Out of my league

I got in touch with the Cairns Crocs Triathlon Team looking to meet some locals to train with. Maybe I should have known from the the list of training sessions for the weekend including: a Friday morning ride of 60K with 7.5K sprint sessions followed by a 14K run, a 100K Saturday morning ride followed by a swim, a brick Sunday morning followed by a 12K run. Maybe I should have known when I was told that of those the 100K was probably the most accessible. Maybe when they all had clippie shoes, or when they took off at 18mph for their long slow ride at 6am on a Saturday. But somehow it didn’t really hit me how far out of my league I was until about 15 miles in when I asked one of them what distance they were training for. Answer: Ironman. Stunned, I asked if they’d done one before. Answer: “I’ve done 4, but Darryn’s done 6.” I was training with Ironmen. Me, who’s done at most 25 miles on a bike in one sitting, was trying to keep up with people who are too hardcore to do just a marathon.

They were incredibly nice, though, despite the fact that I was holding them back. Two of them broke off from the pack to take “Young Laura” back on a 40K loop of their ride. And they offered to train with me anytime or get coffee or just hang out.

The ride itself was brilliant. We saw the sunrise over the beach. Cairns is relatively flat, being built almost entirely on mudflats, but it gets enough wind to make it challenging, even without hills.
Another 40K ride with the Ironmen next weekend? Definitely.