The Spirit of Triathlon

Last night, we had great weather for a sprint distance triathlon in Macandrew Bay.  I was the runner for a relay team (usually, you'd peg me to be the swimmer, but a wetsuit was required and mine is back in NY).  I haven't been putting much effort into training, but I do get out for a run about 3 days each week and I try to make one run at least an hour long.  My mediocre training paid off, though.  I ran 3 miles in 23 minutes - a personal record!

To be honest, it helped that the course was flat as a pancake, I had someone to chase, and then got chased myself.  I heard Katie coming up behind me and I couldn't help yelling "Holy s---! Nice pace!" over my shoulder as she passed.  I was happy that I was holding a 7:20 min/mile pace, but I figured what the heck and tried staying on her tail.  I didn't stand a chance!  I didn't want to blow up on the first loop, so I quickly got back into my own rhythm.  On the way back from my first loop a little boy, about 7 years old, stopped playing on the side of the road and ran up beside me - he was sooo cute! He was grinning ear-to-ear and kept up with me without breaking a sweat.  Oh to be young and full of energy!  Soon he pulled ahead and was looking for me to keep up, but I wanted to be conservative until the last half of the second loop.  I gave him a high-five as soon as he got tired of being faster than me and quit running.

The race was put on by the Dunedin Triathlon Club.  Man, it felt good to be there.  I didn't realize that I missed sexy bikes, the smell of neoprene and Mamils that much!  The triathletes here are just as awesome as my tri family at home.  I joined the DTC in hopes that I'll be able to get motivated for a race next year.  There are some pretty big races like the Challenge Wanaka, Coast-to-Coast and Ironman New Zealand, so having training buddies would be great.   In the mean time, I'll train for the Three Peaks Mountain Race.  Those hills look brutal, but it'll be fun to get back into racing.

DOLPHINS!

O. M. G.  I missed the dolphins!!!!  Why? Oh, why?! Of all days to be in uber productive PhD mode! Yesterday, I joined a group of friends for a small trek to Heyward Point which had a pretty darn good view of the water. Why weren't the dolphins around then?!

*sigh*

So, maybe I didn't see dolphins yesterday (I'm not leaving New Zealand until I see some dolphins!), but I did see these cute sea lions:

It took roughly 45 minutes to reach our destination.  Initially, when we reached Heyward Point, it was really obnoxious that the sea gulls were screeching out of control:

But, we found out what the fuss was all about - these eggs:

Aside from the the local critters, this was an uneventful trip, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.  Just a few more weeks and I'll be able to share photos from the Monowai trip!  In the meantime, I'm going to keep my eyes out for more dolphins here in the harbour: