I know Sunday morning for many consists of a lazy lie-in and cups of tea in bed but not for a bunch of fierce amazonian women out to prove a point early Sunday morning.
January 18, 2009 was the date for the Christchurch leg of the TriWomen Series held around New Zealand and the conditions were perfect, slightly overcast and coolish. Crystal was entered in the Duathlon and my involvement was road-testing the SUB bike and eating the bacon butties from the MoreFM barbie (hey i had to make up for all the fitness zealots who were steering clear of them!).
Crystal was off in the first wave of the duathlon, which consisted of a 1.5km run, then 10km cycle then another 3km run. She came in 33rd out of 142 so it was a fantastic effort – I was really proud of her! She beat last year’s time by three minutes, no doubt helped by some slick transitions. It appears the key to a fast transition for a triathlon is having all your stuff laid out, even the straps of your helmet and your shoe laces. Another good idea is to tie some kind of balloon to the bike rack so you know exactly where your bike is!
A big round of applause as the last competitor came through (hopefully she wasnt the self-conscious type) but any feelings of embarrassment would’ve disappeared when she found out she’d won the grand prize of a new bike – coinkydink or what?! Unfortunately Crystal didn’t win anything but it’s the feeling of accomplishment so that’s all good. Then back home – it was all over by 9am! Driving home it felt like we’d been up half the day already!
Not to be outdone I got on the bike later that day and blitzed through Bottle Lake with the guys – perfect conditions even a light drizzle to cool everything down. We both slept pretty well that night!