Proudly South African

Last night we all gathered at the South African banner for the Parade of Nations. I think we all felt a huge swell of patriotic pride as we marched on to the field. Thousands of athletes from all over the world congregated for the opening ceremony. Australia has 900 athletes competing. New Zealand, Great Britain and USA have quite large groups as well. South Africa looked pretty good in our green and gold, and we have a decent size team.

As we went through the arch, the excitement and adrenaline caught up with us, and we all started to run. It was lump in the throat stuff, and totally amazing to be a part of it. I was there, with 5000 of the world's best triathletes, ready to compete in RSA colours.

I thought I would feel intimidated, but I realised that I felt at peace, quietly confident that I deserved my place there as much as anyone else did.

The New Zealand men did an impromptu Haka, which caused much joviality. They stripped to the waist first, which was really exciting!! ;-)

We took a picture of the whole team this morning after our team race briefing. It took quite a while, because practically everyone wanted a photo on their own camera.

This morning, Britt and I got up at 6am (slept much better thank you) and did our last bike and run. Very short, with a few sprint spurts. I'm feeling good, my legs are awake and fresh.

Time to prep our kit. We laid everything out and put our number stickers on our helmets and bikes, got our goggles and hats ready, and fiddled with all the little things that we fiddle with. It is going to be a NON wetsuit swim, so we went off for our warm up swim this morning without our wetsuits on. The water doesn't feel that warm - its just a touch over 22 degrees, so we weren't that keen.

After the swim though, I am very excited. I feel much better without my wetsuit on, and am really "feeling" the water today. I am ready! Bring it on!!

We had a (decaf) coffee on our way to the internet cafe and were joined by Ashleigh and Wendy. Now its time to go back to the resort for a healthy lunch of baked potato and tuna, put our feet up for an hour or so, then go and rack our bikes.

This time tomorrow I will have a beer in hand! The countdown has started...