70.3 South Africa-Bermuda

First real hit out at a race in some time this weekend in South Africa.  It was an amazing experience to be on the African continent- a first for me so I was excited to just go there. I desperately wanted to meet Nelson Mandela but I didn’t really look that hard and I figured he probably wouldn’t be hanging around at a triathlon.

It might have been the craziest weather I have ever raced in.  Pelting rain with very strong winds on the bike.  I slightly misjudged the bike course despite the profile on the website but it literally went up up up for 45 km straight into a head wind.  It was comical at times how relentless it was.  It took me just over 1:30 to get to the turn around which is pretty darn slow for 45km but I think I was just under an hour on the return journey.  There were times when I was applying the grip of death to my bars for fear of another side wind tossing me off the road at 70km/hr.

Swim and run were ok- feeling great in the water at the moment, some technical changes have been good but not quite transfered into speed and endurance yet.  Run was lacking some spunk which I generally rely on the get my ass back into a reasonable place.

All in all it was a good day, good effort- i was fit enough to stay on effort the entire way but not quite fit enough to generate the speed needed to be in there…..12th place but a ways back.

Post race- rush to grab bike, rush to hotel to pack it all up and board a flight at 5pm from East London to Joberg and a connector from Joberg to Atlanta- 17 hours…..and now i’m in the busiest airport i’ve ever seen…..actually can’t wait to get on the next flight to Bermuda just to be in a less crowded space.

And now the final leg of a 3 week adventure—-to Bermuda.  Co-coaching a week long camp with Mike Neill of HPR for the Bermuda Triathlon Club.  Can’t wait to see Bermuda- another place I have not been to.  Really looking forward to meeting the campers and having a great week.  Stay tuned for some pics.