Race Weekend
Somehow, during a frantic Thursday full of work, holding my second public meeting that evening, wrangling the toddler since my husband was out of town for the day at a meeting himself, and arranging for my (nervous) father to pick the little one up from crèche and do the evening routine with him while I did my work presentation, I completely forgot about training. Really, I did. I only realised the next day that I was supposed to have done a swim and a run, and hadn’t done either! Hoping that it was too late to matter much…
Friday rolled around and we packed everything into the car. After many dramas! Our double cab bakkie had developed an oil leak and engine issues and was in the shop, which meant we were only left with a small Peugeot hatchback… to fit 4 people (2 in car seats), a bike, a MASSIVE tog bag, a camp cot and mattress, all the toys and paraphernalia to keep 2 kids under 5 busy for a weekend, food, clothes…. yeah right! And no bike rack either. Plus – last minute – oh heck, what are we going to do with the dog over the weekend?? Chaos, panic, stress… eventually packing into the in-law’s double cab bakkie, borrowed for the weekend. Dog staying at their farm. Everything in, and off we go.
But horrors! A massive accident on the N1 outgoing, causing the entire road to be closed. In rush hour. On a Friday afternoon. We turned off at Plattekloof, then crossed over into Bellville, then crossed back over into Durbanville, then crossed back over into Brackenfell, then into Kraaifontein, and finally made it passed the closed section of the road and back onto the N1 about an hour later. In the heat… barely maintaining our composure. Then clonk…clonk…bang, crash. Stop the car, only to discover that the indicator light at the front had previously only been stuck on with insulation tape, a not terribly effective measure, and it had now had fallen out – more drama. From there it was relatively smooth sailing until the R60 out of Worcester, which had 2 “stop and go” roadwork sections that we waited 20 minutes at… each. With 2 now awake and very impatient kids who had had more than enough of the car.
About 5 hours after leaving Kommetjie we rolled into our accommodation, and breathed a sigh of relief. Then realised we’d forgotten the camp cot, and every bed in our cottage (and Leann’s cottage next door) was being used already. Luckily the accommodation was able to find an extremely old rickety camp cot that we jammed between furniture and the wall to keep upright, and that worked wonderfully (once we stuffed cushions between the cot and the wall, after our son nearly brained himself by flinging himself down in his cot but misjudging distance and hitting his head extremely hard against the concrete wall…).
Bliss – a beautiful farm, a stunning view, gorgeous swimming pool, and our first lobsters of the season on the braai 🙂
Saturday was the hottest day of the year so far. The kids and the rest of the family spent the day at the pool. Leann and I went on a mission to try and meet the rest of the programme team and coaches at the triathlon venue for a swim, jog and orientation. 2 hours after we set out, and many many many wrong turns later, we arrived, hot, sweaty, tired and rattled. In 38 degrees! We had completely missed the group swim, but managed to go through the orientation – where transition was, the swim start and finish, the bike in and out, the run out, etc. Then we were so flipping hot that we did our own swim! The dam was beautifully warm, and there was talk that wetsuits wouldn’t be allowed the next day. So we did the swim without suits just in case. Then hopped back in the car and went back to the accommodation.
By the time we got back we’d spent the better part of a very hot day in a car and we were tired, overheated and (in my case) a little grumpy. I won’t go into painful detail of the rest of the day but we went out for supper, it was very hot, it was very late, we ate very little (it was heavy winter food like lamb shank and mashed potato) and we only got to bed at midnight. Sheesh… great race preparation!!
wifemomtriathlete 