Eshin Direct

This week is race week and my team and I are scrambling to get the Aviva Ironman 70.3 event together (well, more my team than I really). First of all a big thank you to everyone who has donated so far whether it is a big or small amount, it really is encouraging to see even the smallest of donations.

I will get around to thanking all of you who I know personally for your help. For those anonymous donations, I’m not able to see who you are but I respect your reasons for being a private benefactor. Thank you anyway!

Last weekend I took part in an open water sea preparation clinic organised by Yellowfish training and sponsored by my company, Aviva. Unfortunately, someone died in swim portion of the Osim triathlon last year. What was surprising was that he was super fit but it served as a reminder that we need to respect open sea swimming, and the inherent dangers with water.

Apparently on the 2km simulation, I beat my time of 48mins by coming in at 42mins. I have my doubts as I don’t think that I would have had such an improvement on my time just because of current and bouyancy. Regardless, I enjoyed the experience as it gave me a feeling of race conditions – the hussle, the competitiveness and the camaraderie.

It’s all a matter of psychology as well. The distances are sometimes hard to chew (yet, I seem to do plenty of swallowing of sea water!). It sounds corny, but it was a real help with having all of your support behind me. Last year, I was doing this to prove to myself that I could do this. This year, the danger was me turning complacent as I had already proved that to myself. When you think you are crazy for being out there, it did help me tremendously that there were people out there expecting me to do my best through their donations and what it represented.

I have to keep going the distance. It’s the final hurdle after months of preparation. I’m keeping the pace up for D-day. All I ask is that you keep the donations coming!

Donate now for Swim for a cause.

Tags: aviva, aviva ironman 70.3, charity, Fitness Training, unhcr