Jason's parent's visit...

The day after the busso half ironman Jason and I went to the prizegiving... after a minor heart attack when I was accidently disqualified from the results I sorted it all out and I got my prize for second in my age group. After the prizegiving Jason, his parents and I headed off on a road trip through Margaret River, Augusta and Dunsborough. We started the day with lunch at Margaret River while we planned the day's winery stops.

First up was Xanadu Winery (www.xanaduwines.com)... about 5 min from Margaret River.I decided that if I was to marry Jason again I would like to get married here. It was lovely and peaceful (and the wine was nice too). I especially liked the dessert wine and Jason and his dad got a couple of good reds. So first stop, and 4 bottles of wine bought.

After Xanadu, we headed off to the next stop... Watershed Wines.This was another great spot (even with the controlled burn offs happening all through the wine region. Check out the website: (http://www.watershedwines.com.au). This was another venue that would be great for a wedding...

Time for another coffee... I was very proud to resist the numerous cakes, muffins, cookies and cheesecakes on offer.
A few wine purchases later and we were off again. We did a similar road trip to what Jason and I did late last year when we were down south for the Busselton Ironman. This day was a totally different day to the first time we experienced the trip. There was controlled burning everywhere so it was smoky and there was no real visibility.

We took the car off road again and I was just as scared as the first time... perhaps even more so... much to the amusement of the boys in the car.

Check out my feet... I love it... this reminds me of how my feet were everyday when I was growing up!! Always dirty!!!!
Here we are down at Augusta.
On the way back from Augusta (along Caves Rd) we stopped at the Flying Fish Cove winery, Jason's Parent's yacht is called Flying Fish so this stop was a must!!!
A few more tastings at the Flying Fish, a couple of bottles purchased and we were on our way home. All in all a great day.

The following day we headed home the long-ish and scenic way. We stopped in both Bunbury and Mandurah. What a stunning day we were treated to... especially after the smoke filled previous days.
Just another Autumn day in Perth :-) here we are heading to the coffee shop in Bunbury.
Bunbury is about 1.5 - 2 hours south of Perth and is situated on a peninsula, almost entirely surrounded by water. It was so nice in Bunbury, and I can see why people would choose to live there, although it was far too far to commute to Perth on a daily basis in my opinion.After the mandatory coffee stop we went up the tower in Bunbury to check the views out.


After Bunbury it was off to Mandurah for lunch...Mandurah is about 60 min south of Perth. Here we are in the car trip... I'm obviously getting sick of driving by now, hehehe.
After Mandurah we headed back to Perth as the Papps' rental car needed to go back and I had work on the Tuesday. Jason took the Tuesday off and introduced Ken and Rona to Perth, including lunch at Hillary's Marina, a trip to IKEA and a drive through some of our favourite suburbs.

That night we were treated to dinner at Coco's in South Perth mmmmmmm (http://www.westvalley.com.au/perth-restaurant/cocos/).

Wow, it was YUMMY!! For my main I had a free range corn fed whole baby chicken (boneless), marinated in garlic & olive oil, grilled with cumin roasted chick peas, honey & grain mustard dressing, served with fresh rocket leaves & lemon and dessert was a nectarine and blueberry pie, a great blend of katanning nectarines and plump blueberries baked in a sweetcrust case with golden peaks of meringue. Jason made the mistake of saying he didn't want any dessert... so I ate it ALL!!! He was then pretty disappointed that I didn't share with him.

Here we are at dinner:
And here's the Perth skyline from the South Perth side. This was essentially our view at dinner.
After a week at work we had a busy weekend planned. This is out of order on the blog but on the Sunday we went out to Rottnest Island. This sunday was the first overcast day for a while. Here's Jason on the ferry, just leaving the city.
The city scape.
The sky was doing great things.


After nearly 2 hours of travelling down the Swan River checking out how the rich poeple live we arrived on Rottnest Island. First stop was a coffee and a close up encounter with the Quokkas (a small marsupial about the size of a domestic cat).

We then decided to hire some local bikes in order to get round the island. The bikes are certainly not what we are used to at all... totally rusty, the gears were not great and they were heavy! But it was heaps of fun.

Here's our first stop.
The overcast day made for some great shots as well.

Here's the family on the bikes...

Jason's being a bit naughty not having his helmet done up. Mind you, other than island authorities there are no cars on the island so not too much chance of meeting a car. Although the bike traffic is very heavy and there is also the island bus as well.
Jason on the high quality bike :-) Just like the tri last weekend hehehe

We found a cool rock for some cool photos...Managed to get the self timer going properly as well!
Me and Jas up close.
Another of the many coves on the island.


This is where Rona and I had a swim. It was great, totally refreshing and the water was soooooo clear.
Jason and Ken at the very end of the Island. Rona and I had already started heading back and we were aiming to meet at Little Salmon Bay.
After a big day cycling round the island (which is most definitely not flat) and it was time for a well earned drink at the bar while we waited for our ferry to depart).

After we got back into Perth I got a few shots of the ferris wheel at night. Something I had been meaning to do for a while.


