Australian Open Water Swimming Championships February 27th - March 2nd 2009 Olympic Regatta Centre Penrith NSW After hearing Friday's forecast for Melbourne I was glad to be headed toSydney!! The Stickles arrived a few minutes before my 8am pick up, and in my haste not to hold them up I promptly left my Sat Nav, that I'd promised to bring to help us navigate our way throughSydney out to Penrith, on the kitchen table, a rather inauspicious beginning to my weekend! After a good run in, we were met by Sandra and Caitlin at the Virgin Blue check in and a text message from the Goonan's saying their Qantas flight had been delayed. This of course bought a host of accusing glares upon my good self, but hey, I wasn't anywhere near that flight, how could I be held responsible?? There were some threats of serious bodily harm directed toward me if our flight was in turn delayed, what a way to treat your coach eh? According to the departure board our flight was due to leave on time! A minor miracle when it comes to me and air travels as you all know! I can report here and now readers, that our 9:15 flight fromMelbourne toSydney did in fact leave at 10am. Yes, my accursed luck with air travel had struck once again. There was a suggestion made that for the benefit of all, Immediately we arrive in Sydney I should endeavour to change my return booking to another flight, one preferably to Bermuda were it was hoped I could be lost in the triangle. We arrived in Sydney with no further drama's, although luckily the fasten seatbelts sign came on just before Maria got to get up and announce to the passengers and crew of our flight that in fact I was a jinx, and it was my fault we were 45 minutes late leaving Melbourne. We were met by the Janette and George, who's flight was also delayed I'd like to point out again, although there was a cruel suggestion that their Qantas flight was delayed because of their association with me, and headed to the rental car office. After waiting for what seemed ages our rental cars were delivered to us. The time spent waiting was quite educational, we now all know that the bumps and scrapes on a lot of rental cars are not caused by careless patrons, but by the idiots who work for the rental companies. I'm quite sure they play a game of who can drive fastest in either forward or reverse and come as close to walls, concrete pylons and other vehicles as possible! Now, I'm not one to suggest there was an element of revenge for the delayed flight but I was horrified to discover that I was in fact going to have to travel for the next 3 days in a FORD. My loud protests were met by deaf ears, and after a brief inspection of the vehicles to note all the scrapes left on them by the kamikaze pilots who double as rental car employees it was off to Penrith. Or at least it should've been a quick inspection, but George took the inspection a little too serious as we sat and waited in our vehicle for 5 minutes while he went over the other with a fine tooth comb. After reporting the presence of lint in the boot I think I heard him ask if there was a hoist he could put the car on to check the under carriage! After George completed his roadworthy inspection it was off to Penrith. Maria driving, Robbie navigating Paul and I in the back, Goonan's and Eccles following behind, or at least they were until the very first left from the airport where we watch them sail on by in the wrong direction!! Its quite a hike out to Penrith, around an hour or so on a multitude of highways and freeways but we made it there with no hiccups, where we met up with Noelene and Rachelle who had flown up earlier in the morning, the Goonan's and Eccles around 10 minutes behind after correcting their earlier navigational error. After a quick bite to eat it was off to the regatta centre to have a look at the course and for the swimmers to have a familiarization swim to get a feel for the water and the conditions. A very impressive venue, one of the best if not the best I've seen for an open water event. After 30 mins or so the swimmers reported the water wasn't to cold (was in fact 25 C ) but there was lots of weed just below the surface, the joys of open water swimming! Back to our accommodation for some R&R while the ladies went and stocked up on groceries, now there is no truth what so ever in the rumour that the beverage bill far out weighed the food bill! Pasta for dinner tonight. Our cabins varied in size, so it was decided that as the cabin being shared by Janette, George and Robbie had the bigger kitchen we would use it for cooking and meals, whilst the Cabin being shared by Paul, Maria and myself would be the party room err room for serious adult discussion. Each of the rooms had a cook top, a microwave and a nice deep dish electric fry pan. These fry pans could double as a camp oven, they could each feed an army, so we knew we'd have to use at least two of them to feed our lot! Whilst Noelene cooked up a big pan of spaghetti Bolognese, our master chef set about cooking up a chicken and macaroni bake (Recipe available, send a stamped self addressed envelope) . To accompany the meal Janette had bought some bread rolls, apparently they were going out cheap, we each had 2 dozen rolls to consume at our leisure! Hunger satisfied everyone sat back and relaxed whilst a few of us did the dishes, now I signed on as head coach for this trip, volunteered to be chief cook, but I don't remember putting my hand up to do dishes, so as I stood there drying dishes I made a mental note to read the fine print on my contract. Whilst the swimmers headed off to bed at the agreed upon bed time the rest of us retired to the party . Err Intellectual discussion room for an active debate on 70's rock n roll. Now Janette for the umpteenth time I'm telling you, Ross Ryan sung the song “ I am Pegasus “ !!!! Our self confessed party animal .um intellectual genius, ran out of steam around the same time as the bottle ran out of bubbles, so we wished Sandra a good night and continued on with our discussion, whilst she turned in early. 