Loitering Within Tent

Wow! What a weekend!

As mentioned in my last entry, I spent the remainder of the weekend supporting at IMUK, taking my brand spanking new tent for five people, which I was to be sharing with Annajo. As it turned out, Lindi's friend Lucy was also coming alone, but we still had loads of room, and someone who actually knew how to put up a tent! Plus she also provided us with all kinds of scrummy cakes, sweet and pies :oD My kind of person!

We made it to the campsite about 4:30 or 5pm, and fairly quickly located Lindi. We had a quick drink, and proceeded to put up the tent, helped by another demon tent erector, Monique! It was all up in about fifteen minutes, and a lot of that was trying to figure out the instructions before just going by the experience and nouse of Lucy and Mon.

We whiled away the evening indulging in idle banter, and in may case sniffing and having trouble breathing. The chlorine allergy thing I reckon - surely not another cold? It had gone completely by the next morning, so it does seem rather a coincidence if it was a bug rather than an allergy. Lindi cooked pasta with tuna and tomato, which was great, and I christened to new cooker with some hot water for coffee/tea :oD

We headed off to bed early, as we had a 4:30am start the next morning, but it was feckin' freezing and it took my a while to doze off. I woke about an hour later, put another layer on, and went back to sleep. All too soon though it was time to get up! From a couple of tents down, Carl's alarm went off with an upbeat disco number resonating around the campsite!

We had decided to have something light to eat and then head over to the start of the swim, but in the end purloined Lindi's cereal, and ate a croissant provided by Lucy. It wasn't long before we were heading over to the lake, rather concerned about the heavy mist that was everywhere - including on the lake. The triathletes headed off before long, and we stood around sussing out vantage points. 6am approached, but still the mist lingered. The due start time passed, and announcements about a delay were given. Around half past, the mist pretty much cleared, and the rescue kayaks hit the water again, but then the mist descended again, and the race was put back even longer. It was after 8am by the time they started. I felt sorry for the peeps hanging about getting cold.


After one false start(!), the swim was under way, and I was amazed by the mass of thrashing arms and turbulent water. It was also amazing how quickly the lead swimmers got away from the rest, and how within a few minutes, the densely packed mass of coloured swimming hats (rather reminiscent of plastic ducks bobbing on a pond) had been stretched out to a fairly long line. We headed up the course, snapping as we went, but it was impossible to pick out individuals that we knew. Forty-five minutes later, the first swimmers were out of the water, which coincided with us reaching that end of the lake, and we hung around to cheer in the pirates, and snap most of them.

Next, the bike, but we knew that no-one would be around for a few hours, so we headed back to the campsite, ate sausages and beans, and had a quick sleep. Then back to the bike course in time to take some snaps of Monique, Carl, and a few others. Unfortunately I missed Lindi first time round as my batteries ran out just as she passed.
Monique wasn't far behind, and she soon set out chasing Lindi on the run leg.




The pirates were well strung out by now, and there wasn't long between the last one passing for the first time and the first one coming back in at the end of 112 miles. We did however manage to snaffle some rather delicious burgers in the interim period!

Carl was quite a way behind by then, so we stayed to watch him come in on the bike and head out on the run, and then went back to the campsite. We had hoped to have another sleep, but in the end there wasn't time, so we just took the tent down, did the washing up, and packed away what we could before heading back for another burger and to see the pirates finish.


Unfotunately we missed Monique by about twenty minutes, but got back just in time to see Lindi, and the others streaming in after her. We stayed until gone 10pm, and then really felt we should head off. We eventually got home around 2am, completely shattered!

Thanks to:
Annajo for driving and her company
Lucy for the food, tent help and cooking the sausages, as well asher company!
Mon for help with the tent
Lindi for the food
Carl for making me laugh, and for keeping going - sorry we couldn't stay

Great to see all the supporters too
Dr Nic and Mmmmmark
Juiejoo
Fat Buddha and Petal
Oxy
Tara (must have walked past you about five times before realising it was you!)