The next obstacle came when we got into a little fender bender on the way to the airport. We still got there about 3 hours before our flight was supposed to leave. After a few minutes, the airline employee informed me I didn’t have a VISA. WHAT? I had applied for our Visas in April, and had received a confirmation email that they’d been granted. 2 hours later, we learned that I had switched my birth month and date and it had been rejected. So, Australia had to clear it out of their system, and I had to scramble to re-apply keeping my fingers crossed the approval would come through quickly. Another 20 minutes and it finally went through. We were so close to boarding time, that they didn’t weigh any of our luggage, including our bikes, which we’d packed in a double bike box. I’m grateful they didn’t then, as we probably would’ve missed our flight, but it wreaked havoc later.
When we went through security, they flagged both of our carry ons. We had to wait while they went through other passengers’ bags. My heart was racing! Would we make it?! They finally went through our bags - our sport nutrition got flagged. I’d just put it all in a plastic grocery bag, but since most of it was Honey Stinger gels, that counted as a liquid. The guy had to gather them all up in his hands and determine if they would fit in a quart sized bag. He said I just barely made it. Sigh.
We hurried to our terminal, and got there with enough time to go to the bathroom before we had to board. So much for dinner. The flight to LAX was uneventful, but I was getting nervous about our flight to Sydney. I’d never been on a plane for that long. Would I get blood clots in my legs despite the compression leggings I had on? Would I have to climb over Eric a hundred times to go to the bathroom? Would I sleep? What would the food be like? We’d received an email a couple days before stating the airline had changed their food servicer out of LAX, and the food on the plane wouldn’t be up to their standard so we’d receive a voucher. I emailed them and asked, what does this mean? Do I need to pack enough PB&J sandwiches for a 15 hour flight? They wrote back with a vague answer, but I decided to hope for the best. The food wasn’t all that great, but I wound up having a queasy stomach for a while, so I didn’t eat much anyway. Luckily, the flight to Sydney passed much quicker than I thought. I was only able to sleep a few hours, which stunk, knowing I’d have a three hour bike ride when we got there.
Sydney reminded me a lot of the US East Coast. A little humid, green, and similar to bigger cities, everything felt squished together. We had a wonderful visit with Eric’s former LDS Mission President and his family. We were able to swim in the ocean, visit the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Bridge. I biked through the amazing Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, which included 2,418 ft of climbing. I discovered a new kind of cereal I love and Connoisseur ice cream bars, which I was super disappointed to learn are only sold in Australia. The best fish and chips (fries) we ate during our trip came from a place near Bayview, where we were staying. I also loved driving on the left side of the road! We thought with the US dollar being in our favor, things would be cheaper, but not so. We found out the minimum wage in Australia is $26/hour. With it being so high, that meant everything else was a lot more expensive too, compared to the US.
After 5 days, we readied ourselves to make the 4 hour flight to Perth, Western Australia. We had a hard time navigating to the car rental drop-off - the signs used different wording than back home, there were tons of cars, and we were scrambling to make our flight, even though we left with plenty of time. We went to check in and were told our bikes were too heavy - by a lot. We hustled to remove stuff from the bike box and put them in our other bags. Still too heavy. We missed our flight. We drug all of our stuff away from the check-in counters and I was tasked with getting more weight out of the bike box and evenly distribute it between all our bags so they wouldn’t be overweight as well while Eric went to try and re-book our flight. When he returned we started stripping everything we could think of - brakes, derailers, handlebars, and finally wheel bags. It was a mess. We were still 1 kilo over on the bikes and one of the employees finally took pity on us and let it slide. So, off to Perth. |
| Thanksgiving dinner |
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| Coogee Beach |
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| The crazy winds made most of the trees grow sideways! |
I really enjoyed Geraldton. We stayed in an 1850’s house that was maybe half a mile from the beach. I LOVED biking and running along the path and street next to the ocean. I thought I could get used to that. There was also a great protected bay area for swimming where I met up with some locals each morning for a swim. Eric visited the teeny tiny LDS church building and found some people working on family history there who filled him in on what had happened to a lot of the people he’d known on his mission.
