Our holiday started off on the 2nd of July flying in from the Cayman Islands to Miami and then Miami to Zurich with Swiss Air. Jana and I arrived at Zurich airport approx. 11am on the 3rd of July and were really glad to have arrived one week out from the race as we were jetlagged as hell and had a stressful time behind us moving apartments in Cayman the couple of days before due to unforeseen issues with the landlord.
Monday morning came and we all managed to sleep very well during the night. Everything was going great until I assembled my bike on the Monday morning. I especially bought a torque wrench to assemble my bike as some of the screws such as those located on the seat post and handle bar can only be tightened to certain newton meter torque limits. The seat post clamp had a max torque limit of 5-7nm and I tightened it till 6nm. Not that I heard a popping sound or anything but the next moment I thought that my heart was going to stand still as I noticed the seat post clamp section which is integrated into the frame had split right down in the middle and into a section of the frame. Once I saw this I knew it was going to be a big issue for my upcoming race. For some reason I felt fairly calm about the situation as it was a good enough reason to get stressed out.
To make a long story short, Jana started googling and got hold of the main Felt dealer's contact details in Switzerland. I proceeded to call Peter from Felt. After explaining what happened and explaining where in Switzerland I was situated Peter informed me that they would replace my Felt B12 2009 frame with the Felt B2 Pro 2011 frame.
As the B2 Pro frame was a far superior frame with the Bayonet 2 fork I had to pay in a fair amount but knew it was my only option to get my bike sorted for the race. I was rather ecstatic when I received my new bike. We just happened to be situated about 5km from Suso bike shop which was a Felt dealer. As Felt is an American brand, dealers cannot be found in abundance in Switzerland and therefore felt very blessed to have located a Felt dealer so close by. After various phone calls and exchange of emails with Peter from Felt it was arranged for the components and groupset to be rebuild on to the new bike the Thursday before the race. The bike mechanic from Suso bike (Roland) end up being very talented and did an excellent job of rebuilding my new bike as I had no mechanical issues on race day and the braking and gear transition was very smooth. (Pic above is of me and the bike mechanic Roland just after I picked up my new bike from Suso Bike).
I jumped a few days ahead explaining the whole frame issue above. From the Monday to the Thursday before the race we spent some quality sightseeing time in Walenstadt, Lucerne and Zurich. Michael Stomps, came to pick Pam, myself and Jana up on the Wednesday to go and explore the bike course which was a very valuable exercise as we heard there were a couple of climbs and technical descends. Michael made a good call in that he recommended we ignore the first flat 30km's and proceed to ride the climbs starting from the 30th kilometer.
Michael, Pam and I got out of the car in Feldbach, got on our bikes and started with the first ascent. At this stage Jana was thrown into the deep end as it was the first time Jana had to drive on the other side of the road using a GPS in a foreign country. Thanks Jana, you did a great job of driving behind us most of the time and meeting us safely in the town called "Egg" on the northern side of Lake Zurich.
After completing the first ascent after Feltbach we end up getting lost for a bit until we found ourselves at the start of the steepest and longest climb of the bike course called "The Beast"!!! It soon became apparent why this climb was called "The Beast". I end up spinning up the beast at a fairly high cadence to see how I would fare taking a more efficient approach climbing up the hills as opposed to adopting a lower cadence and killing my legs more than I should for the run. While I climbed up "The Beast" I was rather happy that I fitted the 12-27 cassette to my rear race wheel a couple days before leaving Cayman as I managed to spin up the hill more easily and efficient.
After completing the climb up "The Beast" we descended down to the town called "Egg" where we met Jana and decided to get lunch. Wow, what can I say about eating out in Switzerland, ridiculously expensive and the portions are small. We ordered some sandwiches but the portions end up being too small and expensive that we had to eat bananas afterwards to reach ample sufficiency.
To make a long story short, we proceeded to race registration in Zurich where we managed to register rather quickly and avoided the masses of competitors usually encountered on the Friday and Saturday before the race. I think we all became a bit more nervous after registering, seeing the finish line and transition area set up. We all bought a couple race memorabilia items at the expo area and guess we put some more pressure on ourselves to finish the race as it would not help much buying "Ironman Zurich" kit and not finishing the race. After registering we checked out "Heartbreak hill" quickly which was a rather short but nasty climb which would be repeated twice on race day due to the bike course consisting of 2 x 90km laps.
