The Time is Near

I'm sitting in Sydney Airport awaiting the arrival of my Kiwi buddy, Jamie, then it's off to Canberra. Seeing as I have some time to kill, figured I may as well post a bit of an update.

The last couple of days before I left Auckland were super hectic. I was so glad I'd taken Thursday and Friday off cause I spent the entire 2 days driving around to appointments to check out my thumb (this can take a back seat now, because it's going well), massage appointments and nutrition appointments... Gotta look after myself!!!

I also spent a considerable amount of time running around to Bike 75 and back. The coach and I decided at the last minute that I should run my super light wheels tubeless (to make them even lighter, of course!), so I paid a 4pm Friday visit to Chickenman at Bike 75 to get his expert assistance... Thank God, because it would've taken me a good 3 hours to do what he did in under an hour... Thanks so much Chicken!!! I daresay I made his Friday afternoon unnecessarily frustrating and I truly appreciate his help. I was also very lucky to have a very generous offer from Jakub at the local Avantiplus Store in Waitakere. My bike is fitted out with a SRAM XX group set where the shift up and down happens with your thumb. Although my thumb is feeling really good and healing very well, we don't know how it's going to go over 24 hours, so any pressure we could relieve on it to prolong it's use over the race would be a godsend. Jakub offered to loan me his new 10spd Shimano XT rear derallier and shifter which would allow me to do half my shifting with my finger, trigger-style, and he fitted it to my bike for me on Saturday morning while I knocked over my last 3 hour training ride before flying out that afternoon to Sydney. I have to say, it never ceases to amaze me how incredibly supportive and selfless the whole cycling community is. It was a beautiful reminder of how lucky I am to be surrounded with such a great bunch of people and supporters.

So I arrived in Sydney on Saturday night to be picked up my my bestest buddy and pit manager, Dee and partner in crime Bren. I'd stay with them in Sydney for a couple of days before heading to Canberra and run some errands and catch up with a few people. Brad from King of the Mountain Cyclery in Crow's Nest has fixed me up with some spare bits and pieces and Bike Addiction in Maly Vale have generously loaned us their ezy-up tent, so all is going very smoothly. I just bumped into fellow female 24 hour soloist Monilee Atkinson at the airport so the excitement is starting to kick in. Can't wait! Watch this space...