Thursday 20 December 2007

Posted by Velouria Posted on 14:07 | 3 comments

The day I almost drowned.


Caution - Viewer discretion required

Gross pictures at bottom


The team



My personal professional photographer (bonte) managed to convince me to enter a team into the JailBreak Triathlon held at Brandvlei prison. I was the weak link in a mixed team consisting of Jayne (a regular member of Team 4x4), and Gareth, and we had high hopes of doing quite well.

There had been talk of unseasonal overnight rain in Worcester which I hoped "they" had got wrong. When we awoke at 4 in the morning it was still raining, and it didn't look like it was going to clear any time soon. It was going to be a long, hard, wet day.

Waiting for the start


The start of the race was delayed by an hour, which just meant we spent more time standing around in the rain, getting wet. Jayne wasn't too phased by the rain - she was about to get very wet with a 2.2km swim.

Jayne after the first lap


Jayne had a brilliant swim - she was the second lady out of the water, and about 8th overall.

On her way to the transition

Run Jayne run

See Jayne run

Brenton managing a smile - sort of

Craig wondering why everyone chose to wear wetsuits


I had the rather daunting task of doing a 100km time trial, in the pouring rain. The route consisted of two laps of an out and back course to Slanghoek, which was thankfully rather flat. The headwind on the way out did make it rather tough though.

"A Maverick rider in the second team"

Looking mean

One lap done


Towards the end of the ride I was praying for hills for two reasons - I discovered that I could climb faster than the guys on proper time trial bikes, and the fact that my back was killing me from sitting in the drops for almost 3 hours.

At last - a hill

What great photography


At one point I thought I was going to die - a massive bolt of lightning lit up the sky, just as I was going under some power lines, and the whole earth shook. I was saved a quick and painless death, and instead was slowly tortured to near death over 100km.

The support team staying dry, and getting friendly with the gate guards


I lost about 20 minutes to the leading team - William Robinson was going so fast the leading motorcycle was struggling to keep up.

Warm and dry, for now


After almost 3 hours of suffering I handed over to Gareth to make up some time on the 25km run. While he was able to close the gap on the individuals, the was unable to make a dent in the lead of the leading team.

Proof that running kit looks worse than cycling kit

Almost there

What? No dancing girls?


We were soundly beaten into second place, with each of us being beaten in our own disciplines by the leaders, but we had a great day out - despite all the rain. And we got some prizes which made it all worth it. Like most events, I am already scheming about next year.

A happy team after the event

Give us our medals Gareth!


Caution - Viewer discretion required


Jogger's nipple

Why white is never a good colour
Categories:

3 comments :

  1. Awesome dude, next thing we know you are going to cross over to the dark side and get a TT bike with disk wheels and the lot!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dankie vir die interessante inligting

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great race review. I've just been nupdating the Jailbreak Triathlon on beyondTransition.com and what you've written (and the photos) helped a lot.

    http://www.beyondtransition.com/site/races/Race111355/

    Be great if you could correct any mistakes ;)

    Cheers

    Denis

    ReplyDelete