Finding my sea legs

Saturday
AM - Australia Day Illawarra Aquathon, Wollongong - 400m swim/3k run

My first open water swim! To be honest, I wasn't particularly nervous in the lead-up to, or the morning of, this event. I was actually rather blase about it. I'm not sure why.

The Mango clan converged on Wollongong with Brother Mango & I doing the short course race (400m swim/3k run) with lots of other Mangos in a cheerleading capacity (*waves*)

Standing on a hill overlooking the course, I was thinking to myself that there was no way it was a 400m swim. Interestingly someone on Trannies suspects it was closer to 500-500m!

The women's wave was the first to go in the short course event with the U35 men 3mins behind us. I was really worried about being swum over the top of by the men but thankfully, they went around us when they finally caught us.


That's me in the pink cap ;-)

With 50 women in my wave, it was really congested & difficult to find an open patch of water for much of the course. A few younger girls also decided that they had to touch the buoys when they went around them (!) - which resulted in those behind them having to breaststroke to get around the buoys. Grrr.

Much to my considerable surprise, I actually felt reasonably comfortable out there - a big improvement on my last (first) two races. I'm not sure why - perhaps it was because I had others around me & didn't feel so 'left behind'. For whatever reason, I felt reasonably good - so much so that after we turned the last buoy to head for home, I was getting frustrated that I couldn't find an open patch of water to open up my stroke. Out of the water in 26th spot (26/50) :-)

Once out of the water it was a 15m run across the sand to a (short) set of stairs which sent my heart rate through the roof. My transition was far too leisurely - I took a swig of water to get rid of that horrid salt water taste & had difficulty getting my shoes on. I don't think I loosened my (elastic) laces enough.


Anyhoo, then I was off on the run leg - straight up a short, steep, grassy hill - and there goes the heart rate again! Other than that rise, the run was a flat out & back along the beachfront. I had a stitch for the whole run & was overtaken by quite a few people - not surprisingly given that my longest run in the last 6 months has only been 3k. I also admit to walking through the drink stop at the turnaround (*she blushes*)

The run back to the finish was good with people lining the last 250m or so. It really hurt though! I achieved my A & B goals for the race - Goal A being not to drown ;-) and Goal B being to stay in front of Brother Mango who I had a 5min head start over. Preliminary results are now up:

S: 11:26
R: 20:06 (incl T)
Total: 31:33
31/50 30-39 age group


The Mini Mango & I showing off our muscles post-race

Sunday
AM - after a big sleep (I was absolutely exhausted), the Brothers Mango took me on a bike tour of Shellharbour & Kiama this morning.

R went out for his long ride early so Brother Mango & I left later & met him at the almost decedent hour of 7.45am. We headed along back roads west of Shellharbour & Kiama, through the beautiful lush, green & rolling countryside with the massive escarpment in the background, before turning onto the highway at Kiama & heading for home It was a beautiful, albeit hilly, ride -



Finished with 24.86k in 1:13. Given that I haven't done a hilly ride on Betty (roadie) since the Gong ride in November, I'm really happy with how I felt on the hills.

A long (1.5 hour) nana nap this afternoon has finished off a great weekend. Given that I never nana nap, it's a pretty good indication of how tired I'm feeling. Thankfully I've got tomorrow off (work) to recover!

MTD: S - 7.15k + B - 71.32k* + R - 22.1k
* long rides & races only