Yesterday it rained for most of the day. After a particularly heavy shower just before noon, my small running group at work unanimously decided to skip the usual Thursday lunchtime run. Instead we relaxed in the common room eating our lunch and despite the Radar Map predicting otherwise, we watched the skies clear to produce one of the few gaps of clear weather for day.
Fortunately I had driven into work, Elaine had an afterwork function and would catch the train home. I always intended to drive to my 7pm coaching session directly from work. So I simply re-scheduled my day so that I'd arrive at the running track at 5:45pm giving me time to get in a run beforehand.
As I cruised around the 1.2km track at Duncan McKinnon reserve I struck up a friendly conversation with another runner who was travelling at a similar speed (which was pretty slow). The conversation took the usuall route of 'what events are you training for'. While I'm looking at doing the Duathlon Sunday week, my new friend Neil Gilbert, was training for the Sandringham Half Marathon being run on the same day.
The Half Marathon is a lead up event for Neil as he prepares for his 6th attempt at the Hawaii Ironman. More often referred to as 'Kona' (the name of the big island that hosts the event), this is the Ironman World Championships and the Holy Grail for nearly all triathletes. Each Ironman race contains qualifying slots for Kona, the more high profile the race, the more slots available. These slots are highly contested and for those lucky (and fast) enough to score one, it is like qualifying for the Olympics - some people would think it was better. Mere mortals like myself are realistic enough to know that Kona is no more than a dream.
My Duathlon is being run at Richmond Boulevard. Neil remembered racing a Duathlon there back in 1998 (won by Emma Carney in controversial circumstances). I've forgotten how many races he said he'd done, but I think it was around 290, including 35 Ironmans. He would have done more, but suffered a terrible case of Hypothyriodism (or it could have been hyperthyriodism, I get confused). The thyroid condition was a result of drinking lots of a certain brand of Soy Milk that contained excessive amounts of Iodine.
One of the tests for Hypothyriodism (or hyperthyriodism) is a TSH Test (or something similar, I promise no more brackets). Normal values are between 0.4 and 4.0 - Neil's score was over 100. He is currently the number one plaintiff in a class action against the particular Soy Milk company. The lawyers for the case thought there was a typo with his readings until they had the figure verified.
He seems pretty healthy now and is obviously going well to qualify for the Ironman in Kona. Although he is frustrated that age is catching up with him and he can no longer find the speed of his younger days. He did his last Half Marathon in 2h08m, but is hoping to break 2 hours for the Sandingham Half Marathon in just over a week's time. Neil is 67 years old!
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