Murphy’s Law at 6:50am

As you know, Murphy's Law does happen at 650am.

My friend, with good-intention, had managed to get a pump to inflate my rear wheel. However, upon unscrewing the tube cab, the cap exploded, along with a gush of air, into the cool morning. Feeling as deflated as the tyre, my composure quickly morphed from shock into mild panic. Both of us quickly wheeled my bike to the bike mechanic tent. The tube was replaced ($15 supplied by our friendly camera man) but it took a while to put the tyre back into the bike frame. Our swim start was beginning in about 20 minutes! Fortunately, a great suggestion by my friend to the bike mechanic was made: they fix the bike while we swim, and rack it up for me at my bike slot. Brilliant!

We ran to the beach just in time to see the elites lining up to start their race at 7:15am. I warmed up with front-crawl repeats of 20-50 strokes, swimming perpendicular to the shore. Scanning the water horizon, I saw the buoys that we were supposed to swim to, around and then head for the next before coming back to shore. Arranged in a rectangle, we are to swim counter-clockwise for about 1.9 km I rehearsed my strategy in my head: swim close to the buoy, swim as straight as possible to the next buoy, try not to sight too often (it tires the neck & can disrupt the strokes) by following the crowd.

At 7:35am, my wave started and I positioned myself toward the back, nearer to the buoy line. The race horn blared for my wave to start and you could feel a momentary gasp of excitement as the swimmers put on their goggles and set off their watches. I quickly shook the hand of the fella next to me, and wish him a good swim (he was looking nervous). That done, off I went into the East Coast sea!