Home is where your heart is…

It’s day 20 in Germany. I arrived on Saturday 28^th late in Hannover, after 2 days of crazy driving, too much coffee, a terribly sore back and 2850km. The day after I still felt physically terrible, it was worse than the journey back from Australia. I couldn’t think, was dissy and veeeeery tired. Meanwhile I got used to training here in flat Hannover, the first 4h ride I went like proven on my travels with my very own navigation system:

Swimming is nice in the stadium pool, just a bit challenging not to hit the granny’s and granddads who are mostly going in pairs, chatting during their breast stroke vertical position style J

Just 5min from where my brother lives is a lake with a nice 5,8k track around, so running is going well too.

You have a lot of time to think when you are out there on your bike or feet and I have many things to think about. But there is one major thought in my head and heart, hanging there like a smog cloud over a busy city: What am I doing here? And: was it the right decision I made?

When it comes to decision making we base them on certain reasons. There are reasons that come from your head and the others that come from your heart. My decision was based on both head and heart. It seemed all very clear. After 6 years in Spain it was time to move back to Germany, where my family is. Job situation is better here and some private reasons played a role as well.

Normally you feel bad until you’ve taken an important decision; once it’s taken you’re fine with it and can work towards the next station. I did that. My travel to Australia was part of the decision, a little break for my soul before I start over again. When I came back to Spain it felt strange, because it was like home, but no home there anymore. Even though I had beautiful 2,5 weeks and I loved every single moment of it. I enjoyed to ride on my beloved roads with or without my friends, loved to get up at 6 and jump in the water at 6.30am for the swim session with posterior breakky, loved to drive around well known places…

after swim breakfast

                                     

And then the moment came that I had to say goodbye to my friends and to the places that had become so familiar during the last years. When I left Marbella with my car I cried many tears, they came back every now and then during the 2 days and I felt like I was cheating on my Spain.

The first days here in Germany have been quite nice concerning weather issues, but lately it sucks. I just finished the last tough training week, yesterday 6h of riding with grey sky, massive clouds, rain, and heavy blasts. But yesterday it wasn’t freezing. Today 2h15min run with rain, 14º and heavy wind. I think if this isn’t preparing me mentally for the Ironman, I really don’t know what can prepare me.

bike ride panorama

yes, we did ride the same day, the sunny girl and the rainy brother in terms of clothes ;)

fast but dirty rain running shoes

I’m getting to know this city, its surroundings, the bike and run tracks… but I always ask myself: is this my home? At the moment, home is maybe a bit difficult to define, in terms of job and daily routine. But I’m thinking a lot about this phrase: home is where your heart is. Right now my heart hasn’t arrived yet. On one hand you have your family; they are always there, no matter what. And then there is the family you pick, the people who live your every days routine with you, who make you free time something special, these guys you spend a lot of time with, share good and bad moments, who call you, who ask you how you’re feeling. You don’t find them too easily; it takes time to create this amazing thing called friendship.

I’m just becoming aware of what I had. Unfortunately you have to lose something to get to know what you had. When home is where your heart is and mine is in two different places, do I have a broken heart? How long does it take to heal? Do I want it to heal? Or just go back to where I think my heart is and see what happens?

I’d never thought that I would say that: I miss the sun. 20C of temperature difference today.

2 weeks to go for IM Austria. I start to see the race, to see myself in the race. I’ll just store my heart in triathlon until the race to make myself feel home. After the Ironman I’ll take my time for research. Meanwhile there’s always internet to keep in touch.

Did the tiger move to Germany? Wasserstadt Triathlon Hannover

A beautiful day for racing! Sunday 5^th June at 12h the last big test for IM Austria was on the plan, a half IM distance race called Wasserstadt Triathlon Hannover Limmer. I’ve been around the area on Saturday already to watch my brother race a sprint distance, which here in Germany is without drafting. I’ve never seen disc wheels or aero helmets in a sprint triathlon and it was kind of funny to see.

Our wave start was at 12h midday, we headed over to Limmer around 10am to get everything organized with time, I hate having to hurry before a race, enough hurry in the race ;)

The sun was burning down on us already, I walked around with my holy water bottle as usual, racked my bike, prepared the running shoes and already famous white compression socks (hey they are fantastic to recognize for the photographers ;), went to the race briefing (5min, nothing new), hugged my brother and tried to avoid direct sun, which was really complicated.

