Memoirs of Aleisha

Fruit salad was breakfast, which I had purchased the day before. Plenty of fluids to sip on to stay hydrated – mostly water, coconut water and sips of gatorade as well. I didn’t end up eating the Cliff Bar and only ate one banana, although had planned on and should have eaten two. And some sports liquid (gel).

Here is what I packed for post-race replenishment:

Didn’t end up eating half of that stuff after the race. But better to be prepared. Basically we had to bring all food and supplies as there would be no opportunity to purchase anything after the race and the one-hour bus ride back. Better to have all the junk food on hand. Just think of all those calories that I would burn off and that needed to be replaced.

There was bus for the Japanese group that would take us to the race venue. Bus left at around 5am and we got to Merizo Pier – the south end of Guam at about 6am. I ate a breakfast of fruit salad on the bus on the way.

Merizo was about an hour away. Some pics of the coastline from the bus window along the way:

Weather and water conditions were looking favourable. Flat and glassy.

We arrived about 6am at Merizo Pier. Race time was at 7am. There were 2 course options: 4km or 8km.
The 4km race started at Cocos Island and you swam to Merizo. This has been the original race course for about 20 years. Swimmers are required to take the ferry across to Cocos Island. A ferry takes the swimmers across there.
Only in the last couple of years have they offered the 8km swim, which is start at Merizo, swim to Cocos Island and then back to Merizo.

Race course:

Time to Grease Up courtesy of the Vaseline table:

Vaseline helps to protect against jellyfish and chafing.

We could see out to Cocos Island. And there was a rainbow. It was a good sign.

Water looked flat for now but it would change once we started swimming.

Cocos Island:

The course marked by about 15 buoys was a curved route, not the most straightest direct route. And the 4km and 8km swimmers all started at 7am. So the 8km swimmers had to make sure to stay right of the buoys so we wouldn’t swim into the oncoming 4km swimmers.

I guess it doesn’t look too far….

Water temp was warm about 24-25 degrees. My ideal water temp although for a long distance race it could have been a bit cooler as it definitely got warm out there as we were swimming. Air temp was in the 30s.

Ready or not:

Number #302. Mind the 4am bedhair that I’m rocking. Not looking my finest in these pics.

Pre-race selfie. All greased up. Goggles. Check. Swim cap. Check. Cossies. Check. Shoulders. Check.

Just after 7am we were off. There weren’t many of us in the 8km swim. As it turned out, only 28 of us. This meant that most of us would be swimming our own race as we’d all be spread out over the 8km swim. They had a couple of hundred swimmers in the 4km swim though. I started off ok. The water was nice and I was really enjoying the swim. It was fun for about the first 2km. There were lots of buoys to follow so that made sighting easy but then they seemed to get further and further apart. I kept swimming but goddamn it that island did not seem to be getting closer. I started to worry a little. I was not getting closer to the island at all. Was there a current? Was I getting pushed back? Was the island being moved further back? Was I moving at all? Were my arms working? Was this all a dream and the alarm clock was going to go off any minute? Sadly the latter was not the case. Nothing to do but keep pushing forward a little stronger.
Lots to think about when you’re swimming 8km.

I thought to myself: “by the time I get to the island/halfway point that will only have been 4km and I have to do it again to go back”. The thought of doubling that and doing another 4km was overwhelming. I even half-wished I would get stung by a jellyfish just so I would have a reason to quit the race. The 4km was mentally tough even though I do 4km most days at the pool. I had trouble sighting the turnaround point. Where was that last goddamn buoy? I didn’t want to miss it because that was where the drinks boat was going to be. Surely enough I saw it. There was a kayak sitting by the buoy. Boy, was I happy to see that. I swam up to the kayak and grabbed a cup of water. I stopped for a mini break whilst treading water. I had two cups of water, and took a gel (I had carried 2 gels with me tucked into my cossies. One for the 4km and one for the 6km point). I asked the guy for the time. It was 8:12am. Alright. Not bad. Was happy with that. 4km in 72min. I had beaten the cut-off time. There was a 75min cutoff time to reach the halfway point. I actually cleared the 4km in about 60-65min because the race hadn’t actually started until about 7:10am. Buoyed by the fact that I was within the cutoff and that I could see a handful of other swimmers behind me, I continued on. At the risk of sounding like an Nike ad, “Giving up is not an option”.

“You’re halfway done”, I told myself. “It’s all downhill. Just take your time going back. It only took you an hour to do 4km. The total race time cut off is 2hr 45min, so you’ve got another hour and half to do the last 4km, and you’re not last. There’s a bunch of people behind you. You can do it”. I entertained myself with thoughts of all the food I was gonna eat after the race. The massage to look forward to. The sightseeing. And oh, the retail therapy I would indulge in after the race. I was going up to hit up the shops as a post-race reward. I almost made a deal with myself before this swim race that I could get myself a Macbook Air if I finished this race. But I decided to save that for passing JLPT level 1 this year. Somehow, I don’t think I’ll be getting a Macbook Air this year. Anyway, I digress. Swimming is awesome for thinking a million thoughts. At least I didn’t have to count laps. Counting 4-5km worth of laps in a 50m pool gets pretty monotonous.

Swimming back to the Guam mainland was harder physically but mentally fine. Sighting was a big problem for me because basically all you saw was the giant landmass of the Guam coastline and from Cocos Island it was hard to spot at what landpoint you should be heading for. We had been told to look for a high mountain/peak with antennas/power lines. Do you know how small antennas are when you are 4km away? And floundering in the water, no less. And when you are shortsighted! One of the best things I had done in the lead up to the race was purchase myself prescription lens goggles. What a world of difference they make. If you knew where to aim for, for the finish spot, you could straight-shot the distance back, but if you couldn’t, you could follow the buoys but that was going to be a longer distance. I ended up following the buoys for most of it but kept well clear right of them so I would be in better alignment for the finish goal.

Everything was getting tired. Shoulders and elbows were getting sore. Even my upper legs were weirdly getting sore. Prior to this race, I had never actually swum 8km in one go. The furthest I ever got to was 7km in a single session, and a couple of 6km sessions. I did do 9km in one day but there was split over a 5km morning swim and a 4km afternoon swim, so 8km in one go was definitely testing me physically. I found the first 4km tough mentally though.

The water was definitely choppier as time passed, compared to the morning’s glassy conditions. Not strong chop, but small and steady and there was definitely a current as the tide picked up. It was a beautiful swimming location though, ideal for beginner endurance open water swimmers.

Finish ramp in sight. I was so happy that I had finished it. Done. Completed. Survived. Hell yeah. This had been a bucketlist swim for a while and I was glad it was over.

Lisa had finished 13min prior to me, and took some photos of me coming into the finish line:

In good form, even 8km later:

Shaky legs: Feeling weird to be vertical again.

Start and finish point:

I loved how they had an ambulance ready and waiting at the finish line. Perfect. There was my ride home.

The post-race selfie (to compare with the pre-race one): Feeling pretty damn happy.

I was super happy with the achievement of swimming 8km. Was very pleased with my time of 2hrs 23 min (and 55 seconds). I got 4th female overall. And Lisa and I dominated in our age category. She took 1st place and I took 2nd place. I even scored me a medal! Fancy that (although am still waiting for that to arrive in the post due to a medal mix-up and someone took my medal home). There was also a 20min difference between myself and the 3rd place woman in our age group.

Mind the swollen goggle-y eyes:

There were only 28 starters for the 8km and I came 14th out of all the men and women. About a third of the men were all military dudes as well, so I was up against a strong bunch of swimmers. I’m not your model swimmer. I’m basically a 30-something year old, overweight office worker. Am not tall nor lean nor even that fit, so was happy to just to swim 8km just to finish the race and swim the distance. And let’s face it, it was an excuse to go to Guam. So basically right in the middle. Pretty much an average swimmer but beat half the people there. Such results were unexpected but I was super happy. I had been super worried that I wouldn’t make the cut off time. And I had never swum 8km before either.

