Wetsuits are mad for swimming … or not!!

So we flew down to Durban on Friday. Kids were really looking forward to this as it was the first time they would fly! Whoopee!!!

We checked in at Midmar dam late Friday afternoon and just relaxed. Took a drive around Howick to find a store where we could by some food for the evening, and I also spotted a bike shop. This was important as I had to leave my CO² canisters at home. Not allowed on the airplane.

So Saturday morning early left for the bike shop and returned home uneventful to quickly go and register for the event the next day. As I promised the kids we would go to uShaka Marine, it was all aboard and off to Durban again. The day was spent mostly in the wet and wild area on the slides.

All of us pretty much enjoyed the day and headed back to Midmar to just go and relax and make sure everything was ready for the next day.

At 06:00 on Sunday on my way to transition, my son spotted that everyone was walking around with chips around the ankle! Where was mine? Quickly in to registration again, just to be informed that at the time I registered they did not have the chips yet. So I received my chip and went on to check in my bike. As I was busy going through check in, the announcement came … today is going to be a no wetsuit swim!!!

PANIC! PANIC!

I then spotted the “coach” and she saw the spot of bother on my face. “Nah you would be fine!” she said. I could only wish.

So we started the swim and as I was not feeling comfortable, I started at the back anyway as I did not feel like being swam over. I do think the swim was longer than they measured, but it might just be me thinking that. So after 48 minutes I managed to drag myself out of the water into bike transition. Took my time cleaning my feet, getting my shoes on and off we go.

What an awesome bike. Up and down the whole time, but relatively fast. This was by far my best bike experience in a race so far. I was hunting down the people as we went along the 20km loop which we had to complete 3 times. In hind sight I was may be going too fast and would pay the penalty later on in the run??

As we started the run I realized it was not going to be an easy run. They have literally just cut the grass down for us to run on. Had to run so careful as to not injure my ankles on the uneven ground. Anyway managed to finish the run a lot slower than anticipated, but in one piece.

I did a respectable time of 04:41:10 to complete the 1.8km swim, 60km bike and 15km run. Now it is back to training with 7 weeks left to IMSA.

freeze, freezing, big bay

So I did 2 ocean swims the past weekend! On Saturday we did the Big Bay Xtreme Swim around the Rock. This was a swim of 2.4 km.

So when I got to registration I was given the option of wetsuit or no wetsuit. Duhh!! Off course I will swim with a wetsuit. No amount of OBS would have convinced me to get into the 14 degree water. So off we went a few minutes later than suggested. The swim started in Small bay where we had to get to the back and around a buoy. What an experience being knocked around by big breakers. But I made it to the back and also safely around the island. Then there was some more trouble as I could not spot the buoy to return to the beach because of the swell and just carried on in a general direction to eventually find it.

Going out I was wishing I had a surf board with me as the conditions was ideal for surfing, just not body surfing. Every now and again I had to look around just to make sure there was no breaker about to break on me.

So on Sunday we returned to do the 11 Global Triathlon. Just to find that the swim is more or less the same. The swim was slightly shorter and in 11 degree water!!

The swim started at 07:00 and I had my fastest 1.5km ocean swim yet. I was out of the water after 22 minutes. I managed to also have a really good bike leg averaging 30km/h. The heat was on to finish in a really good time. So I turned up the leg speed to make sure that I finished the triathlon in 02:44:01. My best so far!

On Friday we are off to Howick to go and do the Midlands Ultra Triathlon (www.midlansultra.co.za). Not sure who is looking forward to this the most? The kids will be flying for the first time when we leave for Durban.