The Parade of Nations was great. There are 4000 athletes here from 73 different countries. We all marched along, one after another representing our countries. Australia, the home country marched out last. The Canadian delegation is about 200 strong. When I saw the Israeli Team I introduced myself and asked if I could join them. We talked about my experience volunteering in Israel and they were very happy to meet me.
The house that I am staying in is wonderful. It is very modern, situated in a middle class, very well kept neighbourhood. Being next to the sea, everything grows well here. I have never seen such thick grass. We have a nice terrace overlooking a small garden. We are 15 minutes away from the triathlon.
We were up early this morning to get to the triathlon 1 hour early. We had to check in and have a last minute check up of our tattoos and helmets. We brought our bikes to the transition zone last evening. I will not wash off my tattoo for as long as possible. The weather was just perfect for a race but the water was a little rough. They changed the course several times before the start of the race. In spite of the adjustments to the course there was still a strong current. I was blown off course several times and completed the swim in 26 minutes. Usually I can swim 750m in under 20 minutes. I finished the race in 2:12 hours which is rather long for me as I usually complete a sprint race in under 2 hours. I am not a kid anymore. I was happy to finish the race and get a finishing medal arriving 21/21 in my age group. I was exhausted after the race and sat around for 1 hour to recuperate. I met up with Paul, and we went out for beer and chips.
Luisa lent me her bike for the race. What a nice thing to do. So Canadian… We came home after the race and had wine and cheese with Paul and Katerina. I invited Luisa and her husband for dinner. Luisa and her husband Alex picked me up at 6:00 and we went out to for tacos and nachos. The restaurant was noisy with great atmosphere, obviously catering to the 30 year old age group. I was easily twice as old as the general population. What fun!!
I woke up this morning feeling great and knowing what a great day this would be. Boy what a surprise I was in for. I went to bed at 9:00 pm, still not being used to the time change. I woke up at 6:00 refreshed and ready to start the day. My friends Paul and Katerina went off to do a 2.5 hour hike up and down the local mountains here. I set my gps for the local police station to make a police report on my missing ipad. The GPS mal functioned for 1 hour until I ran out of battery life. I arrived at a small police station only to find it closed. I some how found my way back to my house an hour later by following the beach road until I recognized my street.
P and K arrived at the same time as me so we went off to a beach side restaurant for a light lunch. Paul and I then went over to the triathlon site to check in. They took one look at my bike and said that I could not race in a world championship using a road bike with straight handlebars. I had never heard of such a thing but apparently it is written somewhere in the handbook. Paul immediately went onto our web site for Canadian triathletes called Slack. He sent out a request for a bike hoping that someone would have raced in the olympic triathlon today and so would not need the bike for the sprint race tomorrow.
Within minutes a nice girl, Luisa, from Ottawa accepted to lend me her bike as she had finished her race and did not need it tomorrow. What a wonderful person and what a great sport. We met at the transition area and had the bike mechanic adjust the seat and change the pedals for me as I use a different type of racing pedals. I then registered the bike and left it in the transition area.
I will race tomorrow at 8:10 am in the 75 to 79 age group. I will meet my saviour later in the day and have invited both her and her husband out for dinner tomorrow evening.
This evening we got all our stuff ready for the race and put on our tattoos. You can only have your bike, running and bike shoes and a wet suit in the transition zone. They are very very strict here.
I arrived in the airport in Sydney with 2 bags on rollers but still rather unmanageable. My Ibis Airport Budget hotel was a few a few hundred meters away, so I rolled and bumped my baggage along for 20 minutes. Needless to say on arrival that my Ibis Hotel with a slightly different name was in the opposite direction. I wanted to check in early but they wanted and extra $30 for the privilege so I just left my bags in the locker. I took a train downtown to visit Sydney.
