That was massive!

The training week that is! Wow, 20+ hours as well as working pretty much full-time (ok, I do have Wednesday afternoons off at the moment to train) and travelling to Wellington for work on Thursday. I am officially buggered but I can say that I have done it all and pretty much done it as planned!

The weekend was huger than massive if thats possible! Saturday was an 80min open water swim, 180km cycle and a 20min run off the bike. Sunday was simple in comparison, just a 3 and a half hour run! Yikes!

Things I learnt:

• I can cycle 180km (was actually 189.9, for about half a sec I contemplated riding the 1.1km to make it 190)
• Old West Coast Rd has to be the most boring stretch of road in the world!
• There isn't a lot of water to be found between Halswell and Oxford
• Lemonade ice blocks at Oxford and Sumner are heavenly!
• Coke and ice blocks are cheaper at the dairy in Oxford than at Shell Linwood
• Shell Linwood has the best ever air-conditioning!
• You can make it to Sumner and back on your own 2 feet!
• The chamois in my new tri-suit is great, my butt was comfy for the whole ride!
• The weather man has no idea what he is talking about, he said little wind for yesterday and rain for today. Well, if that was a little wind I don't want to see a big one and I'm still waiting for todays rain, it would have been quite nice on the run home!
• It is possible to run after having cycled for approx 7 hours and it actually didn't feel too bad???
• Coke goes flat pretty quick when you put it in the bottles on your fuel belt
• You can run with a gel or a pack of red licorice tucked into your running singlet and its not even uncomfy
• You bump into people from work in some strange places when you run that far! Haha, they aren't used to seeing me dressed like that and all sweaty as well!
• No matter how much sunblock you put on, you will still get new tan lines when its that damn hot!

Things I am thankful for:

• Bumping into Zarnia in Oxford cos the lemonade ice-blocks were her idea
• Bumping into Zarnia again today in Sumner so we could have ice-blocks again today
• John Ellis for wiping my 'beard' off when I got out of the water at Corsair Bay yesterday, I hate to think what I must have looked like, all sand and snot no doubt!!
• The ladies at the Courtenay Tennis Club (randomly along Old West Coast Rd) for letting me fill up my water bottles in their kitchen, I was a long long way from water otherwise!
• Geoff's daughter Libby for cooking me tea last night! Food never tasted so good!
• Compression socks, compression tights and anti-flamme!
• Cold Coke and another ice-block at the garage on the way home
• That when it took closer to 4 hours than the scheduled 3 and a half I just kept trucking along till I got home. What you need to know here is that I wanted to pack it in at around the 25min mark!
• A comfy couch to crash on for the afternoon!
• Seeing friendly and familar faces when on a mission that long, saw Kalina's mum, her friend Fran, her husband Tim, got a wave from Nadia, saw Richard Aitken (who would only give me a double home if I pedalled??) and saw a fair number of other familar folk zipping past on their bikes!

Not long now! 5 weeks time we will be done and dusted! Woohoo! Bring it on I say!