Rain and Pain

Greetings friends, and in a refreshing change of pace from recent years, it’s February, and I have a race report! From a triathlon, in fact! Indeed, my season debut at the Gatorade Series at Caloundra was the culmination to quite an eventful week. 

Most of Brisbane was the focal point of apocalyptic-esque weather last weekend, with wind and rain delivered in a cannonade of fury, the weather reports reading like a passage out of Genesis. Despite the weather, I found myself somewhat reluctantly dragged out for a ride on Saturday morning, by the weather-immune hard-arses Jimmy, Burger and Max.  Riding in sideways rain, the few brief moments that I could open my eyes without being blinded by the torrent were spent trying to identify the road, which closely resembled the general Mt Nebo wilderness amongst the debris. We also, dodged some falling trees (see photo), and saw a 60 year old man ride a mountain bike through a thunderstorm wearing nothing but a pair of underpants (photo not taken, but unfortunately permanently etched into my memory…)

Sunday night saw our house lose power, again thanks to the weather, which would not return until Wednesday morning. This came with the realisation that despite the adds on TV, we were definitely not ‘Ready for Storm Season’. With no torches, no batteries or radio, were were reduced to borrowing some gas from a benevolent neighbor, and cooking by the light of our phones, which worked well until I accidentally threw my phone down the stairs, breaking it and rendering myself completely bereft of illumination and communication. If it had have continued for a few more days I was considering passing out tin cans attached with string to all my friends. So with no power, internet or light, we sat around in the dark and made up songs on the guitar, which was easily more entertaining than anything on TV anyway. Energex, I apologise for some of the content of my impromptu lyrics. I love your work. 

However, retiring for the night held the biggest challenge, with the heat, humidity, and lack of fans or aircon making for terrible sleeping conditions, despite trying everything short of walking out into the backyard and bellowing at the heavens for respite. In conclusion, pay your power bills people. Especially in summer. 

The week also saw a Wednesday crit, which was almost a motorpacing session, as I found myself in a 4 man break early and we were dragged around for 45 minutes by Malcolm Rudolph of DRAPAC, who dealt us more pain than a 1960s dentist. My trademark sprint saw me claim 4th out of 4, which was better than the second crit of the week on Saturday, where I finished nowhere out of 50.

Onto the race on Sunday up at Caloundra, where I managed to grab a win and blew out more cobwebs than could be found on a steak-knife at a vegans house. Great to be back racing, but still a little rough, as is evident by my 15 second penalty for throwing my helmet in T2. Very unprofessional, kids, don’t follow that example. Despite the win, I lost an outrageously handicapped wager with my housemates Jamie and Jack, based on their times from their 3000m on Saturday, so now I have to cook them dinner. Based on their cooking skills, I might have done myself a favour…

Take care friends,

Willy