I told you I wasn't going to try and blog yesterday and for once I stuck to my plan, certainly gave me one less thing to do yesterday which was good.
Not that yesterday was a bad day, in fact I would have to say it was one of the smoothest days of travel I have ever had. Everything just worked, really really well. The flight was on time and went smoothly, I even got an emergency exit row. Customs both leaving and arriving was super quick, my lift from Changi to Iskandar Puteri was waiting for me and the drive up here was apparently one of the quickest he had ever seen on account of it being Singapore's National Day yesterday and so nobody was on the roads. I really couldn't have asked for an easier day.
All the same, it was still nearly 12 hours between leaving home and settling into my room with some dinner. So smooth certainly, but long too. But settle in I did and now I have had almost 24 hours here getting to know the place.
Interesting place this Iskandar Puteri. It really is a new city, as in there is heaps of construction and not necessarily that many people, although that does vary a bit depending on where you are. I did a lap of the bike course today and some of the roads where eerily quiet. As the attached very short clip shows before the battery cuts out. That road is part of the course. A total of Zero cars on that three lane road.
Admittedly there are busier roads, but not many. In the whole lap I never really felt in danger from cars which is amazing because I spent time on some really big roads.
So the bike and run courses (same roads) spend a fair bit of time going past vacant land or busy construction sites as well as a bit of time passing massive hotels. Interesting mix.
The roads on the whole seem decent. With all this construction going on there is a fair bit of debris on the roads, but mostly just dirt and small rocks, I didn't see any glass or anything. More than a few pot holes tool. Taking care will be the call of the day I think to avoid harm or mechanicals.
It will definitely be a hot day though. Both the bike and the run course are very open. You occasionally get a nice breeze blowing that cools things down a bit and makes things pleasant in the shade, but lots of the course will be warm I think. The run is going to be an exercise in conservation and caution, at least on the first lap.
Whilst large parts of the city are still a work in progress, Puteri Harbour were we are based is very pretty.
This is the view from the roof of the hotel. The harbour below where you can see boats is where the swim leg will be. What the photo doesn't show is the promenade of shops, cafes and restaurants that line the harbour. Once again, still a work in progress with lots of vacant shops, but a very pleasant spot. Lots of shady trees along the harbour so it can be a nice sit and pick up the breeze. I have done that a bit today and I imagine I will be doing it more in the coming days.
My day hasn't all been sitting around in the shade drinking coffee though. As I mentioned, I was out on the bike this morning getting in a lap of the course. The new Ridley got through the trip pretty well over here, there were a few minor post travel niggles, but I have them mostly sorted now. The ride this morning was a good chance to iron those out as well as spend a bit more time on the new steed.
This afternoon I met up with Darwinites Stef Puszka and Billy Lynch and we found our way to a 50m pool at the local Uni. Nice swim, although the pool was in full sun so we were careful to not spend too much time in there. The swimming felt very good though.
Tomorrow is looking like more of the same for me. I will head back out on the bike course tomorrow for another easy lap, or at least most of one, I will cut off a couple of bits to make the ride shorter. Late tomorrow afternoon I will head out for an easy lap of the run course. I want to be pretty careful on that one, even late in the day it will be fairly warm out there. In between those two activities I will register and pick up my race pack.
Not sure what else I will get up too, almost certainly a bit of sitting around in the shade and drinking coffee though.
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