You never know where the day will take you.
That’s what I spent the morning hours of last Monday thinking, as I frantically–even more so than usual; )–packed my race gear and bike, along with a few swimsuits, flip flops, and board shorts. Oh, and my passport.
To say that Malaysia 70.3 was a last minute addition to the race calendar would be roughly equivalent to saying that the Sahara Desert is kinda big. (On the plane, I watched a documentary about 3 guys who ran across it–something like 2 marathons a day for 111 CONSECUTIVE days. And people call us crazy!)
I woke up Monday morning expecting a normal week–IM FL training, last minute wedding planning (just over 2 weeks to go!), and a local race on the weekend. Figured I’d kick the week off with a little morning yoga. With a little time to kill before class, I was putzing around on the internet–looking for flights to IM FL, checking out the Ironman.com website, casually planning for next season. Then, I got a little curious about what travel to Malaysia was like–just for future reference. Like, for next year, perhaps.
The next thing I knew, I was blowing up Coach Paul’s phone like Marky Mark in Fear. By the time I got a hold of him, I had exactly 6 hours to book my tickets, pack my bike and gear, cancel the appointments I’d made for the week, and get myself to the airport. In LA, 2 hours away.
It was a cool 30 hours of travel door to door, including an 8 hour layover in Dubai, which was. . .interesting. Fortunately, it took at least half of that time time escape the surrealness of it all; after that, the exhaustion took over.
Come to think of it, the entire stay was a bit surreal. I had 3 days pre race to settle in, see the local sites–botanical gardens, some sort of government buildings that I never actually learned the significance of, and best of all, a monkey.
Putrajaya was a beautiful setting for the race–incredible bridges spanning a huge man made lake. The race directors and staff made us feel so welcome, and despite having the officialness of a 70.3 race, it was impossible to escape the relaxed Malaysian feel.