I headed over to Kona 2wks out this year with my friend and world class masseuse, Simone Wolowiec (retired 20km Aussie race walker). Simone endured sitting next to me for the 4.5hr flight to Oahu, luckily for her it was smooth. Then the short 30min flight to Kona which wasn’t so smooth, where I sat clutching the arm rests on either side of me with the grip of death as she looked out the window and said ‘oh look matey, there are white caps (in the ocean) out there’….mmm….thanks Sim…something I could guess by the way the plane was bumping around all over the place!!!

We landed just fine, got our luggage and headed to the car rental office where we waited for a good hour or more as the line grew out the door. Just as we got close to the front of the line my coach, Siri came up from behind and tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘excuse me, I think you pushed in front of me’ …the people in the line went dead quiet. I thought…here we go and then realized it was her, we hugged and said hi as the people in line still couldn’t work out what was going on!

We got a Dodge Caliber and as it pulled up in front of us, we looked at it and then back at the bike bag, massage table, 2 backpacks, 2 laptop bags and 2 travel bags and wondered who was going to end up on the roof! To our surprise, we managed to fit it all in and took off for our condo at the Reef but decided we might as well stop at Costco now and get a few things.

We come out of Costco a couple of hundred dollars or so later and a trolley (cart) full of….stuff…and get to the car and realized we didn’t have enough room for all of this ….stuff. So we squeezed in what we could around everything else and our strategy came down to, me getting in the passenger seat, buckling up then Sim just handing me a couple of boxes to hold and a couple of boxes went under my feet. It was quite the site as we drove off and pulled up at our condo, the doors opening and us lunging to catch anything that might fall out.

I told Sim she could only stay with me if she took the bedroom and let me sleep out on the pull out bed on the floor. After years of staying at the same condo, I love this bed and everyone thinks it is strange that I sleep out on the floor and give Jeff flack over why he doesn’t sleep out there and let me sleep on the bed! It took some convincing but she agreed.

Sim went for a run around town and I joined up Siri, Leanda and Rinny for a ride and swim to get the travel out of me.

It was great to be back on the BI (big island) and in the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Training was great, some of my friends from San Diego I train with arrived and I decided to ask my mum if she would be able to/like to come over to watch. I asked her what she was up to the week before the race and she said she had some doctors appointments to go to that she had booked months ago and was going to see my sister and her baby, Levi for his first swim lesson. When I asked her to come over, she said ‘hang on and I will call you back’. She called me back with 15mins and said ýep, I was able to change my doctor’s appointments when I told them why and your sister said, go to kona’. My mum had packed and gone Vegemite shopping for me in one day and was on a plane the next!!! This was an incredible feat if anyone knows my mum.

I was so excited to see her as I hadn’t seen her in a year so we had some fun times and Jeff drank a lot of beer.

Sim was busy massaging a lot of athletes but I talked her into her first race since she retired from race walking in 2004. She, Chloe Hutter and Chris Corbin did the local 5km fun run that is held the week before the IM and they all did really well and had a great time talking smack to each other too.

Sim and Chloe

Mum decided to go for a walk the morning after she arrived and returned a couple of hours later and it turned out she walked up to the blue church and back(about 8-10miles) as it was such a nice day….with no water (as she hadn’t planned on going long). Then she had busy feet for another couple of hours (this means tidying up, on a mission, getting things done) before I found her passed out on the lanai on the banana lounge…it was nice and quiet.

Sara from Sidi got a crew together along with Hello Kitty for the Undie Run (for charity, hence the pink wigs) and I talked mum, Jeff and Sim into doing it.

Mum and Sim ready to strut their stuff!

Jeff looking HOT!!!

Chloe, Mum and Sue graphitizing up the roads of Kona with Curlyheads!

Race Day-

Started early and straight into race mode. Cereal eaten, decaf coffee downed, dressed, sun screened up and out the door. I always jog down to the start to get my body moving and through the wads of people quicker.
Special needs bag in, numbers on and then to the Wilier Cento 1 Crono to put my secret nutrition formula drink bottle on my bike, pump the tyres up and done!

Feeling calm but excited, nervous, anxious and just want to get started. I say my goodbyes to mum, Jeff, Siri and Nikki and make my way down the swim start in my Profile Design speed suit, Engine goggles and lubed up with Trislide and Aussie Butt Cream!
I got clobbered quite a bit in the swim and just missed the first pack. I finally found some room but was still being hammered by some male pro that couldn’t seem to leave me alone!

