Sydney, Australia

I am currently in Sydney, Australia with my cousin Jamie and his wife Caroline. Got here Friday evening. Saturday was a training day. Yes, Caroline, the triathlete, had managed to get me a number Sunday's olympic distance triathlon. How could I refuse when she had emailed me about it a few days before I left New Zealand. Biking with the "tri-team" at 6:30AM then to surf swim practice of entering and exiting the water. The practice involved working on the techniques of diving under waves and body surfing them back to the shore when the swim had been completed. It was excellent to be in the warm water. And the waves were quite fun.

Caroline took excellent care of me. She somehow found me a sweet bike, bike shoes, a triathlon wetsuit, and a race suit. That's right, I hadn't been on a bike or worn goggles for half a year, but I was going to look the part, at least as far as my equipment was concerned.

The actual competition was a lot of fun. I was far from being competitive, but I pushed all I could with what I had and had a great time and I finished in 2 hours and 29 minutes...and I've now gone "international." Caroline finished twenty minutes before me and got second in her age group! And if it weren't for her chain coming off, she would have taken first!

After the race we went to Jamie's cricket semi finals. Here he is as he patiently waits for his turn to his bat. Finally Jamie made it up to bad, and after he scored 11 runs, the other team could see that he was on his way for a century, so the game was called. They won, and are now moving on to the FINALS! Quite an exciting weekend!