While in the airport at San Francisco I managed to get my ipad stolen when I looked away for an instant. The plane was leaving in a few minutes so I had no time to make a police report. I went to apple in Sydney and they blocked all the data and locked the ipad. The app ‘find my ipad’ showed me that my ipad was still in the airport. Maybe someone found it and turned it in. In any case it is insured so I bought another one from apple. Apple transferred all the data to my new machine so I was in business. I was rather discouraged and hungry so I drowned my sorrows eit a Caucchino and a muffin. In an hour or so once I started writing on my new toy, I felt better. I switched my sim card for an Australian sim card I minute to late and received a welcome to Australian message from Bell Canada that cost $30.
I picked up my rented bike on the other end of town and bumped along with 2 bags and a bike to a train station that took me to Wollongong, a small town on the ocean where the triathlon is takeing place. I rented a house with another couple about 10k from the village , on the sea. We are staying in a 4 bedroom, 2 story very will appointed house with a garden. The beach is just down the street. My house partners are a couple from Australia who are very nice.
Yesterday afternoon we went to the triathlon site to register. They gave us our tattoo numbers, a large bag, a swimming hat and instructions for the race. We had a meet and greet dinner with the Canadian team at a beach restaurant. Later in the day all the teams got together for the Parade of Nations through town. The streets were lined with 10,000 spectators and there were a lot of television camera. There are 4000 thousand athletes here from 73 countries. There are many races here including the elite race, the age group races , the sprints, the olympics, aqua bike faces and duathalons. I am doing the sprint, age group 75 to 79 race.
For the parade, each nation marched in as a group. We are about 200 on our team. Israel has a small team here. When I saw them, I went over to them, told them that I had been with the IDF and MDA and asked permission to march in with them. They were very. pleased and shock my hand. Some one walked lover to me and asked me if I would wear a ‘free Palestine bracelet .’ I quietly refused telling him that I was on the other side.
Last evening we went out for seafood. I ate burundi fish that I had never eaten before and it was delicious. Today I will go for a swim, relax and catch up on my writing.
Here is a little background for those of you that are new to my blog, on why I do triathlons. 12 years ago while playing hockey, I had 3 heart attacks and a quadruple bypass. I recovered well by doing some serious cardiac retraining. 3 months later, I was racing my sailboat and playing hockey. My friend Glen, who does ironman championships encouraged me to do a triathlon. I really didn’t know what he was talking about as I had never considered myself to be a triathlete. With his help I changed my training pattern and concentrated on triathlon sports. My first triathlon in Montreal was as a sprint triathlon, 750m swim, 20k bike ride and a 5m run. I competed in the age group 65 to 69. I was the only one in the group and of course the only one to finish the race so I won a gold medal.
That gave me a taste for the sport. I play in many different sports but it is very rare that i come first and win a medal. The following years I would do 1 or 2 triathlons a year. Eventually I moved up to the olympic category and continued my winning streak receiving gold or silver medals. If you out live the competition, you have a high likelihood of winning a medal. Once I put a team together to do the half iron man relay where I did the 1.9k swim. We finished in the second quarter. We had a superb runner who dragged us out of the 4th and 3rd quarter to finish the race respectfully.
3 years ago I qualified to become a member of the Canadian National Triathlon Team, Age Group, 70 to 74 and now 75 to 79. The numbers in each group go down considerably as the ages go up. There are only about 20 men in the 75-79 age group that can complete a sprint triathlon. We are 3 in my age group in Australia. 2 years ago, I did the World Championship Triathlon in Hamburg, Germany. and last year I did the same in Torremolinos in Spain. This year the World Championship Triathlon is in Wollongong, Australia. We are about 200 Canadians on our them with 4000 athletes from about 40 different countries.
I train all year for the event. I play 80 games of hockey all year. I race my sail boat in the summer and skied 34 days last winter as a ski instructor and as a ski patroller. On the days that I don’t play, I lift weights for 40 minutes and then bicycle for 60 minutes on my own bike attached to a trainer. I watch netflix or chaiflix to pass the time
I arrived at the airport 3 hours early as I had a stop over in San Francisco and therefore had to go through American customs. This usually a drag and can take 3 hours. This time I was through in 20 minutes. There are virtually no Canadians going through the States. I slept on and off for 6 hours and then had a 1.5 hour lay over in San Francisco. Once on the plane, I took 2 sleeping pills, an appropriate amount of wine to was them down and slept 7 hours. I then watched 3 or 4 dreadful movies.