After two days, we drove back south and stayed the night in Rockingham, another area Eric had served in. Finally, we were off to Busselton for the Ironman. All through the trip, I hadn’t really felt all that nervous about the race. We had so much time to acclimate (including getting our stomachs used to different foods) that I didn’t worry too much. Interestingly, I had a harder time with the three-hour time change between Sydney and Perth than I did for the 18 hour difference between Utah and Sydney. After a 2.5 hour drive, we started seeing the tell-tale signs of an Ironman race. Bikes that cost more than the cars carrying them, M-dot stickers, and people walking around in spandex. This was the part of the trip I’d been waiting for. My main reason for coming.
Getting checked in at athlete village was surreal. I felt much more prepared for this race than I had for Ironman Cozumel. I’d been doing triathlon for 5 years now and I felt like I belonged there. In Cozumel, I still felt so new at triathlon, that I struggled to feel like I had any business attempting that race. But since then, I had overcome so many things. After all the feelings I’d had throughout the year that we maybe we shouldn’t go, and after all the trials we’d had since our trip started, I was amazed we had made it in one piece!
The place we stayed at was like a campground with some chalets, which is what we stayed in. It was tiny but cozy. Unfortunately, the AC/heater was difficult to use, and I froze the first night because I’d turned on the AC trying to turn on the heater, and couldn’t get it to change. It was only about 3 miles from the race venue, which was great. Bright and early the next day, we headed over to the Busselton Jetty for the practice swim. The jetty is 1.8 kilometers out in the water, which is great because the Ironman swim is 3.8 kilometers. I only swam about a thousand meters that day and loved it! You could see the bottom, just like in Cozumel. Yea! I’d be able to watch the fishies as I swam during the race! The water was pretty calm and just beautiful. I was really looking forward to the swim. Five years ago, I didn’t think I’d ever say that! But I was especially looking forward to it because I assumed it would be the easiest part of my day during the race. The high temperature and wind forecast kept getting more ominous throughout the week. After highs in the lower to mid-70’s most of the trip, upper 80’s wasn’t going to be fun.
Friday afternoon was one of the highlights of the entire trip. At Ironman Australia, they have a program called adopt-an-athlete, where they pair up international athletes with a local school class. I volunteered and was paired up with a 3rd grade class (8-9 year olds). We exchanged a few emails and pictures leading up to the race, and they invited me to come visit their class. Their last day of school was the following Wednesday before summer break. It was so much fun visiting with them! They were all very respectful and asked some great questions. I loved hearing about them too! At the end, we took a group picture and a couple of the girls gave me hugs! I loved it! That will always hold a warm spot in my heart.
Afterwards, we drove the bike course, which had 5 out-n-backs, of which I would have to do twice. That evening I went for a walk along the beach and wished I could live this close to the ocean. I saw a few stingrays, so had to be careful to not venture too far out in the water. It was so peaceful and beautiful! I just loved it. Aside from the ridiculous amount of flies there, I decided I liked Busselton more than Geraldton. I really could get used to living in a place like that! The sand and water were exactly what I pictured when I went to my happy place during meditation when I was having a hard time sleeping.
Saturday was another practice swim and quick bike and run. Then I had to check everything in. Athletes wouldn’t be allowed to get to their transition bags race morning, so everything had to go in them on Saturday. I had stuck to my plan of reducing my fiber intake starting a couple of days before (thank you St. George marathon for that lesson). And I did a good job of limiting sweets, as well as eating dinner early Saturday evening. I made my portables for the bike, although they don’t have ham like we do, so I had to improvise and use some of their “bacon” (which is actually a lot like southern ham). I even did a good job of getting to bed pretty early and slept pretty well (amazing!). Only a few hours to go...
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