we are rollin'!!!!
It is true that it could have been a better day, the weather was playing and there were a few showers and chilly winds.
It is also true that the water could have been a bit warmer than the 15 or 16 degrees that we were told on the race briefing
And we could have had a flat non-chop swim.
But racing is racing and you can't choose the conditions, you can only choose the approach. So... yes.. it wasn't a great day to start the season but there was no way I was missing the first ever event of this series. One of the reasons is that I always like to do the first event of a series due to all the goodie bags and so on. The second reason is that the Pure Blonde swim-run series are organized by my coach and supports me on many of my endeavours. There are not many opportunities to give back, and this was a golden one, so there I was.
There wasn't a big field and I don't blame them, it's hard to take on a sea like we did yesterday, and for many this was an unknown event in a beach in the suburbs. Many training buddies and friends of the tri world rocked to the site and the atmosphere was good and relaxed.
Point Chevalier beach is located in the west of the city, and it is known to the kite surfing and windsurfing community because the prevailing winds come fromt he west or south west here in Auckland. There's always going to be a little chop, and that is good, it sorts out the good and bad swimmers and it adds a little uncertainty as you never know where you are going.
We swam 2 500m loops in an anticlockwise direction. The chop was coming shoreward and the re was a swell drifting us to the right. I opted for a short and snappy stroke and went out wide. The trouble was that I went too wide because I lost sight of the buoy on my sighting stroke. Once we turn around the buoy it was all sween and long strectchy stroke took me to shore OK. Starting the second lap there was a lot of people coming to shore from all directions, I opted to go wide again and again I was too wide. I could see my mate Jeremy laughing after seeing me too wide. I tried to catch him before the beach but I got short we went up to transition together.
My mate Jeremy is and Ironman and he did an ironman transition, so I got a good 30 secs advantage out of transition. There was one guy 1 or 1.30 min. ahead of us (a pretty good swimmer) and my other mates Carl and Gordo right after. I settled into a good running pace in a nice suburban course with a false flat and a couple of 90 degrees turn. At the turnaround for the second lap I was able to gauge the distances and there was a chance that I could catch the first runner and I could not be cought by the two behind me. None of that happened. I finished 2nd on the day, 30 secs behind and 1min clear of third.
All in all a very happy day at the races and I even got a spot prize.
Nat was busy somewhere else and wasnt able to make it, so there won't be photos of this one, will try to get some soon.
Yeah you got second, all casual about it. You are a machine.
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