Meanwhile...

Whilst Charlotte and the others were over in WA getting their final pre-race sleep I was at the Murrayfield Scottish Ball! A black tie affair with Haggis aplenty! I headed over from Bondi with JP (via an unmissable photo opportunity on the beach) and bumped into Anna wandering through Martin Place in her ball gown and looking rather fine. Roo had organised two tables of 20 great people and showed us why she is a Highland Dancing champion. Claire was diverted from a quiet night in after a last minute cancellation and turned up within 30 minutes looking stunning! Kenny showed us what to do with the Haggis, Jack and Alana told us of their recent engagement - CONGRATULATIONS! Emma suffered some impressive 'fling-bruising' on her upper arm, JP claimed that it was inflicted collectively. Doug Isles arrived after dinner but without his kilt and entertained us all with his infamous game of 'C or B'. Emma has published some great photos from the night, they are on her website which can be found here...

Sunday morning was a rather wet affair. What better way to recover than at an Ocean Swim, the 'Round the Island' in Coogee. I got there in the nick of time for the 1km warm up swim!

There are three things you need to know about the morning...

1. It started well but soon revealed itself to be cold, wet and windy.
2. We didn't make it around Wedding Cake Island - the organisers changed the course to keep us inside the Bay. Probably a wise move!
3. It was good to finish the swims feeling positive, with some great results from the crew:

In the 1km Ian won his age group with his usual laid-back & modest attitude and picked up a nice photo at the soggy presentation. Eva managed to overcome her fears of open water and finished 2nd in her age group. Anna completed her first ocean swim and coped really well with the challenging conditions, all smiles at the finish on around 3 hours of sleep. Nice work! Chad's teams (racing as 'Sea's the Limit') picked up 1st (Dash) and 3rd (Splash) for the 1km event and the Mermaids were 3rd overall in the 2.4km.













































... meanwhile Emma was standing on her head somewhere in Brookvale as part of her yoga competition! Perhaps not the best position to recover from a big night, but certainly a great look...

Those links again in case you missed them...
Emma's Photos are here
'Sea's the Limit' is Chad's swim club
Coogee Swim photos - I'm in at least 2 of them, can you spot me?
Coogee Swim results are here I'm still trying to work out why I didn't get a time for the 2.4km, I reckon it was about 24:45 which would have put me 18th in my age...

Its interesting to note how 90% of swimmers in the photos lift their heads right out of the water to breathe. I know its important to be able to see where you are going but doing it every breath is like driving with the handbrake on!