Wasa Lake triathlon. Over a bottle of pinot grigio, way back in April, it all seemed like a fabulous idea. Just the sprint distance, how hard can it be? Really?
I'll do it if you do it, and the pact was made. With Sean leading the charge, Karen, Meagan and I were roped in.
We planned training sessions, on the bike, in the pool and running. We ta
lked target times and personal bests and then life got busy. We must start our training. Sean created a training programme for us. But there was work travel and late meetings and teleconferences to Australia and the weather was really cold, then it snowed and was icy, oh and then the rain....
And then it was d-day - pack up to head for Wasa Lake in time for race day next day. Swimming was the weak link in the girls' rigourous training regime. I had hit the pool twice but was yet to swim the distance, Meagan had swum twice, and the distance both times and Karen had made a mammoth effort by swimming four times!
We loaded the car. My high end racing bike that I do not deserve, Karen's mountain bike rigged for touring and Meagan's full-on mountain bike complete with nobbly tyres. We had hired our wetsuits and remembered our swimsuits and loaded up with gatorade and bananas. Car packed we drove to Cranbrook to pick up our race packs.
Got our race numbers, got the t-shirt...
GOT the t-shirt... already got the t-shirt so perhaps we don't need to do the race at all??
But no, we were shuffled off to Wasa for the pre-race ride of the course and a swim in the lake to get our bearings. Dipping on toe in the lake - immediate hypothermia - glacier-fed should have tipped me off. This was going to be chilly!
Water temperature - seventeen degrees...
Our bright and early start ensured a prime parking spot and our bikes in the optimum location in the transition zone. We pulled on our wetsuits - somewhat ill fitting as it turned out - and headed to the lake for a pre-race plunge. Chilly is not the word for it. Suffering borderline hypothermia before the gun went off, I managed to swim about 50m with leaden arms, then resorted to breast stroke to avoid drowning.
This proved to be a fine tactic as the thrashing pack moved well in front and I enjoyed clear , smooth waters and some lovely conversations with my fellow competitors. The scenery was gorgeous with snow-capped mountains rising above the lake and I had made it around two buoys. All I had to do was swim to the beach, directly into the sun. Freestyle was easy. There is a point at which you no longer feel cold. I stumbled up the beach, the peelers peeled off my wetsuit, into transition, on with my cycling shoes and off on the bike leg.
I love my bike. I zipped along with the sun warming my back, it was a very happy 20km. Back into transition, on with my running shoes and my
Team Collins shirt. The first kilometre was tough. I could not feel my feet, they were still so cold from the swim. But crossing Karen finishing her ride then again, me in-bound and her out-bound spurred me on and the last two kms were huge fun. The supporters, the volunteers and at the last turn, Sean yelling,
go catch them, inspired me to overtake the two runners in front of me.
We all finished, we all had adventures, stories to tell . Sean, our star, 3rd out of the water, 5th in his age group, 26th overall - we will all be back next year - but one thing we girls all agreed on - we will actually put in the effort to train for the swim!
