbour I got passed by a lady in pink on a bike. Then a couple minutes later 3 more ladies with another one in pink. As the ferry didn't look like it was about to leave the other side of the river anytime soon I gave chase and caught up with the group to have a chat and see where they were going. They'd set off at 6:30am, as did most of the rides that go out most days (it's dark at that time so they set off with lights) and were now just warming down. I was adviced to pop into the Peloton Cafe which is attached to Gordon St Bikes to find out the location of the departing rides. The kit that the two ladies in pink were wearing was that of the "Peloton Princesses".

I then continued on my own on the Ironman bike course upto the Lighthouse turning point. Once there I found a cycling coupling taking photos of each other with the backdrop of Lighthouse Beach behind them. I figured it the done thing to pull over say "Hi" and offer to take a photo of the pair of them. They took me up on the offer, picked up on the accent and we got chatting. Turns out that they'd been in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in April 2008 to do Ironman South Africa, same as me, and had beein in Penticton, British Columbia in August 2009 to do Ironman Canada, same as me and lived at Camden Head were I'd ridden to on Wednesday. I received an open invite to their house if I was to ride there again and also an invite to join their Tri Club this afternoon for a group swim in the Hastings River on the Ironman Swim Course.

Result. Run was off the schedule, as was the trip to Billabong. I concluded my easy ride with a stop at the Peloton Cafe then chilled at the hotel reading "The da Vinci Code" whilst utilising the hotels laundry service before wandering down to the river for 2:30pm to swim with Port Macquarie Triathlon Club. Most people said "Hi" and introduced themselves I was told to check out the wetsuit that one of the ladies was wearing. It was one that Chrissie Wellington had worn when she won here last year. She'd signed it and I was asked if I knew who Chrissie Wellington is. Of course I do - she's the 3 times World Ironman Champion who won Ironman Australia each of the last two years and is from Norfolk where I live. As soon as I said that I suddenly got introduced to the group on mass as "This is Rob from the UK and he knows Chrissie". That's not quite what I said. I had been in contact with her, and she'd asked me to give the organisers her best regards which I passed on to this group to then be baraged with questions: Is she out of plaster we heard she broke her shoulder? Is she okay? Is she back in training? Where is she based at the moment?" Good job I'd read her last blog update earlier in the day.

We had a good social swim, about 20 of us, as a group up the Hastings River, occasionally stopping to regroup. I got a great feeling of camarderie and felt like a seal savouring the enjoyment of swimming in a schole. We covered 2.4 km in about 45 minutes, then heading to a coffee shop, of which Port Mac has plenty.

I now have options of a 6:30 bike ride and a 7:30am run tomorrow morning. Thank you Ron and Beryl.

The Koala Breeding Centre can wait for another day, but not tomorrow I'm visiting Wauchope, that I now know is pronounced war-hope for a 2 hour horse ride. I'm looking forward to that. I'm also looking forward to Friday when Miss V arrives in town to support the Ironman before she commences here holiday and I then return home. I'm feeling sorry Julie Green though. She also has an entry for the Ironman and was booked into the same hotel as me, but on the advice from her Doctor on a low white blood cell count has withdrawn.