If you had told me 6 months ago that I would be taking part in my first triathlon in 6 months time, I probably would have laughed at you, taken a bite of my pizza and washed it down with an ice cold Hansa :)
Needless to say, life has some magic & interesting ways of working things out, and yesterday afternoon saw me taking part in my first ever triathlon. For me, this is a HUGE step personally. Since starting out with my #Project2011 about a month ago, I have made a complete turnaround on my lifestyle (More detail in later posts)
I have gone on a fantastic eating programme, taken up Kettlebells (post about this soon), Mountain biking on the Cannondale at least once a week, swimming and generally trying to restore order in my life. So far, I can honestly say this is the best I have felt in years, but there is still a LOT of work ahead, and I just need to maintain focus.
So back to the triathlon. The series is called the Mudman, which is a local series of 4 fun events in and around KZN, and the first one took place yesterday in a really beautiful part of the country called Hermannsburg, about 20km outside of Greytown. The town is better known for it’s German school, which is where the event took place. I opted into the half race, which consists of a 375m swim in a dam, 10km mountain bike through the pine forests, and a 2.5km run around the dam.
The race took place in the afternoon, and the swim was up first. I had been doing a few lengths at the Kings Park pool in the week, so had a bit of swimming training in, but swimming in a dam is a whole different story. No place to stand, and dam water tastes kak ! But it went pretty good, and I was out the water in around 20 mins. The run up to the transition area, where you get your bike, was around 250m, and I was buggered by the time I got up to the bike. But I took a bit of time out, and got kitted up, and got on the bike. I have been doing a few rides on the bike, and I think it definitely helped. I did walk a bit as well, but I was pretty happy with the ride. The first part was quite a climb, but at the top, I got a cup of Coke at the one watering station, and that gave me the energy boost I needed. After 1:05 hours I finally got off the bike, and prepared for the run.(Runkeeper activity of the ride)
For those that know me, my frame is not built for running(yet), and I always knew this was going to be the tough one. I hadn’t done much running training, so I told myself I would take it easy. And that I did. I will admit that I walked most of the route, but did a few short jogs. After 35 mins (Runkeeper activity), I finally crossed over the finish line. There was this awesome feeling of joy & achievement for me. It felt amazing ;)
My total time was 1:58, and I was really happy with the time. Considering that I would have never thought I would be doing this, I am beyond ecstatic, and am looking forward to the next one which takes place on the 6th March at Albert Falls dam. The guys that I did it with have all made a “pact” that we will try and do all the events, and at the last one, we will do the full distance, which is double all the distances. I know that with a lot of training, this should be do-able, and am really looking forward to it :)
