Saturday 24th March 2012 - was the date. This was to be my first triathlon in my journey, however after being encouraged by a good friend Rachelle, I completed the Tinman in December 2011, so jumped the gun a bit. But hey, as I've learn't recently plans & goals change along the way. My original plan of Short Course, Tinman, Half Ironman, Ironman was way off the mark. There is a lot more to this journey that that little piece of paper with that little list on:)
Back to Auckland -
We checked out the course on the Friday, all good, the sea was like the pool except no lane ropes, the bike course was undulating and no major hills, and the run was slightly uphill to the turn around then mostly downhill to the finish - Yea rite, as I said things don't go to plan. Fast forward to Saturday morning, the sea is choppy (for me anyway), the wind as picked up, but thankfully the rain has stayed away so far.
The short course started an hour after the Half Ironman, so I was able to watch Rachelle start, and swim her first lap, and cheer her on. Then it was our turn, and gun went off - well can't remember if it was a gun or just a go or what, but gun sounds good. The swim to the first buoy was hideous - between the swell and the wetsuit clad bodies can't say I really enjoyed that first leg, but once around the buoy, got into a bit of a rhythm, 50 breaths, then look to see what direction I'm heading! Didn't do to bad as we had the waves and tide pushing us a bit in, but rounded the next buoy and then it was straight into shore with the swell, felt like 2 steps forward, one back, but made it. 1km swim over! Run into transition, off with the wetsuit in a few mins, forgetting the 15 mins to pour myself into it, and onto the bike. First 15km great, undulating and following the coast from Maraetai Beach, towards Kawakawa Bay, but and as always there is a BUT, turned off at Clevedon straight into a head wind, average speed took a dive:(. One hill to get over and then downhill to the end of a 30km bike leg. Onto the run, and the thought did cross my mind I could walk some of this, but then the monkey on my shoulder piped up and said "You can do this" and I did, I ran all 7km out and back to the finish. I was able to enjoy the finish and think I manged a so called sprint to cross the finish line in 2 hours 32 mins. (Swim 27.04, Bike 1.16, Run 49.33) transition included in these times.
The rest of the afternoon I was able to watch and support Rachelle finish her Half Ironman.
And just to top off a great day, I won an Orca Wetsuit as a spot prize.
Now if you talk to another triathlete, I'm sure they would have a different version - the water was calm, no wind, and a sprint, but the above is how I saw it, and I'm not changing my story.
And the following weekend, a bit of payback for Rachelle who has been an amazing support person and full of encouragement, an Adventure Race in Hawkes Bay which took us 7 1/2 hours to complete. Well done to everyone who completed these events.
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