Definition of Irony

Yesterday was my birthday and we took Friday off so I could drive my wife up to the ski field to "play with the snow" (she's Canadian and misses it)

Sonia up Mt Hutt on Friday

So what happens last night - it starts to snow down to sea level, 18 hours later and its still snowing and we can't get to work.

Classic Irony huh?

Our driveway Monday morning

What else to do except get my skis on?

Facebook

This is something that I thought was a waste of time and effort – and what would a 45 year old want with this sort of thing??

I have a young person who works for me, she is 22 years old and she is probably one of the nicest “Generation Y” people I know.

Anyway, off the point of the post – she said to me on many occasions that I should try this Facebook thing as it was a heap of fun and she said that she’d be my “friend” – I caved and joined the on-line community. I have not looked back.

I am not one of these people that accepts friend requests from people that I do not actually know just to try and have many “friends” – the “friends” I have on Facebook are actually “my friends” – some I have not seen in a number of years, some live on the other side of the world and some live next door to me. I even have a page for our business with many people “liking” our business.

I have an old flat mate who is now married, with a new baby living in Vancouver. I have a friend who is living and playing music in New York. I have a friend I met while on tour in Norway last year. I have a friend who lives in Wellington who I used to surf with 25 years ago. I have a friend who is lives in Colorado who I used to work with when I lived in Queenstown. I have friends who live on the Gold Coast in Australia and I will be catching up with them next month for a few beers and a good old chin-wag. I have friends who live in the same city and we share an interest in sport. I have more friends with a personal tale to tell, whose company I very much enjoy.

My sister is my friend.

My wife is my friend.

I am indeed blessed with many friends both in real life and on Facebook.
Yes, I am a fan and I enjoy keeping in touch with my friends.

Travel

I love planning trips and wouldn’t you know it, this is what I do for a living. They say – “do something you love and never work another day in your life”

Being in the travel industry, you’re always thinking about your next trip and look at the best options to suit. We all know that time is precious and this goes for our own leisure time as well.

Everyone thinks they want the cheapest price where in reality, they want the best deal based on what they want to achieve out of their own leisure time – this I get and understand completely. I am the same way and assume that so is everyone else.
So earlier this year (if you’ve been following my blog) I took a small group to Rarotonga for the Rarotonga International Triathlon – it was awesome.

The next trip we have planned is a business trip next month to the Gold Coast in Australia (also known as Surfers Paradise) SO as you can imagine, I’ll be banking some quality surf time. I only surf in the summer at home now, the cold water just does a number on me so this is just what I do now BUT that’s not to say that I can’t take a trip overseas in winter and get my fill of waves. The plan on this trip is 2 days of meetings stuck in a conference room and the rest of the time, hopefully a different type of room (a green room, one hopes) we are going across 2 days before and staying for 2 days after the meetings so there’s 8 sessions at least if the conditions permit and I’ll plan to hit it early before the meetings on the Thursday and Friday.

I have had many years of travelling with boards and am quite used to it but on this occasion I’m planning on renting a board. I’ve been checking out rentals etc and have found a great option of a company who will drop off and collect the board to the hotel I am staying at and the price is very reasonable. I’ll post the details etc after this trip if all goes well and give them the kudos but until I experience it, I’ll keep it on the “down low”

I also have another business trip later in the year but you could also call this a bit of a small holiday – we are going on a cruise from Sydney to Melbourne. It’s a 2 night cruise on Princess Cruise Line. I’m taking the wife as this will be a very nice “introduction” to cruising. Our office has received an invitation to attend this on the basis that we are a very good supporter of this product and we have achieved the status of an “Emerald Agency” with Princess Cruises. There will be a few meetings and I would suggest that more than a couple of drinks and functions to attend. Should be a hoot and it’ll be nice to get out of dodge for a few days. We’ve added on a night in Melbourne after the cruise as Melbourne has awesome shopping. With Christchurch basically having no CBD (Central Business District) we have to get the shopping fix somehow?

