Bintan Triathlon

Bintan at sunset........

This is one of the best organised, most scenic races I have done. Bintan is an Indonesian Island 1 hour's ferry ride from Singapore. Tribob.com organised 3 races and I did the 'olympic distance' of a 1500 swim in a clear, warm South China Sea followed by a 40 km bike ride in a torrential thunder storm and a hot, hilly run around a gold course.

I'm not in particularly good shape at present and was looking to do a mediocre 2:35, but the brutal (albeit scenic) run course extended this to 2:54. I also tried, for the first time, putting my cycling shoes on while cycling! I managed one shoe and then gave up, hopped off and put on the other shoe in the more conventional way. Nevertheless, one of my favourite races and I finished 32nd of the 92 40 - 49 y.o. males. I hope I will have the opportunity to do this one again in future.

You can see that the triathlon photo's were taken by a professional, as were the photo's of Bintan after the race. I'll let them speak for themselves.

Post marathon post

Perhaps the best thing about racing is NOT racing (the runner's paradox). I enjoy nothing better than resting after a hard training session, or particularly an Ironman or Marathon. So Friday night, J and I went to a bar in the city called 'Fat Louie's' to watch J's cousin M play in a punk (?) band. It was a good venue and good, hard-core sound. I was old enough to be every other patron's father, but I didn't mind and neither did the (clearly) underage drinkers around me.


Saturday we went to Glenn Innis (central NSW) and froze in the -3C Autumnal nights. It was beautiful to see the leaves changing (a foreign sight to Queenslanders) and on Saturday night we went with a friend to see "Brokeback Mountain" - a marvellous, well made film and rural New South Wales is the perfect setting in which to see it, particularly when it's -3C!

Crossing back into Queensland we visited a large family at Ballendine - a small, wine growing area that borders Girraween National park. Ballendine is cold, beautiful and boasts an impressive pyrimid (I'm not sure why).

Has it really been THAT long since my last post?

Sorry, I've been busy at work and haven't written in awhile. We had to move lab (refurbishments :-( ) and I installed a new piece of equipment which required the assistance of 'Hector the Erector' who specialise in moving large heavy things. None of the (apparently) former 'Hells Angels' who turned up to move my equipment was called 'Hector', but whoever they were, they did a good job and my 1.5 ton high-pressure chemical reactor is in the lab and almost ready to use

Sunday 30 April was the Brisbane Marathon. I hope to have some better photo's for you soon, but at present, I only have this miniscule map of the route. The two loop run started at Southbank, went over the 'Goodwill Bridge', along the river to the Regatta Hotel, back and around the Botanic Gardens, over the Goodwill Bridge again and out along the river to West End, back to Southbank and then all of that all over again. I have been told that the best way to run any distance is at an even pace and I determined to do this on Sunday. I decided my pace would be 5:30 min per km which would give me a 'pb' time of 3hr 52 min. I managed to stick at this pace for 24 km, before it became 6 min per km and then 7 min per km and I finished in a 'pa' (personal average) time of 4 hr 20 min. - oh well - next time. I didn't follow a training programme leading up to this race and was consequently a bit 'under-done'.

Monday 1 May was the Labour Day holiday and I marched with my comrades in the NTEU (National Tertiary Education Union in purple below) from the City to the RNA Show grounds. This is the first time I can remember marching in the May Day rally, although I probably did in my self-righteous youth. There were 35,000 of us in the Brisbane rally which brought out the press and I did an interview with Brisbane radio staion 4BC which was heard by one of my work colleagues.

Arriving at the Show Ground, I was surprised to be met by the Holy Trinity (Kim, Pete and Anna - not shown) who shook hands with the more sycophantic of us (including myself). The Deputy Premier of Queensland, Anna Bligh, ran in the Half Marathon on Sunday and fired the starter's gun for the Brisbane Marathon. I was pleased to be in the march, although I couldn't quite bring myself to join in the obligatory chanting. Come the revolution, I'll be well back from the barricades making lunch and washing up.