As proved in Sydney my Ipod was with me this time again. The prior days to the race I have felt quite tired and not very strong; I was a little bit concerned about that, but took the moment to sit down next to a goal on the socker field where the transition zone was to concentrate and focus on my race. Bruno Mars helped on that with “on the other side” which in this case for me meant: the finish line. I went mentally thru the race the swim, transition, bike, transition, run and finish line, took a deep breath and was ready to go.

I headed down to the swim start, a canal like in Roth and some good memories. I was in the last wave start, I’ve no idea  how many people but not too many, clean one! Waiting for the run to get off a girl next to me without wetsuit sais “the water is quite warm, no wetsuit needed”, I smiled at her and thought: yeah, but I like that little help to get the butt up ;)

The gun got off and the party started. It was not too bad, I just had to avoid some feet close to my chin but within a minute I was out of trouble and the water felt good. About 3 minutes later I heard my dear friend Jules when she told and showed me about how to draft in the swim and I started to look for a nice pair of feet, or better, a nice hip to sit on. And I found it. It was the “the water is quite warm” girl, I tried to pass her, but it took me too much effort and I remembered some other words from last year Pre-Regensburg when Jaime said: if you try to pass someone on the swim and you just can’t, sit on these feet. And so I did. I went with the ZeroD black trisuit (the expensive lovely one with the flowers on the shoulder ;) almost thru the whole swim and I loved it. We passed the buoy together and on the way back we had some awesome under water sceneries, clear water with long seaweed stretching out its tentacles to us, tickling in the face swimming over it… I don’t remember 1,9k passing by so quickly (it was a bit less than 1,9 due to a ship parking on the former turning point…) The way out of the water went over some stairs up to a boat, over that boat and a long way to the transition zone.

I made my way quite fast into transition, got rid of the wetsuit very well, grabbed my powertap tuned light blue old lady and out on the bike course. My legs felt bad at the beginning and I had to slow down my energy to not get over the Watts set by the coach. I thought of Lu, my best girlfriend, training partner and rocking athlete who just finished Brazil in a fantastic time, some days ago talking about Ironman Brazil she said to me: Santo Powertap, holy powertap… people were passing me, but I just thought: you guys wait, I’ll get you later, we had 3 laps to go, not one. The first lap I had to control my legs, they wanted to go faster than my head, but my butt was hurting, normally this feeling comes around km 80 of a long ride, the burning muscles, but it was already there. I focused on the numbers on the little yellow computer and went fast, with a sweet tailwind at the beginning which turned into sidewind which turned into head wind. On the second aid station my brother passed me like an airplane, shouting out “come on Kirsten get the tiger out!” My respond: “no worries, the tiger will come! Later!” and let him go.

On the second lap I had got used to control the watts, enjoying the riding and seeing the fast pace on the cervo (aka cycling computer). Half way thru the second lap my dear back decided to challenge my head, it started to hurt and got worse, but I stayed in the aeroposition trying to move a bit back and force on the saddle to change posture… On the third lap the wind got stronger. I heard my coach “you don’t care about wind, watts are watts” and so I didn’t. Controlling myself on the little uphills (it was a damn flat bike course, 440m on 90km) and pacing on the flat, tailwindy kind of downhills. Holy powertap! I caught loads of people on the last lap ;)

I was glad to get into transition and rack my bike there, getting my sore back in an upright position. It reminded me heaps of my Ironman races, it’s always like that. I had some hope that it would be different this year, as I didn’t experience back problems in my training lately, but maybe 2 days and 2850km in a car aren’t very good for an athlete’s back?

So, bike stored, socks and shoes on, race cap and gels grabbed and out on the 21k, 2 laps to go. My face was covered with salt; I realized it at the beginning of the run and tried to get water into my face and cool down a bit. It was really hot now and sun was burning. The first part of the run course wasn’t very friendly, a lot of curves and different soils made it hard to find a steady pace and my head was burning. First gel on the run at min 30.

On the next aid station I spotted a white capped white top black bottom guy walking in front of me and I thought “you see? I told you the tiger would come” even if I didn’t feel the tiger. My legs were tired and without power to push. I got onto him and said “hello my love!”, his answer: “no, that’s not possible!” And we ran together. 3 years ago my brother and I had planned to get over Roth’s finish line together but it failed by 20sec. Now we were running side by side, sometimes I went a bit in front, sometimes he did. We stopped at the aid stations to cool down a bit (they had water hoses there, great thing!!!) and get enough liquids into the body. After the second gel at min 60 I decided that I didn’t want more of them… I got a shower and finally got rid of the salt in my face and felt a bit better.

