Dear Readers

I am in Port Elizabeth. The weather is great. Wish you were here.

Lots of love

Chris

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A drive of seven hours has brought me to the place where my journey of the past eleven Months will end. Traveling with my wife who doubles up as supporter in chief, we took a very casual drive up to Port Elizabeth the race City. The only drama we had en route was a stone that flicked up from a trucks wheel and cracked the windscreen which for some reason had us giggling like kids as the crack slowly spread across the glass.

But the journey is just the means to an end and while the garden route is a beautiful place the closer we got to Port Elizabeth the more excited I became and the less I noticed the scenery. I’m feel like a cross between a little kid on Christmas eve and a person who is about to have root canal. On all of his teeth.

Port Elizabeth is cooking, and IronMan fever has taken over the City. Cape Town during Argus time has a special atmosphere, but PE is a lot smaller and IronMan just seems to be everywhere that you look. The atmosphere is palpable. There are branding banners everywhere, the beachfront has been taken over by the start finish area and there are IM athletes everywhere you look. I don’t think I’ve seen an overweight or unfit person on the streets since we arrived. It’s like Baywatch without The Hoff.

This morning at 8:00am the www.mytrainingday.com family are going for a group swim on Hobie Beach followed by breakfast and a 10km ride to shake down the bikes and make sure everything is OK. Then it’s off to registration and the IM expo where I have no doubt that I will buy lots of stuff that I ‘really need’. It will then be time to relax and explore a bit.

I’m loving every minute of it.