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.

Missing in Action - First Tri Attempt in NZ

Just over a week ago, someone posted on a Facebook group that he was going down to Invercargill for a triathlon and was looking for folks to share the ride with him.  I volunteered to be the swimmer if he wanted to do a relay.  He agreed.

We left Dunedin just after 7am on Sunday and made it to the pool just before the 9:45am race briefing.  Unfortunately, this did not give us enough time to go to the bike/run transition area to drop off Chris' running shoes.

As we drove into the pool parking lot, Chris turned to me and said, "You have a drivers license, right?"

Turns out I had to drive Chris' shoes to the next transition area while he was on the bike.  I was confident-ish in my driving skills, but not confident that I could find the hotel parking lot where T2 was located.

Long story short, I drove past the right hand turn that would have lead me to the spot to drop off the running shoes.  Instead, I drove several kilometers in the wrong direction, turned around only to end up in a school parking lot, and made a wrong turn out of the school parking lot only to end up in some residential neighborhood.

By a stroke of luck, I eventually found the transition area where Chris was patiently waiting for his shoes.

Interestingly, despite waiting for me for over 10 minutes, our relay team still placed 2nd.

Bike/run transition area:

It was a small race, but fun!  I enjoyed that it was super laid back.  Definitely something that my good friends from the Broome County Triathlon Club should consider organizing at home.  *hint, hint*

Chris was kind enough to take us on a detour to Bluff before heading back.  It was just a short drive south and is known as the southern most point on a state highway in New Zealand.

Over all, it was a nice day out of town.  Let's hope I won't have to drive crucial pieces of race equipment to teammates next time!