Danielle has been receiving well wishes from a lot of people. This one comes from the town of Kelowna, British Columbia.
Hi Danielle
Just wanted to wish you an awesome race on Sunday, with wonderful weather and good spectators (I saw the pink shirts and love them so no doubt you’ll be taken care of in that department…and Laura is an awesome spectator and Aaron’s alright;)!
Have a great race and I hope you have a good time too. I can’t wait to follow along and see all the photos (especially of the tattoo) and read the race report…what an inspiration!
Team Danni #226 Bike Mechanic, Aaron Farlow, this morning won the Asics 5k fun run in Port Macquarie. Aaron was never headed as he took the lead early into the 5k run to run away with a victory in 14:58.
Aaron was not able to pack up his victory later in the day during the 1k ocean swim.
Aaron sets an early cracking pace.
Aaron becomes the first athlete to cross the finish line in Port Macquarie.
Danni is now in the final stages of preparation for the big dance. This morning she attended the pre race briefing and this afternoon will check all her stuff into transition. This will be the final stage before the race begins tomorrow.
This afternoon will be spent relaxing in front of the Port Adelaide v Fremantle game on TV.
To see Danni’s thought on the big race see watch the following video.
Danielle has registered for the big race and is now officially a certain starter for race day. Danni spent the morning with a lap of the swim course. She told broughton.id.au that she had to push into the tide on the upward leg before returning with it. The tidal nature of the Hastings river could make for an interesting swim come Sunday.
Danni is now relaxing the afternoon away at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital before the Team Danni #226 BBQ tonight.
In other news Team Danni #226 has launched the official team t-shirts.
Coloured pink to make a statement and be seen, the shirts have already been receiving considerable interest around the ironman village.
Danielle and Farlow model the new shirts.
And the back…
Full text reads:
Team Danni #226 sponsored by
The bank of mum and dad
providing cheap loans since 1978
www.tridents.com.au
www.broughton.id.au
The has sun come out to produce an almost perfect morning here in Port Macquarie. No wind and temps expected to hover around the 25 degree mark has a lot of cyclists already out on the course and inspecting what lays ahead on Sunday. This includes Danni, Roger and Aaron Farlow who have headed out for a ride at about 8am for one lap of the bike course.
Team Danni will also be unveiling the official team Danni T-shirts this morning. We will be uploading photos as soon as they are available.
Tuesday 27th March - Travel Day…
Tuesday is travel day. The cars are loaded up and it’s off to Port Macquarie. Leaving just before 7 we arrived in Port Macquarie just after 3pm after a few minor stops along the way and after the sponsors missed the turn off while on the Freeways of Sydney. After that minor mishap the sponsors managed to drag themselves out of Sydney and eventually on put themselves on the freeway heading north.
Welcome to broughton.id.au’s race week coverage of Team Danni #226 assult on the Panthers Australian Ironman Triathlon.
Monday 26th March 2007
2:16pm
Danielle is sitting around on the couch at her house watching bad day time soaps.
10:15am
Danielle is busy putting the last minute things into action before she leaves for Port Macquarie tomorrow.
Sponsors the Bank of Mum and Dad are also working out the final logistics for the trip to Port Macquarie, including taking delivery of the Team Danni #226 supporter T-Shirts which will be handed out in Port Macquarie.
The Bank of Mum and Dad mobile lending vehicle will be the official team car for the week.
Bike Mechanic Aaron Farlow is back from a weekend of racing and will also be headed up to Port Macquarie tomorrow.
Recently engaged Kate is coming purely to Port Macquarie to have a perve on the professional athletes. After Danni went on and on about her heros the two Maccas (Chris and Daniel) Kate decided to come and see for herself. 1600 supremely fit athletes is sure not to disappoint Kate, we just hope her fiancee Daniel will survive back in the cold Canberra Autumn.
Kate brings her music selection skills to Team Danni #226 to act as team DJ. Kate has released a CD in honour of Danni’s appearance at Ironman with a collection of inspirational songs right out of the mid 80’s. Timeless classics like Kenny Loggins, Highway to the danger zone and Survivor’s Eye of the tiger take centre stage on the CD. Lets hope that Daniel organises the music for their wedding. Doing the Bridal waltz to Spandau Ballet’s Gold is probably not the best way to start a life together.
Mrs Humphries (Kate’s Mum)
Kate’s Mum is a local Port Macquarie local. Hopefully she’ll know all the good spots on the course for Team Danni #226 to catch Danielle in the act of the most embarrassing thing you can do in an Ironman. That is, be caught walking during the marathon.
Mercia Smith - Team Fashion Consultant
Mercia Smith is quite often involved in planning the T-Shirts for her women’s AFL Team end of year trip. With slogans like “I lost my phone number can i have yours”, and…………. Team Danni was quick to engage Mercia to produce the T-Shirts for the Team Danni #226 supporters. Luckily sanity prevailed and the designing was done by others in Team Danni #226. However Mercia was entrusted with the production of the T-Shirt.
It’s surprinsing Mercia is not racing herself given that Danielle and her go way back. They studied at high school together, worked at McDonalds together and now currently share an abode in Canberra together. But like all good friends Mercia will be there at the finish to cheer Danielle in at the end of her race.
Al Worsnop - Team Bodyguard
As the only person to order a size Large Team Danni #226 T-Shirt, Al has therefore been determined to the largest guy in the Team and therefore appointed as Team Bodyguard. As a part-time lifeguard at the Dickson Aquatic Centre, Danni says Al is well trained to look after the Team Danni team and deal with any crisis.
The first two profiles on members of Team Danni #226.
Sonja Dyason (aka Yummy Mummy)
Sonja has come on board Team Danni #226 at the last possible moment. Sonja has been conspicuously absent from the Team Danni #226 Programme since day one, which has led to a lot of debate as to her convictions. While in years gone by Danni and Sonja could be seen training the house down together; many pundits believe that Sonja has not been up to the challenge involved with an Ironman campaign and has made endless excuses to avoid training. Sonja signs off her emails, “the standard you walk past is the standard you accept”… Of late Sonja seems happy to walk past just about anything.
Sonja has informed broughton.id.au that she brings to Team Danni #226 the ability to act as training partner to Danni in recovery week, and offer words of encouragement and congratulations on her amazing effort over the last few months. A rather lacklustre performance at best.
A former Australian Triathlon team member Sonja will actually contribute some worth in how to deal with pre race nerves. Sonja also claims responsibility for influencing Danielle to come out of retirement on more than one occasion.
Where this yummy mummy shines is her constant and unwavering support. When it comes to support and motivation, Sonja has an infectious nature that will summon even the most stubborn and boring personalities into cheering like a right idiot for 17 hours straight. If on April 1 the day starts to fall flat you can count on Sonja to get the excitement going again.
Laura Dinsmore (Team Masseur)
Laura Dinsmore is the token international on Team Danni #226. Hailing from the “True North, Strong and Free”, Laura has left the cold climate of Calgary Alberta to join Team Danni #226 in Port Macquarie. Laura was headhunted by Team Danni #226 because of her background in Human Kinesiology, her work in one of Calgary’s leading Physiotherapy clinics and the fact she is currently studying a Sports Massage course on the Gold Coast. In fact, in conjunction with the team mechanic Aaron [Farlow], Laura may actually be one of the two most useful members of Team Danni #226.
Not limiting herself to pre and post race remedial massage, Laura will be a huge compliment to the work being done by Sonja Dyason in the supporting stakes. Laura has had a good preparation as she warmed up at Ironman Canada, supporting two athletes. Laura is no stranger to going the hard yards as she was on course to witness Scott Malone going sub 5 hours on the bike leg and then proceeding to walk the entire marathon in Penticton.
You can count on Laura and Sonja to still be standing in the finishing chute cheering on athletes right up to the 17 hour cut-off, well after Danni has finished her day.
Danielle checks in and provides us with some thoughts on the Jindabyne camp.
I received a good luck card in the mail yesterday for my Ironman adventure. It read, “Hard… but not impossible”. I think this summed up the hardest part of the weekend camp in Jindabyne – the 20km summit loop. If I had been mentally prepared for what was the “summit run”, where 7km of it was near impossible to run and the final 8km back to Charlotte’s Pass is the longest and hardest 8km ever run, where the body pleads you to stop and the mind says you can’t, then I think I would have handled the 2hr 50mins better. Or at least I would taken in more of the scenery and spectacular views.
Reaching Coach back at Charlotte’s Pass I needed a moment to compose myself, hold back the tears, declare I was never going to survive Ironman, wash down 2 hot cross buns with water before I was over my near breakdown and able to face the descent back to Jindy. I now have full confidence that fuelling on hot cross buns during the Ironman is the key.
This is just a small test of what I am going to face in 9 days time.
Day 1.
Reaching Dalgety (the town) on today’s wet ride I had not realised the hill we had descended some 15km back was the infamous “Dalgety Hill”. I am not sure what I was expecting but I was still waiting for something. After threatening Jon Howse that if he was lying to me and that if we saw another hill that I would not be a happy camper, Coach turned our group around and pointed us home via the same hill. “Hard… but not impossible”. Another battle of brain versus body. I am happy to say I made it to the top, without stopping and without resorting to the ‘Truck of Shame’. While renting a Truck of Shame is just plain cheating – JR!!!!
A quick run off the bike, green tea at Gloria Jeans and it was time to wetsuit up. After a quick swim to the island and back in Lake Jindabyne, it was time to shower and then the stretch session and finally eat and sleep.
Day 2.
The epic day – 2h15 climb up to Charlotte’s Pass – 2h50 20 km walk / run and a 1h plus change descent to Jindabyne. The weather gods were with us today – not a cloud, not a breath of wind and mild temps. Important when you are 2000m above sea level.
6pm: Dinner at the bowling club. I think we all got our monies worth at the unlimited salad bar. This was followed by icecream (a must) and then Grey’s Anatomy (a bigger must) and then lights out. Legs dead… tired.
Day 3.
Alarms went off to the sound of pouring rain, thunder and lightning. We decided to wait for coach’s call. “Meeting as per normal 7:30am in the carpark”. Out came all the wet weather gear for a amended 50mins out 50mins back ride. The rain had eased by 7:30am but roads were very wet.
There may have been a funny incident on the bike. I won’t mention names but it involved what we pieced together to be a case of too much soap in the washing machine, combined with wet weather, the friction of bike knicks on saddle causing a foaming / frothing backside. Amusing to those behind in the bunch. Yes, Steve Baker frothing is a severe sign of dehydration but it normally appears around the mouth.
Back to the hotel, shower and coffee at the bakery before heading home.
Back in Canberra and trying to recover and taper. I have been warned that with a reduced work load I need to also taper on the food intake to match this. Maybe I should have been told before I finished off Dwayne and Azza’s [Farlow] dinner on Monday night.
A fellow Ironman competitor Steve Baker has lend me the DVD’s from 2004, 2005 & 2006 Hawaiian Ironman’s. Who would have thought you would need a box of tissues with you to watch. I am not sure reality has set in that that will be me in 9 days.
