Day 8

Swim events (400IM, 200 kick, 50 free)
Triathlon (Swim 1.5km / Bike 40km / Run 10km)

The swim events are always fun to watch. Mike Walker takes the prime for entertainer of the day with his 10min for 200m kick. He was in the first heat and the 2nd heat finished before he was done. Some mid event coaching from Heath helped him along. Mike was first to say he was off for some swim coaching when he gets home.
Bevan took great pride in beating my time in the 200m kick, enough said.
The 50m free should be disregarded through some non FINA certified timing but Ken did defend his title from France back in 2006 irrespective of timing.
Heath easily took the 400IM

I had to nip out to the triathlon venue at Rabbit Island to set up the swim with my makeshift buoys. It was pretty simple. I dropped one about chin height depth, got in the van and drove about 300m along, got out and walked down the beach about 50m and dropped in the other. We were doing 3 laps of that – it was choppy which slowed us down heaps but I think it would not have been more than 1600m so disregard what you read on other blogs J.
Heath took the swim out with Daniel MacDonald (support crew) trying to hang on. When Daniel blew Madman and I went through and unbeknown to me dropped everyone else. As we were on the final stretch I felt I had been going for some time without seeing a buoy (I was sitting on Stevens toes). When I took a look to shore I saw the buoy about 40m to the right, when I did this Steven pulled away and I wasn’t going to chase him to tell him to make the turn so he did a good tack on (as he has been doing all camp). With Heath’s tyre blow out it meant I had a healthy lead but I was not very confident I would be able to bike far after yesterdays performance. I just settled into a moderate pace and waited for the Macca express to come charging by. I’d set a great, fair bike course with a mix or rollers, hills and flat. Combined with the bloody hot day it was a suitable finish to the camp. Surprisingly Macca didn’t catch me until about the 25km mark, I wasn’t pushing it and he can’t have been either. Off the bike and I just ran steady to moderate as Macca was not completing the run course and Steven was probably about 7mins behind. It was a bit of a hoax victory really as I didn’t do the bike the day before but I was really pleased my knee held up.
There was a great battle for 3rd between Piet, Lou and Scott but you know nine times out of ten Molina will come out on top in a situation like that no matter what it takes.

So that’s it for another camp. Next year I will have to put in significantly more preparation. I can blag my way through an 8 day camp but the plan is to go length of NZ next time around. This will be about 2000km in 14 days along with the other usual challenges. Next camp is in June in France and looks to be a cracker. If you are interested get in touch with us

We had a great bunch of guys and girls on this camp. The camaraderie was great (often unspoken in the tough times) and I look forward to seeing the campers again some time soon.

Special thanks to our support crew. That is one thing that separates our camps from the others.
- Super Dave Dwan stepped up to lead support man this year and did a great job
- John Ellis our masseuse was back looking after our bodies www.musclesinc.co.nz
- Daniel MacDonald (Chris’s brother) was a first timer and his cooking was fantastic. For Kiwi’s and Aussies check out his site for various tri gear www.dcmsport.com
- Steve Motley – another first time supporter who gave us some colourful humour
- Sarah Helmore – took us up to 4 females on the camp and worked like a trooper

And also our sponsors for this camp
- High Five nutrition (kiwi site www.fifthelement.co.nz everywhere else check www.highfive.co.uk/
- Oomph Sports for excellent fitting tri gear www.oomphsports.com
- Blue Seventy www.blueseventy.com/
- Fuel Belt – your long run companion www.fuelbelt.com/ Coffee’s of Hawaii – simply a great supporter of triathlon and a great product www.coffeesofhawaii.com/