Sorry for the blog being out of order but here's the Saturday... we started with brunch at the Blue Duck in North Cottesloe Beach and a great walk down to Cottesloe. Here we are on the rock wall.
After the morning at the beach we took Rona and Ken round the bike course that we had been doing training for the Busso half. This drive included a stop at the Mundaring Weir, the town's main water supply...
Mmmmmm how long has it been since you have had a frosty boy!!!!

That's chocolate dipped flake cone for me thanks :-)

Mmmmm and its nearly gone.


All in all a pretty awesome week with Jason's parents.

Busselton Half Ironman

Well, a week and a half ago Jason and I headed off to Busselton to compete in the Half Ironman (http://www.busseltonhalf.com) for those of you that don't know, a half ironman is a 2km swim, a 90km cycle and a 21.1km run. This was Jason's one and only triathlon!

We headed down to Busselton on Thursday night after work, going via Pinjarra for a quick dinner stop. We arrived in Busselton at about 9pm at Forte Cape View Apartments (http://www.capeviewapartments.com.au). This was our place for the next 4 days. It wasn't long until we had it looking like home either especially the amount of stuff we took with us! Here's our apartment, a 2 bedroom place (Jason's parents joined us on Friday).

Our car was packed to the brim on the way down with kitchen supplies, food, triathlon gear for two, clothes, laptops and more... here it is with just the tri gear.
Busselton is a little cooler than Perth, probably by about 2 - 3 degrees and Friday at dawn was nice and cool. I do enjoy the cooler mornings and evenings. The heat during the day is not so bad but hot nights are crappy!

We had a short training session to do on the Friday morning, but before this we took a walk on the beach... I am so glad that we did as well, it was STUNNING!!!

Here's Jason channelling some energy from the sun for the race.
And Jason and me playing with the timer on the camera.
After playing with the camera we couldn't put off training any longer, so off back to the apartment it was. We were into our tri gear and off on a 15 min cycle and 8 min run. It seems so short but it felt good. I knew I was ready to race!!!

After the final training session we were off into Busso (as the locals call it) to watch the "swim with the pros" to try and ascertain whether there are any currents/flows to be aware off. There wasn't much to see so we headed into town for a cup of tea/coffee and scones. Mmmmmm carbs before the race are great. While hanging out watching all the other tri geeks showing off their tanned legs and fancy bikes we caught up with ex-Brit/Wellingtonian Matt Illingworth and his partner Ann. It was nice to know someone at the race hehehe.

After an hour or so we figure we should be on our way. We then reccie'd the bike course, pleased to see that the road surface was pretty awesome and the course was pretty easy to remember, I was a little concerned about the amount of riders potentially going to be on the course and the drafting difficulties that it may entail... but not worth worrying about before the race... or so I thought.

After the bike course drive we headed back to the apartment (via the supermaket) for rest and relaxation.

At 4.30pm we headed back to Busso for race registration, like the 1900 athletes... but they had a pretty good system going and registration was pretty quick. Jason had a slight issue with his registration as he didn't have any id to prove he was who he says he was. But the busy nature of registration worked in our favour and they decided that Jason's lack of id was the least of their worries that day.

We bought a couple of last minute supplies from the expo and then it was off home again for... you guessed it... food! I went to bed around 9pm and Jason waited up for his parents to arrive.

Race morning
Race morning dawned nice and early (not as early as usual race mornings though mind you as the race wasn't due to start until after 8am) with the alarm going off around 5am. We started with porridge and then toast, and washed it down with a little sports drink.

After a little while mucking round we figured we would just head down to the race start and transition rather than try to while the time away at home. It was good as it meant that we had plenty of time to set up our transition spots, find secluded and virtually unused port a loos, and get into our wetsuits etc. It was a very relaxed race morning start and both of us were feeling good and ready to go.

The race had a number of wave starts:
7.45am AWAD
8am Open (Female and Male)
8.02 Male (18-24, 20-24, 25-29, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74)
8.05 Male (30-34, 40-44)
8.08 Male (35-39, 45 - 49)
8.12 Female age group
8.25 Teams

So Jason had a 7 min head start on me from our wave starts. I used the time to warm up in the water, relax and generally get in the zone. After the horrible swim at Nationals in NZ I was not looking forward to the mass start swim of over 400 competitors so I spent a lot of time picking my start position. What was in my favour was the fact that we were starting in thigh deep water, not a deep water start (which I am not good at). Before I knew it the hooter went off and our races had begun.

Here's Jason in his "gay" purple cap (hehehe) before the race start...
And here Jason is exiting the swim.
Swim review:
Jason- a good swim, just steady pace as he was saving himself for the rest of the day. 26.14 ish. Pity about the stingers though! Jason got smashed by the stingers, especially in the last 100m.
Jacinda- the bad thing about the waves starts is we have to swim through the slow male swimmers, the good things is, the hundreds of competitors that have gone before us have scared the majority of the stingers off. I was pleased with my swim, a 27.30, and 17th in the females.

