Brad Brown

Race weekend started early Thursday morning with the 960km drive to East London. I arrived at about 3pm, checked into the hotel and headed down to the beachfront for a short run to stretch the legs. It felt awesome to be down there and in good shape ready to race.

The swim course was open on Friday morning and I took the opportunity to get my first surf swim under my belt. It was an interesting experience to say the least. The first 5 minutes scared the living daylights out of me! The sea was quite rough and very cold (I’m really glad I bought a wetsuit the week before after considering not getting one for this race!). Once I got into my rhythm I settled and quite enjoyed it but those first 5 minutes made me realise I was in for a tough swim on Sunday. I registered and attended the race briefing on Friday night. I also forgot to mention that I had dyed my hair pink for the weekend in support of the PinkDrive who I was racing in support of.

The weather forecast for the weekend was heavy rain and for once the weatherman got it right. It rained all Friday night in East London. The weather was starting to make me very nervous. Saturday morning saw the first Irongirl South Africa run and the weather was superb. Not a breath of wind and the sun was shining. Everyone was secretly hoping this is what it would be like on Sunday morning. As soon as the race finished the wind picked up and it started raining. Again. In the space of 10 minutes the weather had gone from great Read more…

It is done. I can now officially say that I am a triathlete. I can also say that it was a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be.

My day started at 3am. Even though the start was only at 7am, I had a two hour drive to get to Sun City for the 11Global Triathlon. We arrived with enough time to spare that getting racked up and body marked was not rushed at all. My pre race preparation was as good as it could’ve been but in hindsight I probably should’ve eaten breakfast later than I did. Eating breakfast at 3:15am and only starting the race at 7:15am probably wasn’t the wisest decision I made on the day. I felt hungry on the start line which is not a great way to start your first triathlon.

Racking up in transition with my brother

Final Preperations

I got into the water a few minutes before the start. I had decided that I was going to try and stay out of the mad rush of the swim as much as could. I would hang back and Read more…