Once out of the water and onto the bike, my Wilier Cento1 Crono felt great. She was all clean, sparkling and ready to go thanks to Nytro and my friend Billy who gave her a last minute go over. I felt ok and tried to keep cool from the beginning by throwing water over my head and taking in fluids. On the way back from Hawi I was passed by a couple of girl who drafted their way back into town and I stayed solo on the Queen K. I felt ok but didn’t have the second gear I thought I would and knew I would have some catching up to do on the run.
I took it step by step on the run and felt good coming off the bike and just got into a comfortable rhythm. I had my Nathan 8oz gel flask with my mixture of gel and water in it and sipped on that throughout the run as well as coke, water and ice. It was great to see my friends and family cheering me on and gave me a good little boost.

I could see a lot of Aussies with their flags yelling out to me too which always gives me a goose bump feeling and reminds me of my family and friends back in Australia.

My coaches Siri and Nikki were out on the course yelling words of encouragement and some other stuff I couldn’t quite understand (they get quite excited!). My mum on the run course was my highlight as I am not used to having her at races, I thought ‘oh there’s mum’ and we high fived and she ran alongside me for a second then got me again on the way back. It was very special that she had made it out to watch me race Kona again and I kept her energy with me for the rest of the run.

I was sitting in 11th and knew I was being chased down and tried to pick up my pace from the bottom of the energy lab, heading back towards town but it wasn’t enough and I was passed within the last few miles. Jeff yelled out, ‘think of Kaisley pulling you on the lead’…I did but the pull wasn’t so strong without her! But I could see her smile and her tongue hanging out her mouth as she strutted in front of me.

Jeff was out on his bike cheering me and giving me splits along with Carrie from Saucony and Chris Corbin.

Jeff with no stack hat on=dangerous!!!

I knew I had done all I could and had to be satisfied with that. I saw all my training buddies/ good friends from San Diego along Palani and heard a lot of Aussies along the final stretch then stopped to give Sue and Chloe Hutter a hug before high fiving all the supporters lining the finishing chute, carrying the Aussie flag (that a guy I started playing squash with when I was 10 gave me!).

My mum was there to give me a hug over the finish line and Jeff was still trying to make it through the crowd from being on the run course to meet me. My friend and ART guy, Dan Selstad was there again to escort me off to medical to get checked over…he did this for me in 07 also.
Siri and Nikki had made it into the finish line area also and were there to congratulate me.

After speaking to my brother and sister on the phone, we walked back to the condo and I collapsed on the couch with jeff as mum got her busy feet on and starting cooking in the kitchen. She made me the best toasted turkey, cheese and bbq sauce sandwich ever. Then as Sim, Carrie, Sue, Chloe, Kim and Kathy showed up, mum cooked sweet potato fries, pizzas and other goodies. Jeff broke out the beer and mum, the wine and everyone was happy and exhausted!!!

Chloe, Carrie, Jeff and Sue after a hard day's cheering! (mum is in the kitchen)

The following day Surftech was having a SUP demo day so we walked down and took out the SUP boards. I took one out by myself and Chloe was already out and there were pods of dolphins swimming around us. I paddled back in to get mum and convinced her to paddle out there and I swam beside her. She got tired so I jumped on her board, tipping her off and we nearly drowned we were laughing so hard. It was the best day I had with mum in a long time, we laughed so hard, had dolphins swimming around us and were out paddling around in the beautiful waters in Kona (on the best SUP boards there are!).

Jeff and I and Sim flew home on Monday and were happy to be in our own beds and back home in San Diego.
The next couple of weeks were filled with SUP’ing with Lucy Bell and surfing with Sumi, Dano, Johnny G and Drew when they could. A little bit of mountain biking too and many sleep in’s!

A big thank you goes to my coach Siri who let me find my ‘ness’ (from the movie You, Me and Dupree) back for my sport and life. Jeff who is always there supporting me no matter what and my family and friends who do the same. Also to Nina and Dana who let me stay at their house in LA to train with Siri, I really appreciated it!

Thank you to my sponsors who support me and provide me with the best equipment/ products needed to do this grueling sport.