VITAL FOR CHILDREN: Locarno triathlon 2011

VITAL FOR CHILDREN: Locarno triathlon 2011

Locarno triathlon 2011

What can I say? What a terrific effort by the 2011 VITAL triathlon team. What heroes they all turned out to be in the face of great challenges. An International team of Kiwis, Dutch, Italians, Americans, Aussies & of course the good old die hard Brits surviving the torrential monsoon rains.

Starting of course with my loyal husband Mithra, doing his first triathlon at the tender age of 64 after losing 11kg in weight

Mine for evermore
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four?

He completed the mini tri with no problem & now thinking of doing the olympic distance next year – what a hero.

Luigi’s first triathlon attempt having just returned from a hurricane in the USA & combating jetlag – he too gave us a wonderful smile at the end of his race

And then there’s Amanda who had lost many kg, competing in her first triathlon in the UK finishing the race 20 minutes faster than she expected.

And good old Fede doing the mini as a warm up to the swim leg of the relay team early the next morning. He too only just returned from a hurricane & earthquake in the USA. What a star.

Then there was Jessica doing only her second triathlon in her life, tackling the Medium Distance in heavy rain with Patrik who finished as we took shelter from the rain in the car & missed cheering him cross the finish line!

The VITAL UK team consisted of first timers with Philip’s rhythm disrupted by the many swimmers around him but he surprised himself with an excellent swim time of 48 minutes for the 2.5km. Andy Playboy enjoyed riding in a pack of 20 bombing down the mountain, not understanding Italian when told not to draft & Carlos, our 5km runner who joined the team one month before the race preparing for a 10km run! He couldn’t believe his run of 82 minutes! Excellent work guys, see you next year doing the Olympic distance!

The VITAL EU team started with poor Fede talked into wearing a wetsuit for his 2.5km swim. His suit kept filling with water making him float off the course like the Michelin man. Then came Koen who thought his role was simply to drive the 17 hour journey from the UK to Locarno. He didn’t know he was to cycle the 80km Swiss mountains but bravely stepped up to bat only to be blinded by stinging rain & abandoned the race when the officials removed the markers thinking all the cyclists had finished. Allegra was relieved she didn’t have to run in the cold heavy rain especially after her ordeal with an earthquake & hurricane in the USA.

All in all, a wonderful weekend was enjoyed by all with much laughter, before & after the race with everyone successfully getting up on water skis/wakeboard.

We’ll all be back ! Thank you to all our wonderful VITAL supporters whose donations were the inspiration to keep one going when the going got tough!

Oh by the way, those of you who envied Mithra’s body in the mankini -  the body was loaned from Borat!!