The cruel sea

Hey everyone - i'm alive !! - i have to say, although it may sound very dramatic, i really did think i was going to die during the swim section of the w champs!

I'm not sure how much has been filtered back to the uk but the sea was choppy/cold (its thought 10.5deg at times!) and even the canoeists and rescue boats were struggling! Infact rumour has it that whilst someone was being rescued for hypothermia they were actually knocked out by the boating 'bobbing' in the waves!!?? My wave (35-39) was the penultimate wave before the TRI athlon was transformed to a DU athlon...... so the older ladies and all the men competing in olympic distance were changed to a duathlon (3k 40k 10k).........the reaction to this was astounding and many age groupers threw their teddies ...... the winers are not tri winners nor duathlon winner ................the controversy is phenominal and it has already caused a stir and posted on many websites, i believe it will continue for sometime! Anyway, i actually wish it was a duathlon as my swimming isn't the best (infact it very much sorted the men from the boys as it were), i couldn't even see the rescue boats (due to huge waves), i couldn't see the buoys very often and i couldn't even see any one else in my wave around me! i was petrified, even if i turned on my back to raise my hand, noone would have seen. This left me with two choices - 'do or die'! So my race began in t1 (cause i did finally get there although it took so long i'm sure i was bordering hypo 'T'!) relieved to be on land but trying to function was very difficult from loosing balance, not being able to undo the wet suit to fumbling with the helmet strap. I ended up putting on a cyling jacket as people were shouting that some cyclists had been rescued onthe bike due to the temps! The cycle was fantastic - around prospect park 4 times, i had so much frustration and pent up energy to channel - i felt like i was going at 100m/hr, i was brave and took corners strong and fought the repetitive hill with agression. By the time i came to the run i was feeling good and started off far too hard and then i had cramps in both the front and backs of my legs within the first 1-2km! the whole of the 10k was spent in pain, in and out of cramp, i was so relieved to have fininshed the race - it seems i made up aprox 10 places from the swim to the finish and although the results say i was 60th in my age i think some people missed out laps on the run and so i think i was 58th (tbc). Our age group started with 83 i think it dwindled quite quickly though. (disappointed with my time of 2.31 but under the circumstances and against some true top class chicks i feel very pleased, i guess that it does mean 58th in the world! (in my age group!) ..........i have to say chris at least i didn't have a puncture or a blow out! Although saturday night we had blow as described by rob - champagne n wine, i was positively quite sick on sunday!