How it all began...

All good stories have a beginning. The beginning of this one is an entry to a competition for a brilliant prize sponsored by ZipVit and tri247. The task: answer a simple question to win race entry to either Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon, New York City Triathlon, Washington DC Triathlon or Chicago Triathlon and a generous £500 towards travel expenses. 


Now with this kind of competitions it is always the case that I NEVER win. Ok, never is a lie... a couple of years back I was lucky to guess the winners of the Golden League right (something only 14 people on this lovely planet managed) and was invited to the World Athletics Final in Monaco. Since then I haven't won a thing, I swear. So I thought, what the heck enter this and the chances that I win are, well unlikely.


Based on this thinking I thought, so now, which one of these would I want to do? New York and Washington? Nah... been there, didn't really like either city that much (sorry New Yorkers). Chicago? I don't really know anyone there. Alcatraz? Well, it's one of the most challenging and iconic triathlons in the world, all my friends tell me I'd love San Francisco, I've never been there, the weather is likely to be nice (-ish) and I know someone there! So in my youthful enthusiasm, without actually looking at what this particular triathlon entails, I've plumped for the Escape from Alcatraz. Might just as well pick a real challenge!


Off the e-mail went - and then as usual, I forgot about it. Until...


I've actually had a rather miserable week with lots of negative talk coming from work. It wasn't all smelling like roses. So in my usual routine, I opened my e-mail over breakfast, nothing much in the Inbox, quick look in the Spam folder.... Uh? Congratulations on winning the ZipVit competition... Ah, yeah... one of those... nearly marked it and clicked "Trash". Then thought again... and just clicked to open.


The rest is screams. A rather pale girl slurping her coffee and eating her porridge. Reading again. 


I'VE WON!!! 


And it says I get to go to Alcatraz! Oh GOD!!


Now I'm sure at this point I could have changed my mind and said, well actually, let's do New York, but that thought never crossed my mind. Instead, I went and googled the Escape from Alcatraz... so many unanswered questions:


- When was it?
- How far was it?


Both questions made me gulp for 2 reasons:
I've been training, but not swimming a whole lot. I've just decided to plump more for sprint triathlons and give qualifying for the European Age Group Champs 2012 a go. So the beginning of June, was only 2 months away and it's right after the week for the qualifying race.
And second: I'm terrified of open water swimming. I manage in a lake, but I've never swum in a river let alone the SEA! A small detail I overlooked in my enthusiasm and belief I wouldn't win anyways. A whole 1.5 miles in the sea... oh dear.


However, that all kind of paled into the background! I'd won! I'd go to San Francisco! I'd get my vacation finally after 7 years of not having one and slaving away over my PhD, I'd get to go away! Somewhere nice, somewhere new, with lots of adventures on the horizon.