All I needed to know and more …

… about tropical ulcers. Look them up, they’re gorgeous. I have one the size of a 5c coin in the middle of my right calf.

Fortunately we met a couple of Doctors (literally a couple, husband & wife) at the airport this morning who prescribed & issued antibiotics on the spot.
I’m now keeping it out of suspect water (practically every body of inviting water within spitting distance), bathing it in saline solution and crossing my fingers that the ab’s will kick-in quickly enough to allow me to swim on Tuesday. A bit of a long shot.
On the bright side we’re settling in to our beach front villa. Kelvin’s practising his swimming & I’m off to have a massage after lunch.

Cross #1 off the list

Despite the grey outlook, most of the competitors were happy with the conditions on the morning of the 13th June in Port Vila. The previous day strong winds were raising a hearty chop across the harbour which proved challenging to some of the seasoned swimmers who chose to venture out for a final training session.
The mixed field took off from the start line in a single wave, shortly after 8am. The race leaders completed their circumnavigation in 40 – 45 minutes. The bulk of the field took a little longer.
I was just pleased to tick-off the Port Vila Swim completed -1:05:05.Nice to finish it off. Wasn’t feeling to hot for most of it, so pretty happy with that time. Completely dehydrated (the harbour water seems excessively salty??) and extremely tired afterwards. Went to sleep for about 3 hours. Managed a walk into town around 4pm.
Fortunately the “Awards Dinner” was held at our hotel – we didn’t need to travel anywhere. I managed to eat a little, stick around for the speeches and catch up with a few people we’d met earlier in the week.
PS: It turns out that I was carrying a fairly significant infection at this point, and probably should have been checking in to the hospital rather than the race registration at 8am. Consequently I should be fairly happy with a time that was only 1.30 (approx) slower than last year.