Pictures and Stories #1
Sorry about the delay! I'm just going to post some photos with copy below each one. That might be easier than typing up something and then placing the pics to fit.
Jonnene crosses the finish line at the triathlon she did in Perth last Sunday morning. It was a cold morning (this has been unexpected for me since it's supposed to be summer!) and I didn't envy The Wife having to go into that water for the 400-meter swim in the bay. Fortunately, the current was with the participants and most would have personal records for the distance when it was over. She didn't take any warmups, just handed her sweater to me and entered the water with the rest of the wave of females. She came out of the swim about 2/3's of the way back, running about 100 meters to the transition area to change for the bike which was a 4-lap 16-mile ride along the shoreline which included a big hill each lap. Her front derailleur got stuck in the big chainring, making the climb harder, but each lap got faster and she passed a lot of other competitors. Into the run Jonnene had a good start on the 4 kilometer distance with 2 laps of 2 kilometers each, but going into the second lap her right knee started hurting. We were hoping that wouldn't happen but we suspected pushing that big chainring on the bike might have aggrevated it. A projected 24-minute run turned into 29 minutes which dropped her to 13th in her age group at the finish (could have gotten 7th if the knee had behaved). However, she got 75th overall among the 300-odd participants for the sprint distance!
Monday thru Wednesday we took a road trip to southwest Australia, down to Peaceful Bay, which is between the towns (shires) of Walpole and Denmark. We stayed at a beach cabin that belonged to a business partner of Jonnene's brother, David. David and his family would be coming down on Wednesday to stay through Friday and we'd trade keys with him. It was a really nice place to hang out though a bit rustic and spartan. I had to light up a fire in an old water tank (see the above photo) to heat up water for showers and other things you might need hot water for! This also meant I had to split firewood, something I hadn't done in years. By the end of the stay I had remembered how to split wood...I actually did a pretty good job of it...and was able to start the fire using only one match. Once you had the water heated, it would stay that way for almost a full day before you had to re-start a fire again. I knew those old Boy Scout skills would come back to help me someday.
Here's a Big Red (kangaroo) we spotted early on our last morning in Peaceful Bay. We were in the car at the time and we slowly followed him as I tried to get a good photo. He finally disappeared into the shrub to the left. We had also spotted a group of three kangaroos the day before in a pathway near the cabin, as well as seeing a wallabie (small version of a kangaroo) during a visit to some of the sights in the area.
One of the reasons we were up so early Wednesday morning was that we wanted to see the sunrise over the bay but no luck. It was cloudy with some spotty rain. But we went to the beach anyway to see what we could see. I got a good picture (above) and we could see some rosy areas in the clouds but no sun. It was still beautiful out there, with a fishing boat in the distance and the waves coming in.
Coming back to Perth, we stopped in Busselton where we had to make a visit to see the jetty, shown above. We got a chance to visit with Jonnene's cousin, Sally, who had a break with the kids in school and her husband, Cam, at work. It was quite windy with lots of small waves breaking on the beach.
One of the reasons we stopped in Busselton was to check out the Ironman Village where we spotted the unassembled finish line for the Western Australia Ironman Triathlon being held on Sunday, December 7th. We took in the Asics and Jaggad stores that were already set up in the expo tent where the expo itself would open up the next day. And, yes, we bought lots of Ironman gear mostly for friends back home although we did get one or two things for ourselves! It was fascinating to see all the huge circus-sized tents on the grounds and see the transition area for a genuine Ironman event. Too bad we'll have to miss it Sunday but we've got a week left in our trip and many things to do in that time.
Jonnene crosses the finish line at the triathlon she did in Perth last Sunday morning. It was a cold morning (this has been unexpected for me since it's supposed to be summer!) and I didn't envy The Wife having to go into that water for the 400-meter swim in the bay. Fortunately, the current was with the participants and most would have personal records for the distance when it was over. She didn't take any warmups, just handed her sweater to me and entered the water with the rest of the wave of females. She came out of the swim about 2/3's of the way back, running about 100 meters to the transition area to change for the bike which was a 4-lap 16-mile ride along the shoreline which included a big hill each lap. Her front derailleur got stuck in the big chainring, making the climb harder, but each lap got faster and she passed a lot of other competitors. Into the run Jonnene had a good start on the 4 kilometer distance with 2 laps of 2 kilometers each, but going into the second lap her right knee started hurting. We were hoping that wouldn't happen but we suspected pushing that big chainring on the bike might have aggrevated it. A projected 24-minute run turned into 29 minutes which dropped her to 13th in her age group at the finish (could have gotten 7th if the knee had behaved). However, she got 75th overall among the 300-odd participants for the sprint distance!
Monday thru Wednesday we took a road trip to southwest Australia, down to Peaceful Bay, which is between the towns (shires) of Walpole and Denmark. We stayed at a beach cabin that belonged to a business partner of Jonnene's brother, David. David and his family would be coming down on Wednesday to stay through Friday and we'd trade keys with him. It was a really nice place to hang out though a bit rustic and spartan. I had to light up a fire in an old water tank (see the above photo) to heat up water for showers and other things you might need hot water for! This also meant I had to split firewood, something I hadn't done in years. By the end of the stay I had remembered how to split wood...I actually did a pretty good job of it...and was able to start the fire using only one match. Once you had the water heated, it would stay that way for almost a full day before you had to re-start a fire again. I knew those old Boy Scout skills would come back to help me someday.
Here's a Big Red (kangaroo) we spotted early on our last morning in Peaceful Bay. We were in the car at the time and we slowly followed him as I tried to get a good photo. He finally disappeared into the shrub to the left. We had also spotted a group of three kangaroos the day before in a pathway near the cabin, as well as seeing a wallabie (small version of a kangaroo) during a visit to some of the sights in the area.
One of the reasons we were up so early Wednesday morning was that we wanted to see the sunrise over the bay but no luck. It was cloudy with some spotty rain. But we went to the beach anyway to see what we could see. I got a good picture (above) and we could see some rosy areas in the clouds but no sun. It was still beautiful out there, with a fishing boat in the distance and the waves coming in.
Coming back to Perth, we stopped in Busselton where we had to make a visit to see the jetty, shown above. We got a chance to visit with Jonnene's cousin, Sally, who had a break with the kids in school and her husband, Cam, at work. It was quite windy with lots of small waves breaking on the beach.
One of the reasons we stopped in Busselton was to check out the Ironman Village where we spotted the unassembled finish line for the Western Australia Ironman Triathlon being held on Sunday, December 7th. We took in the Asics and Jaggad stores that were already set up in the expo tent where the expo itself would open up the next day. And, yes, we bought lots of Ironman gear mostly for friends back home although we did get one or two things for ourselves! It was fascinating to see all the huge circus-sized tents on the grounds and see the transition area for a genuine Ironman event. Too bad we'll have to miss it Sunday but we've got a week left in our trip and many things to do in that time.
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