Updating on my last triathlon. This one was called the Pacific Grove Triathlon (http://results.eternaltiming.com/event/PGT2008). Here's a link to the pictures that Megha's uploaded on her site http://picasaweb.google.com/mshenoy/PacificGroveTriathlon#.
This was an Olympic Distance Triathlon (1 Mile swim, 25 Miles Bike and 7.5 Miles Run). It is considered one of the most scenic triathlons since it is along the famous 17 Mile Drive.
I love taking part in such distance events... the ones that make you wonder what in the world were you were thinking. Waking up at 4:30 am, driving down to the sea, plunging into the frigid Pacific before the sun comes out, biking with feet that are too numb from the cold to feel the pain and then running without quite knowing whether it is the sea water or your sweat that's got you all drenched... Triathlon, Sir, is a cruel sport!
And yet, perhaps that's why one does it. It makes the finish line that much sweeter.
As for me, I like to think that I learn something new each time. This time it was Kelps.
Monterey Bay, where we had the swim part of the triathlon, is the Mecca of Kelps, the trees of the sea. Think of them as these gigantic spinaches with just their noses sticking out of the water. And boy, this was one Kelpy sea! So much so that it was less of swimming and more of wading and plowing my way past these leafy vegetables.
Not used to so much 'greenery', I struggled at first to swim past these plants. I was trying to cut my way past them. And that' s when I saw a fellow swimmer zoom past me. I realised that instead of fighting these plants, he was actually embracing them! He was using them as a bunch of strings, clutching them and then pulling against them to propel himself forward. In a way, he wasn't quite swimming at all. He had adapted his swimming style to pull his way out of the situation!
I followed suit. Very soon, thanks to these Kelps, I had managed to 'pull' myself to the finish line and ready to start my bike stretch.
You know, almost always, it's in deep waters that one learns new ways to stay afloat. I had prided myself in being good at swimming in open water. And yet here, it just took an innocuous leafy vegetable to make me unlearn what I had learnt over two decades! We all have our share of these unexpected randomly floating Kelps... the strings attached to our ocean of life. We can fight 'em. Or we can learn to use 'em... for sometimes, pulling the right strings might just help you get home faster.