Today was another different day. It was the last day of the triathlon but I decided to do my own thing and go for a bicycle ride down the coast. I set out for Marbella but it was 54k away and I had not a hope in getting there. I also was not sure of the rules for taking a bicycle on a bus for the return ride. I rode about 20 to 25k on the promenade and on small roads. The country side is gorgeous. The coast has been built up all along the way with condos that appear to be good quality and beautiful architecture. The beach was not encroached upon and is usually 100m wide. There is an endless supply of cafes and restaurants to choose from along the way.
I rode for 2.5 hours up and down (up and down a lot) but the bicycle is of good quality, even if the rider is not. Eventually, I stopped for a bottle of water and a cappuccino before turning back. I took a slightly different route and stopped to take many photographs along the way.
I am in the hotel bar right now, sipping a pina colada (like in the song) which, hard to believe, I have never tried before. I am meeting up with some of the Canadian team members for dinner. I came back to see the relay race and cheered for our athletes as they passed by. I have gotten over my results in the race and promised to train harder and do better for the Worlds next year in Australia. Yes, believe it or not, I have qualified for the age group 75-79 team.
I would like, personally, to thank Suzanne for what she did for me today. She is one of the finest examples of kindness, generosity and good sportsmanship that I have ever known. Hopefully, I will one day be able to return the favour to her, her family or to another member of the Canadian team. Thank you and see you in Australia next year!!! Brian
What I like about triathlons is the camaraderie and the ability to make fast friends. Everyone has 1 thing in common, the triathlon. For a short period of time nothing else matters. Will you ever see each other again? Perhaps not, or maybe at the next triathlon in Australia or elsewhere. Tonight I had the pleasure of dining with 2 lovely ladies from the Canadian team who did very well in the race. One of the ladies from Toronto will be travelling on her own for 2 weeks. That is very adventuresome as it is much easier for a man to travel on his own than for a woman. The world has changed but has not changed enough.
2 athletes died and 1 is on life support. This is unacceptable! There were not enough surfboard rescuers and motor boats in the swim part of the race. I don’t believe that they pulled the man out quick enough. 1 man died in the running part of the race. There were not enough para-medics visible to me. It is true that 80% of heart attack victims die at home or on the street because the para-medics can not arrive fast enough. This should not be true at an international athletic event. The question to be asked is were there enough para-medics present and did they have defibrillators at their disposal. Athletes participating in an international event have the right to be protected. You only have 4 minutes to survive from the moment the heart stops or goes into ventricular fibrillation. Nothing more and often less. 4 minutes make all the difference. If mistakes were made, lessons must be learned for the next race and the standard of care must be elevated to the next level.
Tomorrow I will take a short train ride to Malaga and pick up my Triumph motorcycle for the next part of my journey. I will pack lightly as I only have a small carrying case on the bike. My first stop is in Gibraltar to see ‘the rock’.
11 years ago I had 3 heart attacks and a quadruple bypass. I was playing 80 games of hockey a year and thought that I was in great shape. Like a good doctor, I had regular blood tests every 30 years. My BP was 105/55 and my pulse was 52. How could I have cardiovascular disease. I was almost dead wrong. Unknown to me, as I didn’t have a blood test, my cholesterol was sky high. I arrived at the ER at St Mary’s Hospital after my 3rd episode of chest pain and a kidney stone. The chest pain was as described in all the texts, as a crushing pain as if someone was standing on your chest. I had to leave the hockey game, but I was not short of breath and so was not afraid. The kidney stone attack at 2:00 am brought me to the ER. The pain was unbearable. I was soon transferred to the Royal Vic for an angiogram and a bypass.
The surgeon, Dr Cecere came into the room and introduced himself. He said that he was my resident 10 years ago and assured me ‘that he was very good now’. I didn’t want a bypass. I just wanted to take aspirin and go home. He told me that if I didn’t have a bypass, that I would never play hockey again as I would have angina every time I played. He told me that as I was an ‘athlete’ playing so many sports that my peripheral cardiac circulation was terrific. He could bypass me to my peripheral cardiac circulation and that I would have a fantastic cardiac output. I could play hockey in 3 months with the appropriate post bypass cardiac training. He was right.
