Eight hours of sleep in the past 52 hours. Am in a taxi headed from Melbourne's city center back to Doherty's Gym. Yesterday was a whirl wind of confusion. We landed in Sydney and then jumped on a flight to Melbourne for the duration of our stay. Some of the athletes were confused about the food thing, so some ditched their food in Sydney security but come to find out they didn't until we hit customs in Melbourne. (I can't help but constantly think of the Flora and Fauna Simpsons Episode: From Marge asking for coffee and the response is 'Beer" to the Simpsons being chased off the island with frogs engulfing the nation.) No need for that here. Grilled chicken doesn't come back to life unless it's in my fridge.
Audi is the FitX sponsor so we are all being shuttled around in a series of Audis from Q7s down to A8s and A6s. These cars are bad ass! (Take note dear wife, I like these!)
Any airport is confusing if you haven't been there before. But, our FitX handlers were able to find us no problem. Well, they could care less about some grey haired old man like me but fortunately I was standing next to the big boys – beacons of flesh in a sea of of rich violin carrying kids.
But, we were like 8 people too many for what they anticipated, so two groups of us had to jump in a taxi and head to Doherty's Gym. I rode in with Darryn Onekawa's mother and mate from New Zealand. Great people so I did an impromptu interview of them both. Darryn's lucky to have a supporting network.
I'd never met Tony before. I've only seen pictures. So I walk into Doherty's gym with the bunch and it's overwhelming. Branch Warren and George Farah are there at the same table with Kevin English. The Strongmen went straight for the food. Erin Stern was whisked away by Alicia Harris and Nicole Wilkins. And amongst the sea of men and women is this crazy guy in an Ed Hardy T-Shirt running around within hair on fire. Well, it would be on fire if he had any.
Tony gives me this, "who the hell are you look" LOL We finally meet and only after 2 minutes, it seemed like we've been old friends for the longest time. Eat your heart out, Shawn Ray.
Tony has a great crew. There's a series of guys in striped shirts acting as Valets from Downton Abbey taking the Pros here and there shopping for food, power converters or cases of water.
Everyone ate. Passed their pleasantries and after a few hours what seemed like pure mayhem settled down to just me, Tony and his staff fielding calls and requests in preparation for this weekend.
