Tri Again!

And the challenge for March is ... a sprint triathlon. This year, the organisers have moved the venue to a pool, so there's no risk of drowning in Lake Victoria or contracting bilharzia - phew!
 It's a 400 metre swim, 20 km bike and a 5 km bike. And it's in two weeks time! Luckily, Uganda has given us lots of public holidays recently, so we've had extra time to get some training in. Today was a public holiday because of the Mayoral Elections, since the first attempt last month resulted in minor riots after they found out that many of the votes had been fudged. As far as I know everything has gone fairly smoothly today, or at least I haven't received any text messages from the British High Commission to inform me of violence and areas to avoid.
I have a new biking buddy and she has taken to it like a fish to water. She has no problems with attacking the hills, but is feeling a little frustrated with the frequent shout-outs from random passers-by. Ugandans have a few lessons to learn in tact and diplomacy. How do you make somebody realise that shouting "Eh, you are last" or "Pedal faster, you are lazy" at a passing cyclist is not OK? Particularly when the said commentator is sitting on his rear end, guzzling a Nile Special, doing diddly-squat. On the other hand, rather a tactless Ugandan than an aggressive chavvy British teenager ...
This time I'm concentrating on the transitions, in particular the painful bike to run. My two fab training buddies and I have been egging each other on and the training has been enjoyable and stress free. Today we practised the whole thing, but in the wrong order. We took a 17km bike ride through the villages, passing the Baha'i Temple at the end, followed by a 5 km wobbly legged run. We finished with the swim and I now fully understand why the swim is placed at the start of the event and not at the end. I always thought it was annoying to have the swim first, as changing into biking clothes afterwards is going to be a bit annoying. By the time we hit the pool, after a hot and thirsty run in the thirty degree heat, we flopped into the pool and had about as much control as jellyfish! Lesson learnt! Then, to add insult to injury, the sky clouded over and there was a giant clap of thunder just as we finished the swim and hoped to relax in the sun.
Instead we consoled ourselves with a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits, managing to undo all our good work in a matter of minutes! Perfect!