Ironman UK 2012 - Friday evening and Saturday

During Friday afternoon I laid out all my kit in the hotel room, and bagged. Sad to say I even rehearsed the changes, just to make sure I had the right stuff in the right bags. Then I bagged up Red and Blue bags and put them to one site. Friday night was pretty grim – a tip to others : if you are planning to stay in the Holiday Inn, book very early and demand a room on the third / fourth floor or higher, because otherwise you'll lose even more sleep from the wedding parties (they can run two at a time) which occur, noisily, on the ground floor till 1 am. I managed a few dozes till the partying stopped around 1 am and then

Saturday was set-up day : a first look at the lake, and T1 and T2. But first I went down to check out the Ironkids event in the town centre

 This was basically a run event for 6 yro and up kids who had a blast running around the last km of the run route and under the Ironman Finish banner. Fun to see them and hear the parents and friends cheering as they went around. Then I decided to hit T2 and drop my red run bag. T2 was a cute school in Rivington, a town midway up the slopes to the hills, closed for the summer holidays, and the transition areas made use of two areas : a concreted, fenced area (probably tennis courts or similar) where the traditional rails for the bikes were stationed, and a gym in which we dropped our red bags with running gear in, in neat ranks of 100 or so per line. The plan was : drop the bike and then run thru up to the gym, quick change into run gear, and then out the other end of the gym. From T2 time for the sat nav again : to T1.

T1, and the swim start was very impressive : a fantastic site with the open water and large orange buoys ahead:

and a grassed area for bike racks. Interestingly, as soon as I entered transition there was a photo shoot : for my bike, not for me. Not quite sure what that was about. First job was to find my Look's slot (next to a fine looking Cervelo):

 and racked it up in the approved manner. A quick pinch of the tyres and then to drop my blue bike bag. Behind the bike racks, there was a tent in which we hung our bags with bike shoes, helmets, nutrition etc on numbered racks:

 Alongside the racks was a changing area with some seating. I checked out my bag position carefully, checked the contents a final time, and headed out.

My big plan next was to drive a lap of the bike course (an idea I got from chatting to another IM competitor who I met in the hotel). Problem with that was that I was trying to follow the IM bike course arrows, but not all of them I think were in place, and, what was worse, road works and other traffic issues stopped it : I just couldn't get up the road, and was wary of spending hours in the car where really resting up was what I needed. So, a bit disappointed, I turned back to the event centre at the Reebok, to check up on the next day's coach times, eat, and check out the Expo. After finding out that basically the coaches ran every 10 minutes up to 4:40, I crammed some pasta down at Ask in the retail park next to the Reebok, and set off back to the hotel.

The next few hours were, basically, very stressful. Knowing that the big day was here, but annoying, a very fitful night away didn't help my mood, and I certainly couldn't relax. Reception had told me that there were two weddings in the hotel that night, so I crammed my industrial earplugs in and tried, without much expectation, to get some sleep from about 7 pm: watch alarm and phone alarm (backup) both set for 02:50. Plan was : up, apply race number and age group tattoos, get into tri-suit and down to breakfast. In the event, I must have drifted off, and work up about 5 minutes before the alarm. This was it – the day to become an Ironman....