27 February 10: The Big 4-0!

Posted on 27. Feb, 2010 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 4 Comments

Just a few hours ago, I celebrated my big 4-0. In case there is any confusion, I am 31 years old. Today here in Langkawi, Malaysia, however, I celebrated my 40th iron-distance finish. My 40th celebration has been much-anticipated since I intended to cap off my 2009 season with this party at Ironman Cozumel, and then wasn’t even able to attend the planned celebration due to a pre-race illness.

But today ended up being a perfect celebration, including so many of the things that make this sport my passion:  unexpected challenges, tough conditions, and my best friends! With Langkawi’s heat and humidity, tough conditions are part of the deal here: they are the expected challenge. Today’s unexpected challenge–because every ironman has gotta have one–was a bit more severe than the usual. It involved cycling… Read More

25 February 10: Coconut Mission!

Posted on 25. Feb, 2010 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 5 Comments

Today was a rest day. Normally the pre-race “rest day” is filled with media obligations and pre-race meetings, but for some reason we have all such activities here crammed into the day-before-race. This means tomorrow will be chaos: training sessions, carbo loading, gear-readying, bike check-in, plus a media conference and pre-race briefing. I rested up for all that–oh yeah and for the race–today. Mostly I tried not to get out of my bed much–except for a massage. I managed to not go too stir crazy because I had plenty of catching up to do with my BFF Amanda, who just arrived last night. Luckily we have a few days to complete the task!

This morning, however, I hired a taxi and went on a coconut mission. I’ve been seeing… Read More

24 February 10: Reunion!

Posted on 24. Feb, 2010 by hillarybiscay in Blog | No Comments

These girls have been having a reunion! Yep that’s Belinda and I (photo from last time I raced here in 2008)  on the race banners (this is the small version) that are hanging all over the island. Hey now that I think about it, it was very kind of the race organizers to print up invitations to my 40th birthday party–perfect!

I had my first proper meal of the trip at Belinda’s fancy shmancy hotel, the Westin. They have an incredible buffet and we plan to do some major damage there for our carbo-loading sessions tomorrow night and Friday morning–not to mention after the race! We will be hitting the chocolate fondue fountain then!

Belinda and Juzzie (a.k.a. Justin), her better half, who puts up with romantic… Read More

22 February 10: Ironman Malaysia Bike Course Tour

Posted on 22. Feb, 2010 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 1 Comment

On Saturday, with my new Belgian girlfriends,  I was able to check out the entire bike course for this year’s race. It was a very fun sweatfest; I don’t think they stopped laughing the whole time and I got in on some Belgian tri gossip–always good to get in on the world’s news! I am glad to have seen the whole course, too,  because it is quite different from the course I rode when I raced here in 2008. I believe, however, that it is the same as last year’s course–and I think it is F A S T! We will see on Saturday, but that was my first impression. There is only one nasty hill–we must do it 3 times, but it isn’t too long.

I thought you might like to see… Read More

20 February 10: Bike-Drama Day

Posted on 19. Feb, 2010 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 3 Comments

It seems that almost every ironman trip must have one . . . Yes, even though we pay $175 to United for a one-way bike fare, this does not mean that our bikes and wheels will arrive intact.  (Yes, $175 each way is the new rate, even for domestic flights, so if you are flying United with your bike, you may want to take into consideration that your airfare is actually $350 more than what it appears.)

I have learned my lessons about this, so upon arriving at my hotel here in Langkawi, I promptly inspected my race wheels to be sure I didn’t need to be sending any urgent emails to Zipp. I breathed a sigh of relief as the race wheels looked alright. A quick glance at… Read More