It's a revelation

At Several points through the course of today a life revelation has occured.....

There is no reason to get up at 0400 for fun....with the exception of going on holiday (but even I book more sociable flights now) and round the island....which weirdly is still fun!

I had pre set my kettle ready for ignition and porridge pot on my parents honeymoon camping stove thats still going strong though it really only cooks at a fairly maximum gas blasting speed....good for kettle boiling. Drew the curtain to misty but no mizzle filled campsite, after the chinks of blue sky seem to have held their own overnight and grown.

Northumbrian triathlon here we come or in my mind.....why, i could just sleep.....but now Walnut is already ensconced in her hotel i should probably do it. What else would I now do!

The chat of midges from both the campsite and event pre coming up here proved not to be a lie...... so by 0500 what I would learn would soon become my permanent headwear I was in the transition zone laying out my stuff with my head net on....makes for awkward coffee drinking.

A bit of spying on other people to work out the best way to have my kit laid out when I realised dont be silly speed will not be my friend and I will take a jolly old time and use the changing rooms.

Anyway i had the pleasure of being one of the few people allowed to swim in the Kielder Resevoir unless you fall off your paddleboard and capsize your boat I guess. Flailed myself arou d a two lap swim course pleased to say I did not get tapped by the rescue kayakers to say i was either wildly off course or do I need help you looked like you're drowning.

The water temperature was a nearly 16C not quite warm enough for me to still be able to feel my feet when I got out and try to run walk to my bike....which I seemed to have developed some kind of blindness towards.

All changed and a hop on to the bike and straight uphill out to the bike loop.....a hill I am already dreading at having to walk back up nevermind push my bike at the end! The bike ride was the appeal of choosing this event and that I wanted to originally cycle the route it was meant to scratch that itch........

Absolutely stunning ride would have been more gorgeous with a picnic and a tea and cake stop! But I did love weaving around the sheep and stopped to take some piccies! Not sure others did......

Then came the run....which somehow I started and turned the corner for the second lap....madness I tell you and this time those running photos that look like I am walking arent lying. A 20min toilet stop in the middle probably didnt help and quite simply at then end I was thank fck thats over.

It definitely doesnt help doing something like this when your psyche is no where near and I continue to struggle to be disciplined enough  to train consistently to make these things enjoyable or feel successful. Especially when you are surrounded by far busier people who manage pretty well. 

The fun coincidental thing about these events is the people you meet.....the last in Snowden i randomly bumped into Paul Brotherton and this ine I bumped into Katherine Vials with full support family Graham and 3 kids in tow.

I had a no doubt body saving 15 min rub down and then dragged crawled myself uphill to the car....i would have paid for a shuttle! 

Managed not to fall asleep on my way back to the campsite to be fair its only 15min and that would be a record even for me and then a shower before I completely broke, lobstered to boot and then couldnt function.

A second wind was needed becuase I was off to stand on Mars and tpuch the moooooon. Yes you read it right

The Kielder Observatory is here as i am in an area designated a Dark Sky Park due to lack of light pollution. I had sensibly (because i didn't have walnut, not sensibly because i xould barely stay awake) book a spot at the Onservatory for some star gazing and understanding the Origins of the Universe. Which I shall not try to do justice to here and merely share the highlights. We on Earth are unbelievably small part of something so vast that we still have largely unproven theories on. Created from an equally unbelievably tiny point of energy. If Climate change doesnt get us the Sun will as its getting nearer.....or our galaxy collides with another. But we will never find out!

I held a piece of rock older than Earth that looked a bit like a plastic poo, but when sliced open looked like steel and was some weird fusion ( not the correct scientific word) of metals that has a pattern that cant be recreated on Earth and was named after the dude who tried but couldnt polish it out and is actually from the Meteor belt that possibly could have been a planet but the other planets messed it up!

There is a load more I half learnt including our tiny sun is a fairly unique lonely yellow dwarf star- they usually hang out in pairs!

But I also stood on Mars and touched the mooooooon!

Then officially  collapsed