I’m a firm believer that you have to have something to look forward to and there is no better thing than travel. Travel is fun, it broadens the mind and it can make you either crazier or saner than you are right now – this is a good thing, right?

Bugger !!!

More earthquakes this week.

On Monday we had a 5.5 and then 80 minutes later a 6.3 - I do not mind saying that I was scared shitless this time.

At last count we have had 6851 earthquakes since last September. I was in the office with my staff when the 6.3 hit on the 22nd of Feb and it was very scary BUT this 6.3 a couple of days ago was just crazy.

I was in the car with my wife on our way home, stopped at traffic lights when it hit and it's very difficult to describe but I gripped the steering wheel and just about put my foot through the floor stepping on the brake pedal so hard. It was like 20 big blokes were on either side of the car rocking it back and forth, I kid you not.

We watched as scaffolding fell to the ground from a shopping mall that was being repaired from the last quake in Feb. The cars around us were all over the place too - we even thought that the street lamp post was going to fall over - this may sound unbelievable but the lamp post moved like it was made of fibreglass swaying left to right – we thought the tip of it would hit the top of a vehicle, that’s how much it was moving. CRAZY !

We were strong and resolute after the February one but not anymore. I have had one quake too many now.

What to do now?

It's done people - I've entered the race

ITU Triathlon World Cup 2011 and Age Group Race


Sunday, 20 November 2011 7:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. (New Zealand Time)

Auckland

Queens Wharf, Auckland CBD

Auckland

New Zealand


Your registration is complete.

Thank you for your entry to the 2011 ITU Triathlon World Cup Age Group Race in Auckland!

We will keep you updated with all developments and activties around the event and look forward to welcoming you to the start line on 20 November.


Thanks again

The team at TRI Auckland

Race Report - Rarotonga International Triathlon

Rarotonga International Triathlon 7th May 2011

1.5km swim / 41km bike / 10km run

I took a small group of 10 people with me for this year’s event with 7 competing and it was a wonderful group of awesome people – we were all at various levels of ability but everyone had the same goal – to finish and we all achieved this goal.

the group, 7 competitors and 3 supporters

What an amazing event in a spectacular destination – Rarotonga, set in the idyllic South Pacific, an island set inside a tropical reef abound with sea life.

Boiler swim (boiler in the distance)

This event was a festival of events over the week starting on the Thursday evening with The Boiler Swim, an 800m swim out through a reef passage and around the “old boiler” of a steam ship wreck and back to the beach.

The swim started about 5.30pm out the front of Trader Jacks Bar and Restaurant so there was quite a big crowd in attendance and I’m sure half of them were wondering what the hell was going on when we all turned up to swim from the beach right in front of the bar.

I had an awesome swim finishing in 7th place overall, 5th male out of a field of over 60 and I won a prize (a very nice tee shirt and a bottle of wine) – my time was 12min 03sec

Boiler swim race start

After the race it was back to the Edgewater Resort (where we all stayed and where most of the events were held) for a pre-race Pasta Party – a fun event of carb loading and a couple of beers, pretty relaxed I can assure you!!

Friday was a rest day but we all went out to Muri beach to have a swim on the swim course – it was quite windy but so nice to swim in the lagoon “sans” wetsuit as the water was so warm. Not much happened for the rest of the day.

Saturday dawned and wouldn’t you know it – wind!!! BUT this was to be a good thing. Most of the locals were hoping for hot conditions as this is what favours them as this is how they train – we even got a really good rain shower during the ride.

We had a ride organised for us to get us and the bikes to the race start about 10km away so we arrived at the venue early which was nice, we all just got ourselves organised in transition. I don’t train with food so I didn’t want to try this in a race scenario BUT I did load up on liquids. They were expecting it to get hot but thankfully, it didn’t.


an hour and a half to race start

Once my transition was all sorted it was off to get numbered and start to get my head in the right space. This was to be my first ever Olympic distance event and I had never even run a 10k before so I was a little nervous going in. I had a very realistic expectation of what I wanted to achieve – my first goal was that I wanted to finish, I knew that I could swim 1500m and ride 41km and I had run 5k events so even if I walked, I wanted to finish and my second goal was to finish in under 3 hours.