The last 8k really hurt. I couldn’t help but groan or swear sometimes to keep going. My legs wanted to walk but I didn’t. At one point my brother said: come on we’ll suffer this together to the finish line. And so we did. The last 150m to the finish line went uphill and we paced up until we got there, he grabbed my hand 30m before the line and it was awesome! I couldn’t physically but that special thing gave me an extra push to get the last reserves out of the body. And the tiger. He came, even if it was only for the last 150m.

I sat down just behind the finish line and started to sob… Glad it was over and happy for this very special race that we couldn’t have planned better.

4 weeks to IM Austria and still some work to do. E.g. get my back fixed and regular massages. I failed a bit on that part lately, but it isn’t that easy when you move around all the time…

When we picked up the bikes and headed to the car I stopped by the results, and there it was: 3^rd in my age group. We weren’t too many, but even though that’s a great effort for me, beating my personal best in half distance by 40minutes. You can’t compare one race to another, but 40min is not only due to the course.

4 weeks to go. 4 weeks to feed the tiger and get him tuned for the long one. 4 weeks of pro life, even if I have to get focused on real life bit by bit. I don’t know where I will stay, where I will work, where I will live. I don’t even know where I want to live right now. I’m feeling happy when I’m sitting on my bike. The only consistency in my gipsy life ;) The gipsy and her tiger…

Same same but different

I’m back in Spain after more than 2,5 months traveling thru Australia and some days in England. It was a new sensation coming “home”, as I have decided that this here is not my home anymore. There was no welcome committee, no one had asked my arrival time… that’s the thing, if you decide to move on with your life, everyone else does too and that’s good! I know my friends’ life’s here as it used to be mine as well, so I knew what they’ve been doing.

Well, I’m lucky to report that my bike arrived in one piece, 13 flights and no damage; I think that’s worth it to mention!

One of my working colleges and friends picked me up from the bus station and gave me a lift to another friend’s house and on Sunday I hit the well known highways with my bike, riding with 2 friends after a long time. And now I can say: I got faster. We rode for 4h on my flat favorite course and I felt great, despite the last 10min effort where I was pretty tired yet. A 30min brick run and a refreshing leg icing in the Mediterranean Sea afterwards. Damn, what a difference to the Pacific Ocean! But hey, the Pacific doesn’t provide the icy part ;)

That was the Sunday, on Monday I went back on the road with my bike, 4,5h this time on my own. A kind of rolling hills course which got me to a place where I’ve been only once before and which reminded me of some important things:

2010. My first year training with a coach, Jaime. After 3 IM distance races I had decided to change something, because you can’t expect better results using the same recipes. The first weeks went well, until I got tired and started to struggle. And I made so many mistakes. I started to question myself and the training, I was tired and unmotivated and every time I couldn’t ride or run the paces I was meant to, I was overwhelmed. Too many days I looked at my plan in the morning and I knew already that I wouldn’t be able to do what was written there. And so it was; the famous self fulfilling prophecy. And the worst mistake: I didn’t talk with my coach. He had no idea about what was going on in my head and heart; he just saw the training resumes which weren’t very amazing. I expected him to tell me something, without acting by myself. I think I wasn’t prepared badly last year, but the result of the doubts and the hesitating was a mental break down in the race where I walked the last 10k. But I finished, crying on the finish line like so many times before in my training and happy that it was over. That the season was over.

One of these struggling weekends my friend Tarne was visiting Marbella, she brought her bike to train and I perfectly remember the Saturday: I was supposed to swim and run and she wanted to ride. I felt terrible. I wanted to ride with her, my plan said a different thing and again I thought I was doing bad if I went riding. At the end we went riding together, talking during 4h or more about riding, training and the life. She gave me some motivation back this day because I noticed that I was not riding too badly. I had to forget to think about what I was doing, or better what I was or wasn’t able to do. The point where we turned was the same point where I found myself this Monday.

On Monday stopped up there, remembering this day last year and all the tears I’d cried. And I was feeling so happy this time. It was a beautiful day and standing at this same point I became aware of the changes I’ve made. Not in the way that everything was bad last year and is perfect now. It was just the same place, the same bike, the same weather and the same person, but so different.

beautyful Cadiz

The big change I was remembered of this moment was my training, the results of it and the communication with my coach. I guess I had to learn to be trained. I had to learn to trust him and myself. I had to learn to verbalize my doubts and questions and to accept the answers. I had to learn to enter the pain box and to enjoy it. And I did.

