Swimming and a very late night.

Thursday  6th October 2011

Swimming
2250M - 01:01:51 in 25M pool at Lisburn Leisureplex - Graduates Swimming Club.
It was all I could do to drag myself out the door to go to the Swimming Club.  It was a cold, dark and wet night and keara had the fire lit at home and it was so cosy inside.
Also I have some rather tasty German Beer lurking in the fridge that was screaming my name in a German accent.

But - I decided to get off my arse and go.

I'm glad I did because I set the goal of doing 90 lengths (2250M) and achieved it - a bit slower than I would have hoped for, but the lane was quite full and once again I started to get cramp in my foot around the 70 lengths mark.  Apart from that I felt good and without the sore foot could have probably done 100 lengths. That will be a real milestone.  Maybe next week.

On another note. . . .

Ironman World Championships - Hawaii 08 Oct 2011

I had been looking forward to this for so long and it did not disappoint at all.  I managed to get to bed around 3.00AM after watching this straight though (more or less except for X-Factor) from about 5.30PM.

My predictions from a couple of weeks ago were not too far off.
the great Chrissie Wellington put in the most amazing gutsy performacne to win the title and confirmed my pick.  In the Mens race my Pick Andreas Raelert came 3rd , behind Luke MacKenzie and the winner in a new course record Craig Alexander.
It was incredible to watch and those pros are so fast, but it is amazing to see how much they hurt aswell.  Some of them were collapsing across the line just like the ordinary age groupers.

Mind you - Alexander ran a 2.44 Marathon and Wellington a 2.52 Marathon - not bad after a 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike in 80+ degree heat.

I disappoints me that these amazing athletes get so little mainstream press coverage or recognition - and to think that Chrissie has just won this for the 4th time - never been beaten over Ironman distance and holds the world record - but will barely get a mention at the Sports Personality of the year and some illiterate idiotic brain dead 19 year old footballer getting £150K per week will probably be hailed as a hero.  Ridiculous!

Absolutely inspiring stuff and I can't wait to get to the start line (and more importantly the finish line) in Frankfurt - which at the time of writing on Sunday 9th October is exactly 38 weeks and 6 days away - but who is counting?  Gulp!!