2012 saw the running of a couple of marathons. Kona in June and Sydney in September.
It also saw the beginning of the Triathlon era. The seeds were sown in the days before the Kona marathon, swimming in the warm, clear waters of Maui, and watered once we got onto the Big Island and the whole Kona vibe. Hopefully some day I'll go back and update that part of the blog (Kona done).
201 days until Challenge Copenhagen. 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42.2km run.
On a rating of 1 to 5 I currently give myself
- swim - 1
- bike - 3
- run - 3.5
Last Saturday was the annual Wollongong Australia Day Aquathon. I had a terrible swim. A few times now I have had the situation where, about 250 metres into the swim, I get this real panicky feeling. Generally focused around my breathing, but always I just want to get out of the water as fast as I can. On Saturday, this combined with reaching the turning buoy and the wave behind me catching up and literally beating me up. I was in trouble and not doing well. Cycling you can coast for a while, running you can walk. Swimming (with the next wave coming over you) it's harder to stop. But stop I did. I headed over to the nearest surf ski, held on, and got my breathing undercontrol. From a good time perspective this race was done, but I was going to learn from it and I was going to finish it. After getting my breathing under control, and a good chat with the lifeguard, it was off to finish the swim. Apart from some navigational issues, there was no more drama. On the second lap a quick wave to the lifeguard of thanks and I was heading home (the crooked way). In training we always go to the right of the catamaran
Out of the water and into the run and the world was good again.
From here on it was a game of chasing. Line up the next runner, chase them down - repeat. It was a good run course with a few km on dirt through the scrub. According to my Garmin it was all down hill all the way! An interesting proposition considering the run finishes at the same place it starts
For my age/gender category Swim 26/28, Run 7/28, Overall 19/28
