Race Trip - Day 1

Here I am, sitting in sunny Phillip Island in Victoria (jokes, it isn't sunny) starting to get ready for the Australian Paddleboard Championships. It has been a very long day of travel, but we have made it.

The day began with an alarm set at a time starting with 3, which is one of my least favourite times to see on an alarm clock, but we had a long day of travel to get through, so an early start was necessary. Then, after an uneventful flight and a long drive, we arrived here, at Phillip Island. We got into town about 5:00pm and since then we have done all the usual things like get some food, cook some dinner, have a jog etc. All good. Currently I am sitting here dealing with the usual dilemma you have when you travel from the West Coast of Australia to the East, in that it is nearly 11:00pm here, but to my body clock it is not quite 8:00pm. As tired as I am, I am not sure I am ready to go to bed at 8:00pm. Still, plenty of time to adjust.

I haven't traveled for a sporting event for about 3 years, the last trips would have been about now in 2016. I am a little out of practice, but all the same, this trip is very different to the trips I used to make for triathlon. For one, this is a team trip, so I have plenty of people with me, which is generally making things a lot more fun. You have people to share the laughs with, but also people to help out when things get stressful, which has made the trip easier so far. Much nicer than having to do all the problem solving by yourself.

Other nice things about this trip is that it is pretty relaxing. For the next couple of days I don't have much on my plate. Yep there will be a bit of training and a bit of checking out Phillip Island, and probably a bunch of hanging out with the team, but other than that, my agenda is free. Usually with triathlon there are briefings and registration and transition set up and just generally a lot more stress. This trip doesn't really have any of that, which is awesome. I am really looking forward to waking up tomorrow, when I want and having a lazy morning. I might go for a walk and take some photos. Who knows. I haven't had a lazy, cruisy morning in months. I certainly have things to do tomorrow, but I have all day to do them, and that is going to be really nice. This trip is about racing, but I am looking forward to having some down time too.

So far, so good. Looking forward to tomorrow.