It’s like with other things I wrote about in this blog: at the moment you start trying and just let life happen, it works. And it's about thinking what you're able to do, not what you're not able to do, the question if the glass is half full or half empty. Mine is half full ;)

 As Jaime said to me one day: you need to trust yourself, you can do it. Thank you coach!

37h

I’m still in a commonwealth country, but on the other side of the world, Europe has me back. It was a long way to go; at least it felt longer than the way to Australia. Getting up at 6am I drove the McKenzie car to Brisbane, where I met Luke’s sister who took me to the airport. From there at 1.15pm to Sydney and at 4.30pm I left Australia direction Bangkok, 9h flight. I did not sleep on that one, just tried to stay awake to be able to sleep on the next flight. That one was not too bad, I had a free seat between me and the girl next to me, so we could relax a bit better and I could stand up whenever I wanted. Had some funny chat with the stewardesses and it felt quite quick that we got to Bangkok. I had a bit of a flashback on Bangkok airport, not a long time ago I’ve been there…

The next one was much longer, 13h but felt even longer. I slept quite a lot and didn’t see many movies, but I couldn’t move too much, due to a sleeping couple next to me (remember: don’t pick a window seat when you travel long). I laughed about myself at the end of the flight, I have had 13h to watch a movie, but I wasn’t able to finish it, because we were landing quite quickly ;) Was a good one: the tourist (or maybe it was not so good, my mind was just too tired to distinguish?)

Anyway, after a bus ride and a taxi I got to Tarne’s house, dropped my bags, took a shower and went to the center, I haven't had a big plan, just wander around and stay awake, which was difficult already. Nero caffe is my best friend these days ;)

I jumped off the tube at Oxford Circus and started to walk. Again no shopping but many shops I entered. I love London for its little special shops, of course you find the big stores as well, but I’ve never seen this big variety of small, cute, special not mainstream shops packed with fashion, jewelers and accessories. I kept walking, bumped into Camden town without willing it (more shops), then Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. The last time I was in London I haven’t seen any of these places, but maybe my travel experience gave me a good intuition to find the right sights. Next to Trafalgar Square I entered the National Gallery, my goal was: stay awake until 4pm, a short nap and then a run with Tarne, dinner and hit the hay.

Cool and decided to develop my cultural knowledge I entered the National Gallery, grabbed a map and went into the first of fifty something rooms stuffed with paintings. And there came the question: what is art? Many of the paintings in the National Gallery reminded me a bit of the typical Bavarian forest landscape with a dear on it… I just wandered around, looking here and there and studying the ones I kind of liked. Well and then, in room number thirty something I thought: wow, I know that one, a van Gogh, more than one actually. But the one I knew were the sunflowers, a famous piece of linen with yellow flowers.

Between van Gogh, Rembrandt and Monet I started to feel a bit dizzy, well, actually not a bit, I could have sat down on one of the banks and passed out without any problem. But I didn’t. I was just admiring the museums’ guards. They are sitting in room for I have no idea how many hours and just observe and prevent that someone touches the paintings. They reinforced my will to stay awake, I think they were almost as tired as I was, but couldn’t even move around! It felt a bit like an Ironman marathon, when every part of your body is hurting already but you keep going, because you’re decided to get to the finish line. My finish line was 4pm. And I did it. Well, I went almost to every room of the Gallery, one of them made me feel really bad, a modern artist whose name I can’t remember, had painted heaps of circles on a big wall, black circles on white ground, looking at it the circles started to move and chaise each other, that was the point when I decided to get some water and head back home. And I did so.

I miss Australia. I’m excited to see my friends again, but I miss these smiling people and the obligatory question: Hi, how are you today? And the answer “oh, I’m fine/tired/good/whatever, how are you?” Over here the most you get is “hi” and no smile. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why people like Australia so much. It is a happy country. And happy countries make unhappy people happy.

On Thursday morning at the pool, just finished a 100m set I got pushed by a woman yelling at me “you hit me!!” I had overtaken her and touched her slightly. And I realized again: I’m a quite happy, positive person and many people aren’t. I guess somehow I mastered the part of all the self development books that say: see the challenge, not the problem.

