The Coolangatta Gold Part IV, Who Knew?

Small steps. Give the Hamstrings time before opening it up. Anyone who has ever run after swimming understands the difficulty in making this transition. Being in a horizontal position (swim) allows for wider distribution of lactic acid in the blood stream throughout the body, and a subsequently greater efficiency in the breakdown of it. Moving from that position to a run concentrates gravity's effect on blood - pushing it down into the legs, AND, with all the lactate that is in it.

Small strides carried me for the first few hundred meters. Then the strides opened up, and the speed increased with them. A single Gold TYR singlet in front of me, a bullseye emblazoned on its back, I went to work.

While racing and competition are things that I take seriously, they are not life-and-death matters. Words from a modern comedy-classic movie, Van Wilder, strike a grounding chord. "You can't take life too seriously....You'll never make it out alive." A smile was never far from my face as I was constantly reminded of the beauty around me. Small children and adults clapped as every competitor ran past. Nippers handing out water at support stations held out hands for hi-fives - I happily obliged them.

Shoes. He had shoes on. The waterlines reminisced of an old wooden roller coaster's silhouette: winding up and down in a rhythm known only to the waves that formed it. I was barefoot. No need to concern myself with waterlines and the incoming tide. Shoes? I saw his tracks weave an almost identical zig-zag to the waterline. Energy wasted. Keep everything moving forward - no wasted movements. This is especially true in settings like this. The bullseye grew larger.

Before half-way through the run "Shoes" had been dropped from the pace, and a new yellow target appeared. Open it up a little bit more. The board would be next, but I could prone paddle sections of it to rest my legs. As we approached a headland, I wondered how farther past it the run would end into the board.

I was slightly startled when I saw BJ (one of my amazing handlers) waiting for me with nutrition and water. Had I already run 4km? That can't be it, I thought to myself. It was. Half a banana, 2 gels, cup of water, cup of electrolyte drink - less than 30 seconds. The final seconds of my second run. In those last 30seconds I was close enough to the singlet in front of me to hear an inaudible name, and that he was from Victoria.
(Who knew swimmers could run: Run split time 4km @ 14m 31s)

I was not the only one shocked with my run. My board met me en route to the water, freshly off the trailer. A quick laugh, a high-step, and a skim and was underway. The aforementioned young man was half-way out to the turn can. God I love a challenge.