Triathlon done and dusted!

Just before Christmas last year, Row went over to my brother to drop something off and when he came home, he said, I think I've just agreed to do a triathlon with your brother! My first thought was this is madness and then my second thought was, this will never happen...they'll talk about it now and then the interest will die down and peter out. Then I found out they recruited two more guys to participate with them and the training started. Just to clear things up, this is a sprint triathlon so the distances are not as long as a normal triathlon, which still includes a lot of physical exertion. It includes a 750m swim, 20km cycle and 5km run. Most people start off with these and then progress to full triathlons and triathletes use these as extra training. So hats off to the guys for taking on this challenge!

They started off with ocean swimming - the first time they went to Balmoral Beach mid- December to do a short swim. Anybody who knows my brother knows that water is not his friend...neither my brother nor I are comfortable in the ocean. I attempted to do my Padi open water and opted out after our first dive even though it was spectacular. I couldn't just relax and enjoy the dive and appreciate the beauty of the underwater. Anyhoo....I digress....so BG's first swim didn't go as planned and he got a lot of flak from Row, Vern and Claude (the other two participants). I am proud to say that BG practiced and pursued it and is a lot more comfortable and stronger in the ocean now. Ocean swims were a weekly thing after they joined a squad at Manley Beach that went out at 7am every morning.  The wives and kids joined these early morning swims on Sunday in support of the guys. After a few weeks of swimming they added running to their training and then cycling. They trained weekly and trained hard...most weeks. 

The triathlon was on Sunday and the guys were ready. They had trained and prepped and were quite excited about the whole thing. The wives and kids made it out in time to see the guys cross the finish line. They did so well and we really are so proud of them. Well done Row, Bg, Vernon and Claude, you guys did us proud!

Squad training at Manley

After a training session of swimming and running

Running for the finish line

The triathletes

Super proud of Row