Fab weekend at Noosa!

40 mins, 8k's @ 5:10 mins/km

Had a fabulous weekend in Noosa for the Triathlon. I left work early on Saturday and MJ and I headed up on the stroke of noon in order to make it to the Sheraton before the roads closed for the events. After checking in, MJ and headed to the Resort gym. After five minutes on the tready, I realised that I had forgotten to tape my ankles, but thought to myself "aaah - lets see how they go". There was a little discomfort whilst on the tready and some discomfort after cooling down, but nothing major. This time, I ran for 10 minute intervals alternating with a one minute work. Didn't come close to falling off the tready this time, but was again dizzy after getting off.

At 5pm MJ and I left the Resort and walked down to the start of the Noosa 5k Bolt, barely 100m away. There, I obtained my media accrediatation and met up with Run For Your Life publisher, Daniel Green for the first time. The media pass was awesome and enabled Greeny and I to venture onto the middle of the road and watch the warm ups and race from the traffic island just a few metres shy of the Start-Finish. Run under lights for the first time, in cool conditions at 6:30pm, the Bolt was a thriller with Marty Dent holding off Olympian Peter Nowill by one second and Sarah Jamieson winning the women's. I was busy taking splits during the race and jotting down shorthand comments of my observations. Greeny and I then proceeded to interview the likes of Mona, Troopy, Westcott and McCann to go with the aforementioned placegetters. It was a great experience getting an insight into the thoughts of the elites and I also managed to thank Mona personally for the 30th Birthday email he sent me! Wrapped up the proceedings having a long chat with Greeny about our ideas for the mag and its future direction.

Then it was back to the Resort for a quick shower before I took MJ to Berardo's for dinner. I've never dined under a Michelin starred chef before, so I thought it would be good to have a new experience. Boy, was the food good!! I ordered an appetiser of Grilled Pork Belly, Roasted Chilli, Peanut Dressing & Fresh Pomelo, before MJ and I both ordered a main of Flinders Island Milk Fed Lamb, Fillet, Leg & Crepinette, Confit Vegetables, Parsley Coulis. This we washed down with a bottle of 2001 Rosemount Estate Show Reserve Cab Sav which had just reached peak maturity. The phrase "this melts in your mouth" is an overused one but I can assure you that it couldn't be more appropriate for the divine meal we had. The restaurant itself was comfortable and relaxed. Naturally, it was pricey, but for a rare treat, you'd be hard pressed to find a better dining experience.

The next morning started early when I dragged myself out of bed at 5am to watch the Kangaroos account for the Poms before MJ and I headed to the Intraining tent to watch the Noosa Tri. There we cheered on our team mates and friends as well as my brother Adam, who's team managed a 70th placing from 853 finishers. Conditions were equally tough as last year with intermittent heavy rain and warm, humid sunshine testing the competitors. Noosa does itself proud on a weekend like this - it was just a great time!!!