Last week was fairly light on the mileage front since I was entering my first triathlon on Sunday in Murakami about 300km north of Tokyo. We got up to Murakami on saturday afternoon and registered and met for orientation. When we had a look at the sea I got rather nervous. The swell was absolutely huge and the thought of doing 1.5k swim in it had me rather worried. Anyway the rumour was that they were going to probably cancel the swim which whilst I was worried about it had me very disappointed to since this was going to be my first triathlon and only attempt at one until next year. After a big past dinner we got all our stuff ready and had an early night. I slept well despite the nervous eneergy and only hope I get such a good nights kip in New York.

On Sunday morning although the wind had died down we were soon told the swim had indeed been cancelled and instead we'd be doing a 1k beach run then the 40k bike and 10k run as planned. The race was started in 3 waves and somehow due to age I found myself in the first wave though had my 4 mates I was doing it with in the same wave which made me a little less nervous. Im glad Ive done this start and the 10k run I did for the Nike Event as I reckon it'll make me slightly less nervous come Nov 2nd. Well that was the plan anyway!

The race itself was brilliant. Particularly the bike. Ive never been all that great at cycling but just had one of those days where everything clicked. The scenery was stunning as we travelled out 20km along the coast. Along the way it seemed that everyone who lived there had come out to watch us though this being Japan the average age of the supporter was about 70! COming back I got a penalty for crossing the mid marker in the road whilst overtakeing and had to get off my bike, lift it up before I could start again. This was a bit annoying as the rule hadnt been explained to us foreigners and in fact the 4 friends all got penalised for this as well. Anyway I finished the whole thing in a total time of just over 2 hours 2 mins. The bike was 1hr 13 the run 44mins and the beach sprint 5 mins. Was pretty delighted with this and cant wait to try a few more triathlons next year.

Felt pretty good yesterday and managed to get out last night for a 16k very easy run in the drizzle. Its been a while since my last long run though so am planning to do that tonight.. eeek.