From Triathlete to Hobbler

last sunday, i was triathleting; swimming/biking/running my little heart out.

then i entered the week after sunday, and i was reduced to the kind of hobble displayed by people who have just had surgery in places they don't want to talk about.

wednesday was my first day of resuming the upright stance while walking, and that night even managed a gentle 20 minute run. the following morning, time trials with the trainer. and so we're back on; hello again!

(it does make me wonder, when do you get to the point of calling yourself a Triathlete? does one sprint qualify? only after an Olympic? reserved exclusively for the professionals?)

i promised something last post, and since the promise there have been whisperings. some discussions, probing, guesses at what possibly could be what has been dubbed;

'the next challenge'


but before all is revealed, i have my overall placings from the London Triathlon - so time to reveal!

there were 549 women undertaking the Olympic in total, so where was i in the mix? as expected, i started strong, and then it was a sliding scale of strength!

swim: 114/549 (pretty damn happy with this one!)

bike: 198/549 (almost as happy with this!)

run: 391/549 (and let's just not talk about this one thanks)


my rankings in transition were actually pretty funny! due to my cramping issues, my first transition saw me rank at a terrible 352/549. however my second transition saw a complete turnaround of events and i came in at an incredible 9/549!

Overall: out of 549 lovely ladies, i ranked 236 :)



ok so now my unique ability to transition quickly has been revealed, let's move onto the 'next challenge' business and see where we're heading...

for those in the circuit of knowing what the difference between T1 and T2 is; they've guessed. it's the next logical step.

i started with a couple of running races.

then i did a couple of sprints.

next onto the olympic.

now it's time to head towards a whole new world of pain... here she is kids;

the half ironman!


ironman means a lot to me, more than just another (impossible sounding) race. in australia, we love an ironman. we love our ironmen + women. we put their faces on our cereal, we name health foods after them, and most saturday mornings we fill our television programming with broadcasts from the beach. i used to watch those races, on saturday morning, always with a sense of amazement. rightly or wrongly, i put them up there with olympians.

so edging even somewhere close to the sense of achievement is going to mean a hell of a lot to me. i don't know if i'll ever be capable of undertaking a whole ironman, but right now the half ironman (HIM) is going to be an incredible feat. and one which i'm stupidly excited by.

so upwards + onwards! right now i've got to concentrate on two more sprint triathlons left until the end of season, after which it will be a winter of HIM training. and that sounds a little bit too appealing right now. maybe it's that level of insanity which qualifies the 'triathlete' badge...