I had worked out in my head that the swim would take me half an hour, the bike should take me an hour and a half and the run should take me about an hour – I’ll put my results with splits at the end of this report.

Everyone headed out for a warm up swim but this was more about seeing how much current was flowing through the lagoon – the event was timed to go at full tide to reduce the drag BUT they didn’t count on the wind. There was a very strong current but it was the same for everyone and I knew how comfortable and confident I am in the ocean so I didn’t let it concern me at all. I was thinking that this would sort out the pool swimmers as I had a chuckle to myself.

pre race start

Race briefing over and after a short prayer (they are very religious in the Cook Islands) we were off. I stuck close to the locals on the right side of the course on leg one as I thought they would be the ones that knew the conditions – this proved to be a mistake on the first leg, they were thinking that the current would help “push” them but it was the opposite and the first leg of 590m was just a hard out slog into waves and wind and the frontrunners all came together around the first buoy. The second leg was going with the current so it was all good to stretch out and get a good gain and managed to pass a few people and around the third buoy I was in the lead group. The final leg was the longest at 690m and it was just like a drag strip with everyone going for it. I exited the water in 7th place so was very happy with that.

pre race prayer

Time check: 1500m in 26.08 in tough conditions, 7th place after the swim











T1 was a blur – running up from the beach there was so many people forming a chute all the way to transition. It was awesome to hear everyone screaming and saying “well done, going great” – got into transition and it was so nice not to have to take off a wetsuit. Super quick T1, on with the helmet and shoes and away.

fast transition T1

and off on the bike course

The bike section was a full loop of the island (31km) and a small loop of the airport and main town (10km) – the first 15-20km of the bike was going along great, right up until the point that one of my hands slipped off my tri bars and my seat “twisted” so I needed to stop and fix it. Quite a few people passed me while I was doing this but shit happens right?

We also had a really good shower of rain – it cooled me down nicely but made for tricky riding conditions.

The rest of the bike was good but the last 5km I started getting a really sore lower back, I had to sit up plenty of times to stretch – the roads were very, very rough so that’s what I’m putting it down to but it could have been the fact that I had to pull my bike to bits and put back together so it may not have been set up correctly.

All in all, I was very happy with my bike.

Time check: 41km in 1.28.19, 38th place in the bike.

T2 was also pretty much a blur – I left the bike shoes clipped in so as soon as I racked my bike it was off with the helmet, on with my visor and running shoes and away – brilliant transition.

T2 - off on to the run course

The run was always going to be my “issue” but I just took it easy and felt pretty comfortable for the first 5km, in fact, one of our supporters did my km splits for the first 5km and I was running 5 minute k’s for the first 5km – stoked!!! BUT I really struggled for the last 5km – I just had a few words with myself and said, “one foot in front of the other, simple stuff, you can do this” – they had the kilometres painted on the road and I’m pleased to say that I only walked through the aid stations to take on water and electrolytes and a big wet sponge – they were great. When I got to the 8km mark I knew I could do this so I gritted my teeth and kept plodding along. I checked my watch and thought that I’d go close to my goal of around 3 hours so I just kept going and tried to lift the pace BUT I had nothing left in the tank so I just said to myself, just keep going at the pace you are now and we’ll see what the result is.

about 4km to go

I turned off the main road and into the driveway to the park where the finish line was about 500m away and was met but my screaming wife saying “GO, GO, GO – you’re under 3 hours – you can do this” so I gave it one last kick and I could see the finish chute and better yet, I could see the clock above the finish line so I pumped the arms one last time and crossed the line – Rarotonga International Triathlon 2011 – DONE !

Time check: 10km in 1.05.08, 36th place in the run.

Oh yeah - how good is that feeling!!

