The big race is tomorrow!

This is the weather forecast from fencepost:


Light variable winds on Saturday, cloudy periods with the odd sunny break at times. A few light showers may develop from evening.

For me this is IDEAL. Of course for marlin mad husband, it would be ideal for fishing too! But he is going to come and support me - with the girls, so I'm pleased about that.

I have had an interesting taper week. Since I also enjoy fishing, I have had 4 whole days out on the boat, two for the tuna tournament (only caught albacore, no yellowfin!), and two gorgeous days on Monday and Tuesday. I only missed one cycle, but I did miss my swims. This was for a couple of seriously good reasons.

First swim: Had rash on neck from forgetting to put on cream - ok poor excuse, the water is warm enough to swim without wetsuit.

Second swim: Was kitted up (without wetsuit), in the Cove on Great Mercury Island. Brian was fishing, reel and rod went off, so decided to see what he had caught - 2.5 m shark - swim aborted! This reason I think was sort of justified, even though I don't think sharks attack swimmers at the Mercury's, but I wasn't willing to be the first statistic!

I went to bed with a headache last night, this is despite being well hydrated, so when I woke up this morning after coughing a lot last night, and the headache remaining, I have become a little annoyed. I hope it goes away.

I had a good swim (the water is very warm - and salty!) The temperature when we were fishing got up to 23.5 degrees C, which is why the pelagic fish are all here at the moment.

As far as aims tomorrow are concerned I have a couple of main ones - to get nutrition and hydration right, so that I don't cramp up or end up with a crook guts.

Time wise - I want to beat last years time of 6:51.02. I would love to do 6.30.

There's a neat programme where you can compare yourself, against other athletes. It's quite a laugh really, I did it to see where I should aim to wave at the race leaders. Another aim is to make sure the winning ladies don't finish before I start running. (I was lucky - slow - enough to see the battle between Kate and Jo last year down the final straight).

I'm happy to say that after a couple of panadols, and writing this, my headache is easing.

I'm off for a quick bike ride shortly - major excitement in Whitianga last night - I've got to check it out. The Placemakers building was on fire - there were lots of fire engines coming past us from Matarangi, Kuotuna, Tairua and Cooks Beach and Hahei!!