I’m going to face lots of challenges in the next weeks. Once I get to Germany I’ll have to find out where to stay, what do to and how to move on. Since I touched European ground I start to look forward to have something like a home again. Almost 3 months living out of a backpack was fun, but I think being able to say “I’m coming home” will be a nice feeling as well. But as I said before: it’s not important where you are, it’s the people surrounding you making you feel home. But hey, a wardrobe is a nice accessory too?

The end of a big journey and the beginning of a new one

I’m sitting @ Brisbane Airport, after a long travel thru Australia and to myself. Right now it feels quite unreal that I’m leaving, this place has become home for a while and I don’t realize how far it is from where I go to.

Since I’ve come back from Cairns I spend some days in Noosa and on Fraser Island. I missed out to see the Whitsunday Islands, so at least I went to Fraser, world heritage listed and with 123km length and 22km at its widest point the largest sand island in the world. I was lucky to get a small group of 17 people to go across the island in a 4wheel drive bus. We were also very lucky with our tour guide, a professional photographer (http://www.petermeyerphotography.com/) who lives on the island for 15 years already and got us to spots other tourist don’t go to.

lake mckenzie

driving on clouds

maheno wrack

2 days of beautiful nature, crystal clear lakes to swim and heaps of bumpy rides on the big bus. After these 2 days I spent the night in Hervey Bay to see my friend Jules race (yes the one of the tiger).

The last days were quite intense, yesterday night we had an unexpected lovely dinner at Jules’ house with a couple of friends and some good laughs, after a day on Noosa beach and last Australian fast tanning sun.

My luggage is checked already (by the way, I am a lucky person, I called Qantas about a week ago to make sure that they’d apply the British airways luggage fee and not the Qantas one), they put a remark in my booking and at the end there was such a confusion I didn’t got charged at all for my bike. Just for the record, international Qantas luggage policy could have cost me close to 1000AU$, in the best way 175AU$ for the national flight plus 40BP for the long flight to London, plus would have had to recollect and checked again. They just smiled and said, “Okay, luggage goes directly to London”. Good sign for the travel ;)

When I arrived here I was tired, confused and unsecure about what would happen during my stay. I didn’t know a lot about this country I had chosen for my journey. Today, 74 days later I’d call this place part of my heart, a second home maybe which was always good willing and kind. I am aware that I’m not only lucky with my luggage, but with so many different things:

I am lucky to know people who welcomed me with open arms and lend me their house to stay, I can’t say thank you often enough Luke and Amanda!

I’m lucky to have taken this opportunity to travel on my

own during 2,5months.

I’m lucky to have met so many lovely people, most of them I mentioned in my posts. It’s not about expanding the facebook friends list; some of them have made their way into my heart, in their very own ways and I hope to see them very soon.

I am lucky catch up with some of these guys soon in Germany, in Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Roth and some places I still ignore. And not a long time to go, I’m counting the days already.

I made my journey; it was MY journey, filled with joy, sadness, smiles and great moments. I realized that you don’t need a lot to be happy. Actually, when I packed my backpack yesterday I thought that I still have too many things in there. 16kg plus the bike bag, but still too much. I haven’t bought many things here, a couple of cushion cases for my future couch, 2 t-shirts and a pair of thongs. That’s all. I could have seen a lot more of Australia, but my journey wasn’t so much about filling a list with destinations, but live the moment and be happy, prove myself and be content just with who I am.

I can’t tell where or how, but I found myself and I’m happy and good with what I found. It was a long way, I got upset and angry I cried, I laughed, trained hard, said hello and goodbye many times, I danced, ran, cycled, swam, dived and played in the sun. Somewhere in between it just happened. Maybe in the moment I stopped looking for it.

Until the moment I’ve taken 12 flights, 3 to go, spent almost 70h on planes when I’ve arrived in Spain. I’ve slept in 13 different beds (that sounds weird), I’ve packed my bike 8 times, unpacked it 7, logged 16 dives, had 3 really long nights, cycled 2300km, ran 400km and swam over 100km (and that’s pretty bad compared with my friends from Noosa). I lost my fear of flying (just proven on some heavy turbulence) and the brakes on my bike work a lot less than they did when I’ve arrived. And I’ve now been to 5 of the 5 continents.

I found out that the person I love most in the world is my brother. I’m a triathlete and a diver. I’m 80% German, 20% Spanish, I love veggies, coffee, mango smoothies and got addicted to sweet potatoes. And I love Australia.

Now I’m on my way back to Europe, can’t name it “home” right now, that’s the new journey that starts once my feet touch the ground in… I don’t even know where it starts. In London? In Malaga? When I start the long drive to Germany? Who knows, somewhere in between.

