Doug and Paisley in SWAZILAND: Midland's Triathlon Weekend

Earlier this month, Doug and I dipped our toes back into triathlon waters just outside of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa (while it is hard for even me to imagine, it has been nearly 5 years since I completed a good ol’ swim/bike/run. Gasp!). Because Doug has been nursing a few injuries, I registered him for the Sprint Triathlon [16 miles] and myself for the Ultra Triathlon [50 miles]. My training buddy, Michelle, also competed in the Ultra. I have come to fully understand that Doug is not a ‘sidelines’ man. He simply can’t stand to watch if there is any way that he could compete, so bum ankle, achilles, knee and all he tore up the sprint course. If he hadn’t sacrificed his road bike to his loving wife, we estimate that he would have been 2^nd in his age group. Next time. When Doug finished his race he switched to photographer mode; unfortunately, this means that there are no pictures of his spectacular performance though, due to the overlap of our races. Michelle and I both finished in about 5 hours and were satisfied with our efforts (I have to admit, I was ready to be done after the bike. Alas.). We were a motley crew with borrowed gear, mountain bikes, and rusty ways, but we all lived another day…

As I mentioned, we had a lot of borrowed gear. Even our car was borrowed. We couldn’t find a rack to fit the Rav-4 and needed to haul 5 people + 3 bikes so stuffing them in the trunk wasn’t an option. Fortunately, our friend Antz traded cars with us for the weekend as his Jetta had a trailer hitch and accompanying rack equipped to haul 4 bikes.

As usual, the views along the way were beautiful.

And, what would an African roadtrip be without a few totally random events? Here we are on a one lane bridge playing ‘chicken’ with oncoming traffic. Since there’s no traffic light or procedure (other than the first come/first serve honor system) both directions of traffic ventured onto the bridge in hopes of intimidating the other into reversing. I am sad to report our side ‘lost’ and we had to reverse off of the bridge.

The silver lining is that while we were waiting for oncoming traffic to clear the bridge, we saw this awesome sign for a traditional healer. Traditional healers are often the thorn in Dr. Doug’s side as they are heavily frequented by Swazi’s in lieu of visiting a hospital or clinic (I resisted the urge to type ‘REAL’ healthcare provider, just now). For your entertainment, I’ve included some of the services provided…the traditional healer can help with your: 1) unhappy marriage, 2) penis enlargement, 3) bringing back lost lovers and friends, 4) if you need a job or to attract more customers, 5) with family issues, 6) financial issues, 7) protection from bad spirits, and MUCH, MUCH MORE! Okay, I’ll stop.

Eventually we arrived in Pietermaritzburg and here are just a few shots from the car as we drove into town. Nothing like a tractor on the highway to hold-up traffic!

The number of people that are willing to jump onto an already packed pick-up is mind boggling.

When we finally arrived at Midmar Dam and checked-in with the National Park Service we scoped out our ‘rustic cabin.’ It was more pre-fab than cabin, per se, so we inquired about a cancellation in the ‘chalets’ just in case. Luck was on our side and we got a two-bedroom chalet on the waterfront with a carport. It was awesome!

Out with the rustic...

And in with the chalet!

View from the patio

Once we ditched our rustic cabin and were settled in our chalet, we visited the race registration tent and picked-up our race packets, etc. Hysterically, Michelle was racer #1. I say ‘hysterically’ because Michelle and I were in the last 10 people to finish the race. Seriously.