Daf'sDiary: Winter Sports and Summer Holidays

Winter Sports and Summer holidays

Long before we left home for this short annual snow holiday to Switzerland, we had the holiday programme planned, including alternative substitute days if the weather did not cooperate. There are a number of things that we like to try fit into a ten day or so holiday dependent on things going to plan.

We are both Bobsleigh groupies and so we choose dates that allow us to see at least one of the World cup events; last year we saw two of the events, Igls and St Moritz that fitted neatly into our allotted space so were able to support the Great Britain Bobsleigh and Skeleton team. It is sadly for the GB team, very much a Cinderella sport and some of the team are self funded which is totally outrageous for a sport that has won Great Britain so many medals in the past, the women at the Skeleton have been wonderful, Shelly Rudman, Amy Williams, Lizzy Yarnold and fingers crossed for the new girls including Laura Deas.

We also love to see the Snow Polo where there is obviously no lack of funding since it seems to be very much a sport for rich folk. Maserati were playing well this year as were the Land of Fire team from Azerbaijan. There are some other high flying names at the top of the sport that we have seen in recent years.

Below is Race director Ivar Jakobsen In Haugesund, Norway about to do the race briefing for Ironman 70.3 Haugesund.

I am also a huge fan of figure skating and because of my interest my saint of a husband has taken me to see a number of major Figure skating events live in the notable host cities of Paris and Nice and Stockholm. Usually for my favourite category the Man’s Free, though we have also been to watch the Pairs. This winter has been a major disappointment for me in that direction, since Eurosport seem to have dropped ice skating events from their programming in favour it seems to me for more coverage of SNOOKER!....Biathlon, is great spectator sport and is well shown on TV where my husband Steve and I love to watch it, though last January, we did go to Rupholding in Germany to watch our favourite stars in the flesh. Unfortunately I froze nearly to death and developed a chest infection from standing still in freezing conditions for so long, something I cannot risk repeating for the sake of my own multi discipline sport of triathlon. I gave up skiing some years ago to avoid more injuries that would, and indeed have prevented the progress of my winter training in the past.

As to summer holidays, well….. You won’t find me sun bathing by a pool somewhere, or going clubbing all night in some sunny resort, all my swim suits were designed for swimming in. My husband/coach and I don’t take last holidays. Any journeys in summer will be to compete in great triathlon events in the UK, Europe or elsewhere in the world.

My husband and I still compete in UK and International races even at our ripe old ages. Steve will be in age group 70-75 this coming season whilst I will be in the 80-85 age group for the second season. We train very hard to try to keep enjoying the sport for as long as we can. We swim four times, cycle three times and run three times every week, and have for years run and coached our own triathlon club.

Below are all the possible events that I have placed in my diary but so far I have not actually entered all of them. It is possible that I will do them all, maybe a couple as family relays, who knows.

The ones set in stone with entries already completed are these:

Swimathon

Ironman 51-50 Poreč, Croatia

Ironman70.3 Graz, Austria

Run 2 Music Brighton

Royal Windsor Triathlon

Pier2Pier swim IOW

Brighton and Hove Triathlon

Race programme 2020 Daphne Belt

March 1^st Frosty 750 mtr.swim/5km run

Local friendly event at Littlehampton Wave, our local pool swim and a promenade run.

March 27-28-29^th Swimathon Triple Challenge

5000 mtr. Pool swim three days running. (15,000)

April 26^th Bluebell run. 10km off road woodland run

May 10^th Poreč, Croatia Ironman

51-50 1500mtr sea swim- 40km bike-10

May 24^th Ironman Graz 70.3, Austria. (Half Ironman distance)

1800 lake swim- 90km bike- 21 km run

May 30^th Run-2-Music Sea front 10km running event in Brighton

June 14^th Royal Windsor Triathlon 1500-40-10

July 5^th Klagenfurt Ironman Austria

3800 lake swim-180km bike-marathon run

July 12^th National Aquathlon Championships, Worthing.

Sea swim/promenade run (current title holder in AG)

26^th July Dawn on the Downs 26th off road downland run

August 1^st Pier 2 Pier open water sea swim Isle of Wight

Sandown to Shanklin 1.8 miles

August 30^th Zell am Zee Ironman 70.3 (distance as Graz race)

September 6^thKoper, Slovenia Ironman 70.3 (dist as Graz race)

September 13^th Brighton and Hove Triathlon 1500mtr sea swim/ 40km bike/10km run

This is a qualifier for 2021 World Championships in Bermuda