I’ve lived quite a bit in the McKenzies house, but just a few days ago I read text, posted on their fridge:

When we travel we cast off the labels that normally define us. We can re-evaluate the habits, beliefs and values that are handed down by culture. There is a moment in a good journey when you realize who you are – independently of roles, money, conveniences and comforts. That is the moment when you value yourself as “just” a human being, it is the realization that if you want to flourish, you had better start with a deep valuation of humanity. Travel is consciousness-raising. (Lindsay Oishi 2005)

I think there’s nothing more to add. But no worries, I’ll keep writing!

Cairns' Characters

Cairns, probably the best time I had in Australia, switching to low budget accommodation or no budget accommodation (last blog) and parking my triathlon me for some days on a shelf, turning on the party me. I came to Cairns after my Sydney race on Tuesday 12^th April and had planned to stay until Sunday or Monday. It turned into the other Sunday and I changed plans 100 times while I was there.

My home in Cairns was beautiful, caring and lovely Travellers Oasis, a backpackers place with tons of charm, funny paintings all over the place, a small salt water pool and 3 different little houses where you find your 3 bedroom dorm for a quiet sleep (or more intimate rooms if you pay a bit more). Not too big and not too small. You also find two kitchens, several bathrooms and showers and for triathlon weirdos like I am a storeroom where you can let your bike without any worries.

It is totally easy to meet people in these places, everyone is travelling alone; and Cairns has a special atmosphere, a small city with a beautiful climate and good vibes. I met loads of people and spent some more time with the following special characters:

Ben half Italian half American, 37, lives in London. Ben is an engineer working on projects as a freelancer, travelling for several months in between. He lives in London, good dancer, fantastic to characterize people around with. He doesn’t understand why women love the Twilight character Edward ;)

Jakob (twenty something), Denmark, bachelor finished, master to initiate. Very handsome fellow, good runner, but lazy ;)

Lewis (twenty something), Canada, studies engineer. Healthy guy, good dancer and quite mature and funny. Travels for several months as well. I’ll probably re meet him on Fraser Island.

Scott, 23, from some boring village near Cambridge/United Kingdom. Worked in retail in a stationary shop with mostly 50 year old women. A massive talker and so incredibly funny, that he should run a comedy show. Cooks all his meals, doesn’t tan (British skin) and should focus on his legs as well in the gym.

Scott was my first contact at Traveller’s Oasis, we shared a room, and now he’s working there for free accommodation. I might be wrong, but I think this guy has talent. You can’t imagine how funny can be a story about a flight with Air china and a meal on Taipei’s airport where he got served an egg which was actually brown, not white anymore, out of this ridiculous british mouth, I love it!

Scott, keep on writing your journal, you’ll need it for you show!

John, 31, Wales/United Kingdom. Works at Travellers Oasis, philosophy: work 4 years, travel 4 years. Laughed a lot with him, he liked seeing me messed up in Cairns. Anything you want to know about trips and information around Cairns, ask him! You might also see him dancing (on tables?) @ The woolshed ;) I didn’t see him by myself, but I’m pretty sure you can have a big night out with this mate.

Tobbe, 21, Sweden. One of the most relaxed and easy people I’ve met. He wants to study photography. So sweet. I actually have no idea if he has a girlfriend, but girls: watch out for this one, he’s a catch!

Marius, 26, Norway. Marius is a social worker, good photographer and I saw him as a philanthropist. He loves his job (I hope I can say that one day too). He was good for me in the way that he made me see again that it is not important how fast I swim, bike or run or if I have abs or not. I mean, I know that it’s not about that, but in this sporty world I moved for quite a bit in the last months it is easy to lose focus on what really counts. You see Marius and see this bad guy image, big piercings and tattoos, but behind that bad boy image you find a beautiful, lovely and caring person who has perfectly found his place in the world I think. Something I’m still looking for.

I am so happy that I met all these people and they made my time in Cairns unforgettable. I had great days and big nights out, got messed up, drunk and danced on tables. I needed that for my mental health, even if it’s a bit difficult right now to get back into a normal training routine. It feels a bit like leaving Cairns was the end of my long holidays; it was definitely one of the best parts and I want to come back. Maybe next year, race Challenge Cairns, store the bike and go for diving and party. Or just come back without a bike, to enjoy the city, the reef and the people. You’re gorgeous!

PS: I have to mention another character: "goon", supposed to be wine, but there are some ugly ingredients in it...