My tongue and lips were feeling super funky.

Cocos Island conquered. Looking pretty damn pleased with myself:

Post-race thoughts: They recommend that you be swimming on average 25km per week in training prep for this swim. Whoa. Really?! I had only been doing about 15km per week. The swim conditions were favourable, I thought, compared to a rougher water ocean swim. I didn’t come across any jellyfish which was awesome. Although jellyfish are a problem for this swim. Water was clean and clear. I got few stings/bites from sealice etc which caused some discomfort during the swim. I didn’t do the swim as comfortably as I thought I would have. So yes, I definitely recommend swimming 20-25km a week. I could have trained more, but time constraints make that difficult. I actually felt like I did a lot of training for this swim, but if I had wanted to finish in a faster time and to do it more comfortably, I definitely would need to train more. For my goals, what I did was sufficient and doable. More training would have led to an imbalance in my lifestyle. For 8km, I always knew I could do the distance. It was more a matter of could I do it in the allocated race time limit. I could potentially have shaved off a couple of minutes if I had wanted to. eg reduce rest/fuel time at the turnaround point. Between the 4-8km mark up, I was also taking periodical sips from my second gel. I also took my time in the second half. The second 4km took me about 10 minutes longer to complete than the first 4km.

Overall though, I felt pretty good considering, after the race. I drank lots. Didn’t have much of an appetite until a couple of hours later. It took several hours for my tastebuds to adjust again. Lips were swollen and pruny. I will admit that I must have peed been about 8 times during the race. This is why I love open water swimming as opposed to a pool. But by the time I got out of the water, I was in dire need of an actual toilet. An 8km swim in the open water is definitely going to cause some bowel movement.

It was then back onto the bus for the trip back to Tumon. On the way back, our bus temporarily broke down along the side of the road.

Race started at about 7am and I was done and out of the water by about 9:30am. The day had barely even begun.

Back to the hotel room, for a much needed shower and relax time. We then had a big celebratory lunch.
Cue meat coma. Needed the protein, what can I say.

Thank Guam for US-sized portions!

Local news wrap up of the race.

And I enjoyed a well-deserved massage later that evening. The poor shoulders and arm!

So that’s my main personal big swim race challenge for the year done. I think I’ve decided that I want to do a destination swim every year. It needn’t be a long swim, just a destination swim race.
I have also stupidly signed up for a 10km swim race later on this yea…well, actually in a couple of weeks time. And not just one 10km swim race but 2! One of them is not until later on though so have another 2 months to train to get up to 10km. Ugh. I blame my housemate. Somehow I’ve been roped into doing them. Thus, the swim training continues. Why do I do this to myself?

And I appear in photo 26 of the photo gallery. Not. At. All. Flattering.

OWS swim #1 2014: Minami-Atami swim (1.5km)

May 30, 2014October 11, 2016memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

It’s that time of year again – the open water swimming season, that is.
I’ve been training hard, or at least training, for the last 6 months or so.
Miles make the champions, so they say.
This year will be the year of some long-distance swims for me, so stay tuned for some hopefully interesting swim race reports.

Swimming has been consuming much of 2014 so far.

First race of the season was last Sunday. Just a baby one of 1.5km. It was technically an aquathlon event, but they did also have a 1.5km swim only option which I signed up for, but only because I knew a couple of other people were going to be there as well. It was a long way to go for 1.5km. Down at Minami-Atami Nagahama beach. Took over 2 hours to get there. But I wanted do at least one open water swim in race conditions before this weekend’s big swim. I also need to practice swimming with gels in my cossies.

The day was warm and humid despite being a little overcast. The water was flat as.

Here is us testing out the water:

The water was surprisingly cold. A chill 19 degrees. I had gone to the beach the day before at Onjuku, and whilst it was refreshing, I was not prepared for how cold it would be down Atami way. Water felt a lot colder. I struggled with it at first.

