Other Holiday Fun

Even though we just spent a week in Sydney (see below), we still have another week of vacation to go. Man, the kids here have it good! It seems like they are always going on holiday or having student free days, which is one reason I'm not interested in full time work. I was actually offered full time hours when my job share partner announced that he was quitting. I got the message the day we got back from Sydney. But heck, I'm not here to work, when would I train for triathlons and write my blog? Luckily, the school is offering an afternoon class two days a week for me to teach next session and after that, I guess we'll see. The summer holiday is coming up fairly soon, so I'm not in any hurry to get too committed to work.

Last weekend, I did a quarter Ironman triathlon at the Gold Coast as part of my Noosa Triathlon training. It was about the same distance but a little shorter swim, only 950 meters, and a little longer bike 45 km and a similar run 10.5 km. I know it's sounds crazy, but you work up to the distances, and then they don't seem so bad.

Since I had to rack my bike on Saturday, we decided to make a beach weekend of it and spent Saturday night down at the Gold Coast, so I wouldn't have to get up so early for my event Sunday morning. Mark and Erik dropped me off and then went back to the hotel for some Sunday morning cartoons. I'd expect them to watch my real race, but not just a practice one.

All was going well until I got a flat tire and I lost about 10 minutes changing it and fiddling with my mini pump. Luckily some guys, eventually came along with a floor pump and helped me since I hadn't used that pump for over a year, and it didn't seem to be working very well. Yet another thing to practice! By the time I got the tire changed pretty much everyone had passed me, so I tried my best to go fast and maybe catch a few people, but it's not quite the same. In the end, I was seventh out of ten, not so great. Nevertheless, it was fun and now I'm confident I can finish and push harder.

Although I was initially tired, it wasn't so bad, so we enjoyed the rest of the day down at Fingal Head just beyond the New South Wales boarder. Erik had a great time boogie boarding and I posed for some triathlon body shots (Who knows if I'll ever be this fit again?) while Mark had some down time hiking around the headlands and reading his book. Fingal Head was a nice, peaceful contrast to the busy Gold Coast suburb where we had spent the night. There were a lot of families and no high rises or traffic lights just a few cafes, beach bungalows and the familiar small town surf lifesaving club. It's definitely a place we'd go back to since there's a river and bike path on the side of the peninsula which we didn't have a chance to explore.

Note the wet suit. The water is still a bit chilly, but still heaps warmer than Puget Sound. Daytime temperatures have been 25-32 C, 75-85F lately, perfect for a swim!