I decided to add this as an item on my bucket list and like anything else that
gets added to the list, once its written, the universe seems to align to make it
happen. I decided to do it and started training. My work colleague Peter
Ponsonby, helped me with a training plan and later gave me the number of a coach
in Edenvale. Kiara came with me for the weekend, and we stopped in Harrismith.
An ostrich laid an egg while Kiara watched! We went out for a lovely Italian
dinner and enjoyed being out in nature. We drove to the parkrun called Piggly
Wiggly the day before and it had a monstrous hill just before the end. I managed
to finish the parkrun, and we had a good day swimming and relaxing.
We went to the start of the race, and I was quite nervous about putting my bare,
unprotected feet in the mud and reeds, but I just tried to talk myself through
it when we got the go ahead and I think I started to swim in about 50cm of
water, just so I could get my feet up. I had a great time in the water, no one
tried to pull me under or swim over me, I took a left to get out of the way, and
then headed for the finish.
As I got near the inflatable finish line, I lifted my head and saw Kiara in the
VIP section taking photos of me. She put her fingers on her lips to show me not
to make a fuss and carried on as if she was supposed to be there. Apparently she
walked into the professional photographers are with a group of official
photographers and she had my canon camera around her neck and looked so
confident, no one questioned her right to be there. I made the swim in 53:33 so
could tick it off my goals. I got the best photos at the end with my very own
photographer!