Official results:

Steve Marshall – 2.59.35
32nd overall out of over 100 competitors
10th in my age group out of 15 ( 40-49years – incidentally, 1st, 2nd, 9th, 10th and 11th place overall were all in this age group )
1500m Swim split – 26.08
41km Bike split – 1.28.19
10km Run split – 1.05.08
92 individual competitors (43 female and 49 male )
20 teams

Last comment:
What an amazing place for a race, it was a very well run event and we had plenty of down time to enjoy the hospitality that this South Pacific Island had to offer – we’ll be back next year for sure!!

**BHAG**

Big Hairy Audacious Goal – is a term that we have used in business and in our personal lives and I am about to reveal one of these to you now.

I am in training and have been for a few months and the other day I booked tickets to Auckland for a "qualification" race in November. I’ve told a couple of people in confidence but I am now putting it out there so to speak.

My goal for 2011 is to qualify for the 2012 World Age Group Sprint Triathlon Championships - this is what I’m training for.

I have it written on my wall in my garage where my weights are, I have it written on my Road ID. I have a race in a few weeks in Rarotonga and this is an Olympic distance triathlon race and it will also be the longest race that I have done. I really have no idea how long this will take me but I’m thinking around the 3 hour to 3.15 mark – I’ll keep you posted.

It’s been so frustrating in the last few months with not being able to surf as the ocean has been out of bounds due to raw sewage and they think that it could be like this for a number of months. I have a trip planned to Australia in June so will take my board on that one and get some “ocean time” in between “meeting time”

Earthquake update: the CBD is stuffed, they have just earmarked another 96 buildings to demolish, the roads around our suburb are still buggered, so much so that we’ve bought a 4WD vehicle – great for inner city driving.

I was sent this list the other day and I thought it was so funny, so what better thing to do than share this with the group.

It’s called – You know you’re from Christchurch when?


• Geonet / Christchurch QuakeMap is your homepage

• The rest of the country offers you a place to stay

• “Munted” and “buggered” are official technical terms

• You go 'pfffff' when Wellington has a 4.5 earthquake that's 40km deep

• You see a nice park in another city and think it would make a good evacuation point

• You sleep in one suburb, shower in another and collect water from yet another

• When you drive on the right side of the road and no one thinks it's wrong

• You are happy two Policemen came for a visit

• When your bike becomes your best friend

• You think it's fine for a soldier to be stationed at the end of your street

• You see armoured vehicles driving down the road

• It’s normal to greet people with “do you need a shower?”

• A bucket of sh*t is no longer that old car you drive

• Instead of rushing to the clothes line to get clothes in when it rains, you put dirty washing on the line in the hope that it will rain enough to clean them

• Going to Wellington to escape earthquakes makes sense

• Your doctor recommends having a few stiff drinks before bed to help you sleep

• You have tied the pantry, liquor cabinet and all the cupboard doors closed and it's not to keep kids out

• You prefer to sit under the table instead of at it

• You think electronics that have "shock proof" should say to which earthquake magnitude

• You know and actually understand the terms and conditions of your House and Contents insurance policies

• You can see irony in claims about houses made of “permanent materials”

• Your en-suite has a vege garden, dog kennel and grass

• Your teenagers are only too happy to sleep in the same room as their parents

• You stop using the term “built like a brick sh*t house”

• Dressing up to "head into town" means putting on a hi-viz vest, hard hat and boots

• Discussing toilet habits with total strangers is an everyday norm

• Wee boys don't get excited when they see (another) digger or a dozer - but all the adults in the street cheer wildly

• You know what that extra gear lever on your 4X4 is for

• Metservice includes a graph for dust

• You have dust mask tan lines

• You can use the term "liquefaction" in everyday casual conversation, even your 3-year old can

• When a massive group of students appears in your street, you feel overwhelmed with gratitude instead calling the Police. What’s more, the students leave the street in better condition than when they arrived

• The answer to where anything is ... it’s on the floor

• You smile at strangers and greet people like you’re one big family