So, it’s been an action packed and fabulous time in Noosa and we’re not done yet! I absolutely adore Noosa (except that the grocery store closes at 5:30 on Saturday night- it is 2012 Noosa, I’m sure you can manage a 9pm finish).

The race itself was good, The Runner did a PB (personal best) and the triathlon virgins that we’re up here with all survived and two new Tri WAGs were initiated–technically only one is a wife/girlfriend but the term still applies.

We arrived on Friday morning, however The Runner’s bike didn’t arrive until Friday night. Every year Jetstar has the same problem trying to get thousands of bikes up to Noosa from Sydney- which is annoying but kind of makes sense. Bikes are big and take up a lot of room, and when everyone on a plane has one, someone is going to miss out! Of course, that was not what The Runner or his friends wanted to hear on Friday afternoon when there were 4 triathletes in the house and not a bike in sight. Especially when said missing bike is worth a small fortune (it’s worth more than my car actually). Oh well, it all worked out and bikes all arrived unscathed. I’ll spare you some of the other funny bits of the race lead up, although really one tip, if you’re going to attempt to do the race as someone else, you should probably be able to recite their address and where they work without pausing!

The morning of race day is always a time of nervous energy- possibly more for me than The Runner. He was up at 4 am and so was I. He was checking his gear, getting dressed, having breakfast and stretching and I was, well, I was just nervous for him. Nervousness is a weird thing when it’s behalf of someone else, because it’s not really nervousness, it’s more a feeling of willing someone to do well but knowing it’s completely out of your control. I felt like one of those parents at a spelling bee who is trying to telepathically send the correct spelling to their child, sending out I before E mentally across the room. So, even though I didn’t leave for the race until about 7:15, I was tossing and turning all night and wide awake at 4am trying to both be helpful and stay out of the way.

But all the nervousness from me wasn’t necessary, The Runner had what I thought was a good race, but it wasn’t quite as fast as he had hoped. Really though, the real fun starts when the race is over, and we’ve had an absolute blast! We’ve had some delicious food (big shout outs to Gaston, Masimo’s ice cream, Scirocco and Zachary’s), I’ve embarrassed myself by telling the winner of the whole race that I thought he was lying about winning- it was only when he produced a picture and came over to the table to chat to everyone that I finally believed him, and we’ve hung out with great friends, relaxed by the pool, and had a few vinos– It’s really been a great time.

Luckily the house we are in has an awesome kitchen that we’ve put to good use, last night Neil made his amazing and now legendary paella, I made quinoa with chicken and roast veggies for a pre-race meal and the first night we had an awesome BBQ. Today we’re off to Bistro C for Melbourne Cup lunch. If you’ve never been to Noosa, I highly recommend a trip…. Especially if it doesn’t involve running, biking, or swimming!!