6:30 wake up call this morning as George has registration for the 10km event between 7 and 7:45 for an 8am start. All swimmers had to present in full race costume along with their handlers, so whilst George was stamped I received a little green wrist band that said Goonan 26, now I tried to tell them that I was in Fact named Peter by my folks, so it should read Peter or coach, but no, I was to be known for the rest of the day as Goonan 26. It was a fantastic morning for open water swimming, it was quite warm, but overcast, there was only a slight breeze making for flat calm water over the course. George got off to a good start and was swimming comfortably in a mid field pack when he came to the 2.5km feed station. Now I'm not sure wether he disliked what I'd cooked for dinner the previous evening or if he felt sorry for me standing there in the heat, but rather than finishing his whole drink he only had about two thirds and threw the rest over me! Feeling strong at the 5km feed station ( I took no chances this time, held the pole out as far into the water as I could then stepped back as far as I could on the pontoon) George was keen to get on with the race. At 7.5 km all he could say was, “everything F$%#$%$ing Hurts” but he soldiered on gamely to record a Pb and finish the race in 18th place. I was going to ask him about the drink he shared with me at the 2.5km mark but he promptly fell asleep as soon as we got into the car (fords will do that to a person) Noelene's chicken casserole along with my risotto for dinner tonight followed by a large fruit plate, oh and bread rolls. I managed to steer clear of washing or drying the dishes tonight! A word of warning, don't let Sandra anywhere near the stove if you're cooking risotto!!! There was some confusion just after dusk, whilst a few of us were sitting watching TV Sandra came running into the room screaming something about bats. Now I just figured she'd had too much to drink, but on further investigation we did indeed find the skies above teeming with hundreds and hundreds of bats!! I assume they were headed off into theBlue Mountains looking for food. All swimmers in bed early tonight as tomorrow they all have 5km events. The rest of us once again retired to the intellectual's room to broaden our minds. We did this by watching a show called iron chef..hmmmmm and what a strange show it was! This was of course followed by one of my favourites, Rock Wizz. While we all tried our hand at answering the rock wiz questions I noted Sandra very intently studying the back of her eye lids. As there were no more bubbles Sandra once again made an early exit. Now in my considered opinion as coach, I've come to the conclusion that open water distance swimming is just not Sandra's event. She's more a sprinter than a stayer! Early to rise again as both George and Robbie have their 5km event at 8am. As there is no need for a handler during 5km events I was allowed to be Peter today. Conditions today were equal to if not better than they were for yesterdays 10km events. Both George and Robbie swam well, George again recording a Pb and finishing 12th Australian, 6th among 17yo's. Whilst not a Pb this time around, Robbie did improve his ranking for the event moving up 3 places from his initial seeding. Next to swim was Rachelle in the girls 16yo 5km. Rach was very keen to swim a Pb, but weary of the fact she'd missed some training whilst in theUSA attending a schools exchange program. A very determined effort, sticking to our game plan the whole way saw Rachelle record a 60 second Pb and improve 7 places in the rankings to 20th. Our last 5km swimmer for the meet was Caitlin in the 14yo girls age group. Cait went into the event as the 41st and last qualifier but a determined effort backed up with a well swam strategic race left Caitlin with enough energy to put a break of 50 meters on the group she was swimming with and pass 2 other swimmers over the last 1000m to record a 2 minute Pb and make a place leap in the rankings to 34th . Well done to each and every one of our swimmers. Open water swimming is by no means easy, each race presents a different and unique set of conditions, but our team were able to overcome and adapt, and in doing so improve there Australian Rankings! Again well done! Once again we are all indebted to Maria for her diligent work in again finding us wonderful accommodation. Our swimmers train hard over long periods of time to give themselves the opportunity to compete in such prestigious events and it is a credit to Maria to understand and recognise this fact and so provide us with accommodation that will allow each swimmer to perform at their best. And so after the swimmers had showered and changed it was off to the airport. Apparently there was some commotion in the car park just before we left, something to do with a blue bra, now I didn't see anything or indeed I did not toot the car horn repeatedly to draw it to everyone's attention, but I'm told Sandra may know something about it?? The flight home! So far so good, all checked in and no delays! Can't help but wonder why every time there was an announcement made all eyes focused on me, It was like they were daring the speaker to tell us all that once again a flight I was due to take was delayed . . Well readers I can report that the air travel jinx is no longer!!!!! Yes for the first in I don't know how many flights, my plane left on time!!!!!!!! ..hmmm wonder if it had anything to with the bird that crapped on Pauls shoulder for luck earlier in the afternoon? | 
