Wednesday 10 October 2012


No sane woman would have even thought about doing it but I had no option. Heavy rain & strong winds this last week lowered the water temps by 11C from 26C to a chilly 15C, lowered energy levels, lowered body temperature & mood swings – it did not look like fun.
On the day of the triathlon the telephone woke me at 9.15am with a request to go wakeboarding by the VITAL team who had arrived late the night before. Still recovering from jet lag having arrived in Ranzo 48 hours before from Colorado, I looked out the window to see snow on top of the mountains, rain clouds and wind.

I did not want to do this triathlon but I had to.


 We picked up the team & boarded for nearly 3 hours until the rain came.  Then it was a rush to register the team & prepare 3 year old Harry for his 2.15pm start. The lucky little chap was to swim indoors



 My take off time at 5.55pm meant I was one of the last 50 to start. Worried at the thought of embarrassing myself, I was not prepared for what lay ahead. The lake was so cold that my legs immediately started to cramp & my head started to hurt from one of those brain freeze one gets from an ice cream headache!
  

 Every time I took a breath, I swallowed water. The lake was so choppy I was being thrown around like a rag doll. I completely lost my orientation & simply aimed for the yellow buoys. So much so that I ended up underneath one of those huge yellow buoys which was quite frightening.


So many times I wanted to give up. I felt like I had been thrown overboard the Titanic & had to swim to shore to survive. As I have said to many of my donors, it is you who inspire me to continue to the end when the going gets tough. 


 My thoughts were with Tom. There was absolutely no way he would survive this.  Out of the 580 men & women who paid to enter this event, 178 did not show up whilst 16 were pulled out of the lake.

I considered myself a strong confident swimmer (swim training as a teenager up to 60km a week) but this water frightened me. I was actually deluding myself thinking I could better my 11 minute time of 4 years ago! My time of nearly 17 minutes was in the top 30%.

 I was so cold & so out of breath I couldn’t put on my bike shoes. My transition time was a massive 6 minutes but I was fed up. Chin up chicken was all I could say to myself & the smiles returned for the bike ride against the wind.

Once again I was hoping for a faster time having now had 6 years experience up my sleeve but it was not to be. At one point I was tempted
to get off the bike & walk up the hill. I longed to cycle with the pack bombing down the mountain. Even my support team didn’t bother to drive up to cheer me on – it was a lonely cycle tho’ I did hit 45kph at one stage which was a highlight of my bike ride!
Being the very last person left I had the good fortune of an official accompanying me on his bike as I completed the last leg. There was no way I could walk this with this man encouraging me on as I was sure he wanted to join the pasta party so I slowly jogged & chatted & the time went very fast indeed. I was very pleased with my time of 36mins!


So what are the lessons learned in this experience? That I am absolutely insane? Must I really go through such traumatic experiences to raise funds for these children to have a better life?

If you have donated already, I thank you from the deepest depth of my heart & if you haven’t, please comfort me in knowing that my efforts have not gone to waste.


Terminator 2 : Judgment Day  - “Hasta la vista, baby”

Oh yes, the knee? It held up well, thank goodness.