Ironman Australia: 2007

Friday, April 6, 2007

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Got a nice view from the room at the park hyatt:)

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

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The viewing tunnel under water in the harbor at the sydney aquarium

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A decadent breakfast at the sydney fish market, lobster squid and king prawns

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

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Sailboats in the harbor from the zoo cafe

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Yeah, the sydney opera house is quite stunning

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The botanical gardens filled with sleeping bats!

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Walking up art gallery road after a great breakfast at bills (bill granger).

Monday, April 2, 2007

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Our wine tasting view from the bimbadgen winery in hunter valley.

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Driving to hunter valley and testing the phone blogging

Wow!! Still finding it a bit hard to realize that I actually crossed the finish line, but I'm sore enough that it must be really true.

I can't thank brother J enough for all the help, cajoling and patience during my psychosis of the past week:)

And thanks so much to all of you for all the text messages, phone calls and emails!!

Special thanks to Marcy and Juan!! Check out Juan's download of the ironman video at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAnst2NL2u8

Level of difficulty on a scale of 1 to 10: 75.3

Oz is incredible, the Ironman experience went way beyond all expectations.

Notables:

My bib # was 686, I came in at position #686.

There are 2 men who have run Ironman Australia 21 times, the entire duration it's been in existence. Now that is an Ironman!

Mental milestones that kept me going...Jarrod and his high fives at every 10k of the run, Michael Cote getting the crowd riled up (thanks again for the help at the Chicago Marathon, Michael), and all the well wishes that came in while I was on the course.

Jarrod and I are off for wine tasting in the Hunter Valley and we'll post a few more fun items.

Thanks again!

Greg

Saturday, March 31, 2007

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22 minutes to race

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Greg is in that big tent getting ready

Friday, March 30, 2007

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Checking the bike in and dropping off bike gear and run gear

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The swim start is near the platform in the center of the pic . The pros go first then a mass start with the remaining 1500 competitors. So im thankful that jarrod whacked me with his kayak paddle yesterday a few times ... I feel somewhat prepared for all the body blows:)

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The mad blogger at work in starbucks:)

Today we met an Australian sumo wrestler .We'll call him "Larry" because I couldn't understand a word he said. He was stuffing his face with prawn and he managed to beat Greg in a lap around the swim course at the same time. Greg was despondent for some time after this until he started drinking and then he was passed out . "Larry" helped me carry him back to the motel. Hopefully I can wake him in time for his mandatory meeting tomorrow."Larry" is supposed to come back and help me wax Greg's legs after the meeting-I tried today but Greg cries like a little girl and runs away. Quite frankly, I can't catch him because I'm a fat-ass ,as my wife so lovingly phrases it. Speaking of my wife I would like to thank her for all her support . As some of you may know, I have also been on a personal Quest to become a 300 pound gorilla. I weighed in at 272 this morning! The end is in sight. The back hair is also filling in nicely, and much of it is gray. I understand that "silverbacks" do indeed have higher status in the gorilla community, so thumbs up. Australia has also been a great place to practice scratching my back on a wide variety of trees that I would not normally see. Special thanks to Greg for taking me on this trip and helping me see my dreams come to fruition.
-Jarrod

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Surf at Sunrise in Pt Macquarie

We were still a bit off on the time changes, so we were up at 5am, and walked down to the beach to catch the sunrise...and incredible event watching the surf, surfers and the sun.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

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After a few assembly issues, the bike in one piece:)

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The surf before dawn at the beach near our apartment.

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The bike in baggage form:)

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Its 5:23 am in port macquarie and time to get the bike assembled. We arrived last night and got settled in our apartment about a mile from the race start.