Onto the bike ride...
The bike course was a 3 * 30km cycle course and there was SOOOOOOOO much congestion. I fell victim to this congestion and got a 5 min drafting penalty- about 2 min after I caught Jason. My main issue with the penalty was that I was passing a massive bunch at the time and as I neared the front a person pulled out directly in front of me, I sat up to try and slow down but the draft buster said "penalty 459". I was gutted. The rules are that you have to do your penalty on the lap that you get it. I had 15 km to ride until the penalty box so I aimed to ride as fast as I could until the penalty area and try to make up for the penalty. I arrived at the penalty area with a 39kmh average which I was stoked with.

Hmmmm 5 mins is a long time to wait... but I used the time wisely, eating, drinking and stretching. Getting angry or upset wasn't going to help anything at all. The whole time I was in the penalty box I was wondering if Jason had passed me again.

Back onto the bike and my legs felt a little crappy... I didn't get back into my routine for a while which was a little annoying but that's life. At the end of the ride I had a ride time of 2.21, with an elapsed time of 2.26 (due to the penalty). Even with the penalty I was the fastest age group cyclist and the fastest pro only did a 2.24 so I was really pleased with that effort.

Jason's ide was a little less eventful than mine, riding comfortably to a 2.42 ish. He said that his first lap was probably too fast but then he settled down a little. Jason in the ride:
The run:
I arrived into transition the first age group female (even with the penalty) which I was pleased with. The run was never going to be great after a mixed build up. I was running ok, but lost a little concentration in the second lap, being passed by 4 girls. I got the concentration back in the last lap and caught two of the girls pretty quickly and was gaining on the others... but just ran out of race track. I did a 1.42 ish for the run which is about the same as both other times I have run a half IM so I can't be upset with that. Here I am heading out of transition.

Jason had a little more of a smile for the camera heading out of transition that I did.
Jason still looking good on the run...
Hmmm not looking like he is enjoying it quite as much right now.
Here I am putting in that last little effort to the finish line.... towards a 4.40. A race PB with the penalty and a massive one without the penalty!!!
Jason really wanted to break 5 hours for the race and he knew it was going to be close... at the end of his run (1.53 ish) Jason was heading down the finish chute at.... 5.03.... a fantastic result for a first half Ironman.

I popped back in to the finish area to ctach up with Jason after he finished the race.
And finally.... a hard earned drink for both of us.
Last but not least... have you seen Jason's stingers hehehe
All in all a great day out for both of us.

Coogee Beach Triathlon....

Two weeks before the Busselton Half Ironman I raced the Coogee Beach "Adventure" Triathlon. By adventure they meant that it included a 500m beach run in between the swim and the bike and about 1300m of beach running in each lap of the run.... so it was going to be hard work but not what I would have called and adventure triathlon!!!

Coogee Beach is south of Perth, in the small town of Cockburn. Coogee Beach is a beautiful Beach and race morning was no exception at all as can be seen below:
Mind you Jason probably wasn't noticing the "beauty" given that we were up at about 4.30 am to get there in time for an early race start.

This was my last race prior to the half ironman so I was trialling everything that I would use in the race to ensure everything was in good working order.... and it was all going well. My pre race preparation was going perfectly. I got Jason to help me with my wetsuit (not really needed for WA races but I thought I should use it). I got Jason to zip me up as per usual.... and the wetsuit was really loose.... I got pretty excited as I have been trying to get to race weight recently... so I just assumed that the weight loss had happened..... hmmmm. It was then that Jason pointed out that instead of being in my nice blue seventy helix I was in a shitty (and two sizes too large) ironman instinct.... arghhhhhh I must have picked up the incorrect wetsuit in NZ at nationals!!!!!

SO of course I got all panicky and worried and upset. I was after a bit of sympathy but Jason knowing that I needed to race in a few minutes time basically said "sort your ??!**** self out"... of course I over reacted and said "you are not the same as the man I married... the man I married would have given me a cuddle"... hmm anyway to cut a long story short Jason was right... I didn't have time for cuddles. So I pulled it together- a few years ago this would have ruined my day so I must be growing up :-) and started the race.

The swim was ok... the wetsuit was WAY to big and it was filling with water but I swum side by side with another female swimmer and we came out of the water in the lead.... for the first time in a triathlon that I have done the organisers sent the females off before the males!!!

From then on I was in the lead and didn't look back!

The ride was a lovely 4 lap course with two long false flats and one decent climb/descent... it was also a little technical with a tough turnaround that I saw two accidents on!!!
The main issue with the ride was the sheer number of riders on the course.... so many people.



At least I got some clear riding space...

The ride to run, usually tough in a tri was great... I just ran really well, I felt great and I was getting more and more of a lead as I progressed through the race. Here I am at the back of the bunch on the beach... I was on my second lap and these runners were all on their first lap.

Here I am at the front of the bunch...
And here I am clear out in front of the bunch...SO all in all a great day out. First in the tri.... or so I though. Apparantly another female racer missed our start and started with the boys... when they took her 2 min off she beat me by 6 seconds!!!!!!!!!!! annoying. It would have been interesting had we the opportunity to go head to head!!! We swim pretty much the same, I am a better cyclist and she is a better runner... so it would have changed how we both raced had we raced against each other.