The exploration of the bike course above took place on the Wednesday. As explained a bit earlier, my bike was rebuilt on the Thursday in Walenstadt by Suso bike which I was immensely happy about. During the day we decided to chill out, do a couple of short taper workouts and enjoy Resort Walensee and Flumserberg for the last day before relocating to Zurich for 3 nights.
Friday morning was spent taking care of the usual admin tasks that goes part and parcel with travel. We checked out at Resort Walensee and took the train to Zurich - Wollishofen station but because of all the triathlon equipment I had to travel with it always makes travel harder.
We checked in at the Zurich youth hostel on recommendation of Johann Prinsloo whom had done Ironman Zurich a couple of years earlier. Thanks Johann for this recommendation as the rooms were clean, the hostel had a great location as it was only about a 10min walk to the race start and we were able to sleep fairly well the Friday and Saturday night as the hostel was occupied by approx. 90% triathletes doing the race so not too many late night partygoers out and about that kept us awake. On the Friday before a triathlon I usually take the day off completely so had no race workouts to do.
At 2pm on the Friday there was a compulsory race briefing to attend which was in English. The German and French race briefings were at 1pm and 3pm I think. It was great to bump in to the triathletes from Cayman for the first time in Switzerland at the race briefing. We had a fairly large contingent of triathletes from Cayman competing in Ironman Switzerland, 8 altogether. The triathletes from Cayman were as follows:
• Dave Bennett
• David Dinner
• Caroline Cahill
• Johan Heath
• Justin Plenkewicz
• Pam Travers
• Michael Stomps
• Tony Watts
After the race briefing I was rather hungry and had to get something to eat. I knew I was going to consume rather large portions of pasta on the Saturday so a "Bratwurst" sausage seemed rather appealing which Michael found hilarious as it is definitely not the best pre-race nutrition. I think it will have to become part of my pre-race nutrition eating plan from now on as I had no stomach problems on the Sunday.
After the race briefing Jana and headed back to the hotel, chilled for a bit and started getting ready for the "Welcome/pasta" party which was held at a small castle like looking structure at a location called Albisgutli. The welcome party was very enjoyable; we were welcomed with Erdinger alcohol free beer (Boring triathletes). We then proceeded inside the venue where a four course meal was served. While we waited for the welcome party to start, the flags of the various countries represented by the triathletes were rolling by on a PowerPoint presentation. Michael and I managed to get a quick photo with the Cayman Islands in the background. We left the party at about 9:15pm and Michael and Vera were kind enough to drop Jana and I off back at the hostel before Michael and Vera headed back to Lucerne.
On Saturday morning I woke up with some definite signs of pre-race jitters. Jana and I proceeded down to the ground floor of the hostel where they served fairly decent breakfast, much better than the American processed breakfasts. My good friend Rudolf from South Africa (A 2x Ironman SA finisher) tried to call me while we had breakfast. I just missed his call due to some network issues and called Rudolf back. It was great to hear Rudolf's voice as Rudolf specially called to wish me good luck for the race. After the chat with Rudolf I felt more chilled out again and finished my breakfast. Jana and I then proceeded up to the hostel room where I had to some final packing and preparations to do for race day.
Jana and I went back to the hostel at about 2:30pm or so. We chilled for a bit and then I did some final equipment checks on my bike before checking in my bike in transition between 4:30 and 5:30pm. To relax a bit and avoid pre-race jitters Jana and I took the tram to "Old Town" section of Zurich to wonder around and take a couple of photos. We headed back to the Wollishofen area close to our hostel about 7pm. It was great to have a quaint little Italian restaurant situated diagonally across the road from our hostel. I usually go vegetarian the day before the race so I had pasta with sage filled with spinach and some cheese. It was great to receive good luck and well wishes call from my brother Eric and Natalie just after I finished supper. Jana and I went back to the hostel after which my parents called on Skype to wish me all the best for the race which was great as my Mom said that "she just had a good feeling about this race" which was a really good sign for me and it put any pre-race jitters I had at ease. I end up sleeping for 4.5h on the Saturday night which is pretty good for the night before a race.
For my full race day report please check the separate report/blog entry to be posted in the next day or two.
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