1 month after the surgery, I started a cardiac training program. The following year, my friend Glen, an ironman convinced me to do a triathlon. I couldn’t even spell triathlon correctly then. I entered my first sprint triathlon the following year and won a gold medal in my age group, 65-69. I was the only one in my age group. It is very hard to do a triathlon over the age of 65. I have done the sprint, olympic and half iron man relay 14 times. I usually win a medal as there were always 3 or less competitors in my age group. The sprint is 750m swim, 20k bike and 5k run. The olympic is 1500m swim, 40k bike and 10k run. The half ironman is 1.9k swim, 90k bike and 22k run. I have done all 3. I did the swim in the half ironman relay. I will do the sprint here on Thursday.
2 years ago, I qualified to be on the Canadian National Triathlon Team, age group 70-74. I competed at the World Triathlon Championships in Hamburg and came 43 out of 44 in my age group. My goal was simply to crawl across the finish line. This year I once again qualified and will compete at the World Triathlon Championships for Canada in Torremolinos, Spain, Sprint, age group 75-79. This will be my 15th triathlon. The race will by televised on the internet beginning on Wednesday. There will be a ‘Parade of Nations’ on Wed evening through the streets of Torremolinos with a large crowd cheering us on. I will race at 2:00pm Spanish time on Thursday if any of you care to watch it.
I flew to Barcelona and then to Malaga yesterday. I then took a train to Torremolinos and walked over to my hotel. I came to Torremolinos in 1970 on my motorcycle trip. In those days, it was the hippy capital of Europe. Everyone came here and slept on the beach …. The Guardia Civil came by regularly to check your passports but otherwise didn’t hassle you as long as you didn’t get drunk or do drugs. That was a severe no-no. It was a great time for me. I had a motorcycle, a black leather jacket, long blond hair and a headband. (I thought that I was an Apache). I was travelling alone, with no responsibilities and no one to answer to. I was cold, I was hungry, I was lonely. It was the best year of my life. I was free. I was enjoying a freedom that year that I would never know again.
Torremolinos is fabulous. It has of course changed a lot since my first visit here 54 years ago. I can no longer live on $3 a day. It seems more like $3 a minute. I am staying in a 4* ‘adult’ hotel, what ever that means, overlooking the beach. Torremolinos is a beach town built on the side of a mountain. The beach is endless and the water is relatively warm for this season. Hopefully I will not be obliged to wear a wet suit for the race. The older part of town has staircases instead of streets. There are shops selling whatever you care to buy. The town obviously caters to the tourist trade. However, as October is off season, the town is not over run with tourists.
There are restaurants, bars and cafes everywhere. I am staying in a 10 story older, modernized hotel with a beautiful view of the town and the beach. The hotel has several terraces with cafes and restaurants. Both the 8th floor and the 1st floor have entrances onto a street. I had supper at the hotel restaurant last evening as I was too tired to go out. This morning I had breakfast at the hotel restaurant as well. Both times I ate out on the terrace overlooking the town. The view is ‘to die for’. I could easily feel comfortable retiring here or coming and staying here for a month, parking my yacht in the harbour. The menu both times was an endless buffet with everything that you could dream of. The Spanish have developed tourism down to a ‘T’. I can never get enough of life in Spain.
I am sitting at a table on the beach , in a restaurant, sipping my cappucino watching with surf role in. I am writing my blog, my second entry for the day. I have already received 10 responses from my readers.
Tomorrow, I will meet the Canadian team and do the final registration for the race. I will read up on the rules today. I packed lightly and very carefully so as not to forget anything. I forgot my bicycle helmet so I will purchase one today. I pick up my bicycle tomorrow. I rented a high quality racing bike rather than going through the hassle of bring my own. Last year some of the competitors bikes came too late for the race or ‘folded’ in two. That must have been somewhat of a disappointment.
gobriantravel 