Thursday, 11 August 2016

Day 2 in Iskandar Puteri

Been a bit more of a cruisy day today over here in Iskandar Puteri, after the day of running around yesterday. I always prefer to keep myself busy before a race and so I have done that today, but it has been a busyness of my own schedule.

As I mentioned yesterday the plan for this morning was to get out for another spin around the bike course. I was keen to get out and do that reasonably early, but first I wanted to go down and visit the swim course, which was open for swimming today. I didn't particularly want to swim but more to feel the water temperature.

My little visit to the swim course went to plan but while I was down there I couldn't help but notice the black thunderclouds and the ominously rumbling thunder coming from the sky. There was rain on the way without a doubt, but I wasn't really sure how soon it would turn up and how heavy it would be when it did.

In an attempt to miss the rain I decided to postpone my ride by half an hour, give the rain a chance to come over was my logic. When I had a wander around outside after 30 minutes there had been some light rain, but nothing of consequence. I figured I couldn't spend all morning waiting for rain so I made the call to head out. Oooo, bad call.

I was okay for about 80% of my ride. Some of the roads were damp and there were plenty of clouds, but I was managing to dodge most of it.



However, with 7 or 8kms to go the rain came in and oh boy did it come in with a vengeance. The rain hit as only tropical rain can. hard and fast. I wasn't far from the hotel at the that point so I made my way straight back. By the time I made it the roads were fully awash and I was out long enough to get completely saturated..

I sheltered at the hotel for a little while but after a short break the heavy rain eased right off and I was able to head out and finish off the session. As you can imagine a bit of bike cleaning occurred not long after that.

My other activities for the day have included a fair bit of sitting around in the shade and relaxing. However, I have also been down and registered for Saturday's race. Interestingly it turns out that I am number 1 for the race. It happens sometimes when the race isn't seeded and instead is organised alphabetically. It is kind of cool, however, to be honest I would prefer to not have it. I feel it gives some people an unreasonably expectation of my ability. Oh well, it is due to nothing that I did and there nothing I can really do about it so I am not going to get too bothered about it.

Speaking of registration, I have to say the competitor pack I picked up at registration is one of the most generous I have ever seen. Not only did it include the usual towel and nutrition samples, it also included not one but two cycling tops, arm warmers and a cycling cap. Plus some rather interesting race related jewelry which is the first for me. I have never seen anything like it.



With registration done I am almost done for the day. I am about to head out for a run over a lap of the course. It is getting a bit later now, plus with the rain today has been a bit cooler. Even still the run will be an easy one. After that it will be time for some dinner before a Pro Briefing this evening.

Should be a nice relaxing evening.

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