Balmoral Swim

Mia participated in her first ocean swim over the weekend.  It was right here in the neighborhood.  The Junior Swim for kids under 12 was 250 meters.  Sam was at AFL practice so he'll have to catch the next one. 




Aussie-style race volunteers.

 


Mia and friend just before the swim.  Unfortunately, this sweet girl will be moving to Auckland, NZ in a few weeks. :-(

 



It wouldn't be an ocean swim in Sydney without the parrakeet carriers



Mia did great and had a blast.  You couldn't have asked for a more beautiful morning!  At the same time this was going on, there was also an olympic distance age-group (i.e. amateur) triathlon in downtown Sydney.  The Harbour Bridge was even closed for the 2000 or so participants (which didn't include Chris).  The age-group triathlon was a prelude to the professional race (ITU World Championship Series) in the afternoon which had all the top racers including defending Olympic champions and all of next year's London Olympic hopefuls.

Chris decided to ride into the city to watch the pro men race.  Here they are starting the swim at the Opera House on the same swim course Chris swam in January.

But that's the last photo of the day as those dark clouds soon opened up and dumped a chilling rain on the male racers throughout the bike and run.  Even the eventual winner from Spain fell on both the bike and run course.  Rather than cycle home across the bridge and up and down the steep North Shore hills in the driving rain, Chris took the ferry back to Mosman and he and his bike rode the rest of the way in a nice warm car.