I think there were more than a few sighs of relief when we touched down in Queenstown to clear blue skies.  I had been hearing about freezing temperatures and was getting increasing worried about trying to race in them especially as I DON'T DO cold races! I headed into town to find my hotel as I was exhausted from the travel and only getting a few hours sleep the night before.  The World Aquathon Championships start time was drawing near and I still hadn't been able to check into my room and was beginning to question my sanity of towing the start line.  I only decided to race about a week ago as I figured I need all the race practice I can get and this would be a good opportunity to take part in a big race and deal with the pressure.

I jogged down to the lake with Vic from Hong Kong and the venue completely took my breath away with the crystal clear lake and the snow capped Remarkable Mountain range in the background.  WOW, how could you not race, especially with the huge crowd gathering to enjoy the action and the sun.  I opted for a quick warm-up to test the temperature of the water as I had read you could become hypothermic in this lake without a wetsuit within ten minutes!  This was the reason the triathlon championships would be held in another lake which was not feed from the glacier and snow fields.  I had bought a wetsuit cap to test out and ended up with a silicon one under that as well - as you can see I hate being cold!  Despite all the warnings and the fact most of the top women were nowhere to be seen, nothing prepared me for the cold water when I jumped in.  It didn't fully hit me until about 150m out when my face was in agony...right that was it - I was going to swim to the first buoy, come in and go have a hot shower.  Thankfully, my face must have gone numb about 200m later and by the time I got out of the water, the race was looking more possible.

After some quick announcements, 52 women (elite and age-group) were all lined up on the beach ready for the off.  As I dived into the water, I was ready for the shock again but the adrenaline and numbness had the desired effect and I didn't notice the cold this time.  I focused on relaxing and didn't worry about which pack I was in, so came out feeling had a reasonable swim to come out in 18th place and 1:30 down on the leaders, Carla (BRA), Elizabeth (LUX), Akiko (JAP) & Anna (NZ).  My feet were a bit numb as I struggled to pull my runners on but they soon warmed up as I headed into the gardens for the 3lap 5km run.  I am not sure what it is about the New Zealanders but they certainly love to have hills in their races and I am convinced they would even get some in the swim given half a chance!  That said, it was a cool course winding it's way round the park taking in a steep climb each lap and there were hundreds of people to cheer us on.

I felt pretty good heading out onto the run and there were plenty of girls ahead for me to try and chase down. I found I was able to use the climb most to gain on people and it was just a case of hurting more than the others...something we get lots of practice at during training!  I pushed hard during the whole run remembering my experience in Geelong and how I race to celebrate all my training and have fun.  I was able to pass a number of girls but it became hard to tell your place as some girls were being lapped.  I made a final big push up the hill for the last time to get past a girl from the UK trying to make it look like it was a breeze for me in the hope she didn't think she could stay with me!  It was so cool coming down the finish shoot and seeing so many training friends from NZ and other parts of the world there to cheer me on.  I couldn't believe it when Vic excitedly told me I was 8th at the finish line...WOW, how cool to be able to say I was 8th in the World Aquathon Champs!  It was definitely worth getting in the cold water and gave me loads of confidence my hard work in training is paying off.  Roll on the weekend for the big race.........