Australia Mate!

Australia Mate!
So, I wrote the following whilst out in Australia a few weeks ago. I was out there for 2 weeks visiting family and friends.
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So at the moment I am sitting on the train heading up the central coast from Sydney to visit my Aunty Cheryl and Uncle Peter who live in Gosford. I’ve been in Australia for almost 2 weeks and in 6 years this is the first time I have thought I could live back here. I certainly couldn’t live in Parkes or Peak Hill, don’t think there is much call for what I do so it would have to be Sydney or Melbourne. Plus I would want to be close to the race scene.

Peak Hill made the national news on Easter Sunday after a brawl broke out on the main street. Well, the only street really. There are only 400 people in the town and surrounding area and the brawl involved 80 people!! Over 20% of the population. I have stopped calling it Peak Hill and now will only refer to it as Freak Hill. There was a charity Aboriginal football match organised with the neighbouring town of Narromine which is about 70kms away and after a belly full of booze it has erupted with several people being injured, including a police officer and 5 people arrested. Lovely town. My parents are trying to sell their motel, any takers?

I am amazed at how much I have forgotten. I am travelling on the train line that I used to do every day for about a year and I am seeing stations I would never have thought of in a million years. Australia really is a beautiful country and I love that people really do respect their surroundings. Looking out form the train there is hardly any rubbish at all along the tracks and the view is amazing out across the coast.

It was so wonderful catching up with friends. I had lunch yesterday with Kaylene, one of my oldest and dearest friends who is now a Mum. A far cry from the 2 grotty teenagers who used to go horse riding together! Ruby is just the cutest little baby and Kay is a wonderful Mum. She hasn’t changed a bit J

I got to see Paul again as he and Nick came and spent Easter Saturday with us and stayed the night. 6 years between catch-up’s is far too long. We email loads but spending time with someone reminds you why you hold them dear. Paul is now also a Dad to Zach who is 7 months old. It was lovely chatting to Paul about the lunches we used to do once or twice a week when we both worked in North Sydney. I do wonder what would have happened if we were both single at the same time. Paul had a fiancée for most of the time I knew him in Sydney. Predictably she didn’t like me or the friendship I have with Paul. He is now with a wonderful woman he met in WA and they have gorgeous Zach together.


This break has been wonderful to get my head straight and back into the mental place I need to be in to go back to the UK and put in the hard yards to ensure I get my podium place in Austria and my win in Arizona. I was training before I left, but now I have that killer edge back. I realised how close Austria is and I want to be in tiptop shape for it. To help me along I have joined the Cast Iron Club, which is an online club where you log your training miles. Between 1 January and 31 December you need to complete the equivalent of 30 ironmans. The reward? A drink bottle, t-shirt and the right to brag about it!! J Well worth it for the $6 entry!!

The flight out was so long and really made me realise how far away I am from my family. Especially missing out on seeing Bellah my 22-month-old niece grow up. I also got to meet Sue, my brother Tim’s fiancée for the first time and they have been together for a few years now. Not good. I have booked a ticket to go back at Christmas and spend NY there and then head to Melbourne for Ellie and Jamie’s wedding. Should be a good trip. Ruth will be back in Aus (currently in Dubai) plus all my London friends are going back for the wedding.

The best part is that my family are so behind me achieving my qualification to Kona again for 2009 that they are all going to be there! It means so much that they want to be there, I will have to put on a good performance for them!! Even little Bellah has been given permission by Andrew’s ex wife that she can go too. Things like that really make me want to get out there and train harder, and the days where training isn’t so great, it is nice to know that I have people behind me who will love me no matter what I do.

I had a really frank discussion with my Dad where we were talking about me turning pro and he made me realise that realistically it isn’t a possibility. I might have a little bit of talent, but not enough that I could win every race I enter, and how would I feel when what I do becomes a job? Will I love it as much? It’s on the backburner for the moment. I am having some sports testing done when I get back to the UK so we will see what results I get.

I got an email from a friend saying that he did a triathlon on Easter Monday at Hampton Court and it was snowing!! It is such a far cry from my peeling legs from where I got burnt swimming the other day!! The weather has been brilliant, it rained for 1 day but the countryside is so dry it really needed it. I am going to miss my nocturnal runs with all the stars but I am looking forward to getting back on my bike. By the time I get back I will have only ridden twice in 5 weeks. Not good enough! At least when day light savings kicks in I can get out after work and start getting my speed up.

Andrew kindly gave my legs a rub down a couple of days ago, I was struggling with my right leg and I suspect it was because of the road. It is slightly sloped out which meant the right leg was stretching slightly further. That’s quite a lot of stretching when you consider I run for 1.5 hours at a time. Paul as telling me a funny story about when he used to fly a judge out to this tiny little place in the middle of Western Australia where this guy had his license suspended for drink driving. The judge told him he was no longer allowed to drive on the road. The guy took the judge for his literal meaning so he replaced the 2 left side wheels on his car with 4x4 wheels so the car was on an angle if on the flat, but perfectly straight when he was driving along the side of the road where it slopes away. When he was inevitably busted he pointed out he wasn’t driving on the road because he was banned from doing that. No one said he couldn’t drive on the side. Needless to say the judge was more specific with the next sentence J

Have fun!Cxxx