Mission Accomplished!

At the start of all of this I had 3 goals:

• Don't drown (obviously I didn't because I'm here updating my blog)
• Finish the event
• Don't come last

And I'm happy to say I achieved all 3 goals.  I'm exhausted and still standing so that is a good sign I think!  I don't yet know what my finish time was as for some reason I wasn't showing up on the preliminary results.  But my friend Rose had a time of 1 hour 25 minutes (I think) and I came in before her - somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes before her (hard to judge for me and Terence wasn't looking at the time at that stage).

This was the biggest thing I've ever done.  Well this and the Funrazor event I did last year.  I think from a stress point of view they were both up there, but this particular event took a whole lot more effort from me.

I was incredibly pleased to see the sea was nice and calm.  You don't quite realise how far 400m is until you see the buoys spaced out in the sea.  I think the sea swim was by far the hardest for me.  I was tired by the time I got to the first buoy and by the time I got to the second was horribly dizzy.  But I did it.  I managed to overcome my fear (mostly because of the lack of large waves). 

Another thing I was pleased about was that it was a cooler and cloudy day making it far more comfortable being out and about in this kind of setting.  What I was not pleased about was when it started raining quite a bit.  Didn't matter so much in the swimming, but riding a bike out in the rain was just plain miserable and thankfully it eased off by the time I started the running part of my event.

I couldn't run when I got out of the sea because I was incredibly dizzy and thought it would just be incredibly embarrassing if I was to fall over in front of all these spectators.  Bad enough that they make you start your run right next to the barrier where everybody is watching.  And because the sea swim for me was going on forever and felt like it was never going to end I really pushed myself in the bike ride to try and catch up a bit.  I really enjoyed this bit and didn't find it too hard or exhausting.

The run as usual was the hard part for me.  I ended up catching up with 2 ladies from our Saturday training group and it was rather nice running with them.  Well a combination of running and walking to be honest.  

And going over the finish line was an amazing feeling of relief that I was done and feeling really proud of myself for actually doing it.  And I actually did enjoy it.  The sea swim not so much, but the rest of it was amazing.  It was also incredibly supportive which was really nice and helped keep us going.

A few of us are keen to keep going with our Saturday training sessions and hopefully we can find a way to make it happen.  Also Rose and I are thinking that maybe we'll give the next triathlon in Palmerston North a go (yes I'm nuts I know it!).

Then this afternoon we visited Paul and his lovely family and had a BBQ dinner.  Thank you Paul, Jo, Kate and Alice for having us over.  Was so lovely to catch up with you!

Here are some photos of my day:

Feeling rather nervous at 6:50am about to leave to pick up Rose

Starting to set up

Signs everywhere

 

The lovely Joanne who is the triathlon sponsorship winner and part of our training group

Rose and I ready to take on the event! (Well at least we're smiling even if we didn't feel quite as brave)

2 of the lovely ladies who were part of our Saturday training group.

Feeling relieved the sea was pretty calm.

"Let's take a victory photo now in case we can't smile at the end"

A lot of bikes!

 

The piper arriving to lead us down the beach.

With Linley one of our Saturday morning coaches!

Getting ready to face my fear

Rose and I heading off to the briefing.

  

Down the beach we go

The first wave going round the buoy.  They were soooo fast!

 

No way could I run at the end of my swim.  I was so dizzy!

Getting ready for my bike ride

Caitlyn got to meet some spectators

Tired, but happy with how my bike ride went

Off for the running part of the event.  I was hoping my legs would not get sore

 

The finish line is in sight!!!

My cheer squad waiting for me

So relieved to be done.  Lovely to do this with older and new friends!

Having fun on the miniature trains.

Paul showing off his cooking skills