After a long trip back from Lorient-Paris-Zurich-Johannesburg, I stayed a night at my second home (thanks again The Goodwins!) before heading to Windhoek, Namibia. On arrival, I had to wait for a few other athletes at the airport before heading in a bus to the Guest Lodge, where we were knindly put up for the night. The following day we made the trip to Mariental, a 3hr journey and were staying 1km fom T2 which was great. I was sharing a room with Travis Campbell from South Africa. I hadnt done my homework adequately before the race and found out we were at about 1400m altitude..mmmm!!!
Race Day.. We woke about 5am, getting the body ready for the 7am start.. a shock to the system after racing in France where no races begin before 1500hrs! Anyway, we were met with a chill in the wind so wetsuits were the go. The pic shows the swim course... the lake was full of Pelicans, which provided a bit of amusement half way through the swim....sighting this far away buoy..???!!! a quick chat with Hendrik de Villiers and established that in fact the buoy was moving, so no, a right turn rather than a further 400m on! Out the water and onto the 2 lap, hilly bike course.. Hendrik, myself and Mehdi Essadiq from Morrocco. Lungs were squeezed tightly at the top of each climb... oh that altitude.. well actually medium level altitude! Onto the run and the Sprinbok was always going to quickly gallop away, almost like Habana.. for 10k's and a good few hills! I had a solid run to finish 2nd a gain some valuable ITU points! Many thanks to Marieta and the Namibian Tri Federation for looking after us so well
In Pretoria now, doing some good training before racing the next two Resolution Energade races and then the next ITU race in Zimbabwe. Next 3 weekends of racing... here go's..
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