Sri Chinmoy, 6k jog, no ride

I was out at the Sri Chinmoy triathlon festival for a fair chunk of the weekend watching and cheering people on. Bloody horrible weather on Saturday - windy, rainy and just plain cold! The weather stopped me from doing my long ride on Saturday morning, and it didn't really improve in the afternoon (although it stopped raining), but the race still went ahead. I had been planning to do the race, but given the recent heart concerns, I didn't really want to feel as though I had to push myself. I was really really pleased not to be out there!

The next morning though for the longer races Canberra put on a lovely autumn day! It was chilly in the morning, but lovely in the sun. When I first got there, there was a light swirling fog sitting just above the water, clear blue sky and hot air balloons everywhere enjoying the gorgeous day.

The long course athletes were just heading onto their ride so got to cheer on a few people, and then went down to the swim start to watch the classic distance guys set off. Apparently it was warmer in the water than out of the water, so everyone had a really enjoyable swim. We then moved to the cycle exit and watched everyone trying to mount their bikes at the bottom of a small hill. We couldn't help but laugh at those who hadn't bothered getting their bike into "granny gear" prior to the race and so struggled to get onto their bikes due to being in the wrong gear.

Once the majority of these guys headed off, I went for my jog. It really was a stunning morning, I felt as though I could have gone forever. The sun kept you nice and warm, but the slight chill just kept it from getting too hot. I followed the run course of the race and turned at the 3k mark. I just took it easy, and kept a nice steady pace. I stuffed up my timing and when I thought I was pressing the lap button on my watch I realised I was only just starting my watch - d'oh! Took me a little while to figure out what was going on... But for the 5k I timed it was about 38 minutes which I was pretty happy with given that I wasn't going at any kind of speed.

I actually had a guy run past me and say "Come on, you're not going very hard". What a loser... Who is he to judge how fast I should be going???? I was going to make a smart comment back but figured that was childish... :-)

Anyway, was a great run, and really enjoyed being out there! Looking forward to more easy runs. Maybe the 10k at Canberra Marathon is still achievable...??