Preparing to swim, bike, run

Tomorrow is the Blenheim Triathlon, an event I have long-awaited - as long as last year, when I completed the Team Sprint and enjoyed it so much that I resolved to do the whole event on my lonesome.

Laid out on and around my bed is (almost!) everything that I will need for the day, and I am struck by what a tremendous faff it is to do a triathlon; unlike a run, where one can practically turn up and go, a triathlon needs a certain level of preparation - equipment, tools, stuff, thought, packing, gear, contingency, stuffstuffSTUFF.

This fact has been recurrent throughout my training; the number of towels I've got through would swamp a decent sized hotel, I suspect. And that's before the bike and associated faffery of tools, puncture repair kits, inner tubes and the like.

I mean, I can see why people would go for the longer distance events; if you're going to go to all this effort, you might as well make a bit of a day of it. As it is, I expect to be in the event (somehow I can't bring myself to write "competing") for somewhere up to an hour and a quarter. Hardly seems worth all the bother does it?

But it will be.