Our little swimming posse:

I have an extremely high kick in this photo:

The 500m distance was up first, and then they moved the buoys out for the 1500m. It was supposedly a 750m course of which we were to do two laps.

Number 502 is ready to race!

I felt strong and fast through the swim. Everyone went hard out to the first bouy and it felt like I was back of the pack, but come the second buoy I was lapping everyone. And kept lapping more people as did the second lap. I felt fast. But the course also felt short. Really short. It must have been less judging by our times. For a supposed “1.5km”, I got a time of 16min and 39 seconds. My guess is that it was only about a 1km or so. I had a gel pack with me (not that I was going to drink it) and I lost it before I even got to the
first buoy. Must tuck it fully into my cossie. Lesson learnt.

Lisa and I were the only two females in the swim event. She took out 1st place and I took second. She had beaten me by a minute. Such a shame that it was not a proper 1.5km course. How do they even measure these distances? They were basically just riding out jet skis and moving the buoys. But how do they measure the course?

I got a second place female medal. And came 5th place overall (male and female) for the 1.5km swim race.

Indonesia Day 2: Borobudor

May 11, 2014December 5, 2016memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

Have recently just got back from Golden Week holiday in Indonesia . Had an amazing adventurous time. Only spent about 10 days there. Way too short. I totally loved Indonesia. Definitely warrants another visit. So much to see and do there. Only went to Java Island and Lombok region. Went with a friend flying from Haneda to Yogyakarta on Java Island. We decided to avoid Jakarta although we did have a layover there enroute. On the second day upon arrival in Yogyakarta we went out to Borobudur about 1.5-2 hours from Yogyakarta. Borobudur is pretty amazing. It’s the world’s largest Buddhist temple. The stupas (bell-like mounds) are really cool to see. Just the scale of the place is pretty amazing.

From Borobudur

There are apparently 72 of these stupors. Entry into the grounds of Borobudur requires all visitors to wear a sarong (provided) regardless of what you are wearing.

From Borobudur

Pretty fashionable stuff. Cheesy poses are mandatory at all touristy places.

From Borobudur

The grounds are pretty massive surrounded by various gardens and forest. So lush and green, surrounded by low-hanging mist.

From Borobudur

The temple consists of a few different tiers:

From Borobudur

Most people are eager to climb up straightaway to check out the stupas, but the correct ritual is to actually walk around the whole complex three times in clockwise motion. We took the time to do this before entering the temple getting a 360 degree view of the place, all three times.

From Borobudur

The stupa mounds are pretty fun to look at. They kinda look like bells or Hershey kisses or short-handled toilet plungers. They’re so photogenic, one cannot stop taking photos of them. There is after all, 72 of them to look at. And you betcha that I’m going to post a photo of every.single.one.of.them. Just kidding. But I did take a hell of a lot of photos.

From Borobudur

The walls of the temple:

From Borobudur

Check out all the Buddha carvings into the concrete:

From Borobudur

A walk through the garden grounds:

From Borobudur

We had to pass through a maze of street stalls strategically placed enroute to the ground exit full of sellers selling their wares and touristy knick knacks. Mmmm coconut. I love fresh coconut water.

From Borobudur

Borobudur is Indonesia’s single most popular tourist attraction. I can see why.

Indonesia Day 2: Prambanan

May 6, 2014October 8, 2016memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

Borobudur (the Buddhist temple) was then followed by a visit to Prambanan – a Hindu temple. It too, is a popular tourist destination in Indonesia. The city of Yogyakarta is the best place to base your stay for seeing Borobudur and Prambanan. We combined the tour into a single day tour, spending a couple of hours at each. It’s best to join a tour as they are not easily accessible by public transport. There are half day tours left, right and centre for Borobudur and Prambanan. We did the sunrise version which meant getting up at 3am to see the sunrise over Borobudur (more to come on that later). This meant that the tour was done by about 1:30-2pm. The last stop was Prambanan – a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the largest Hindu temple site in Indonesia, and one of the biggest in Southeast Asia. It was kind of Angkor Wat-esque.

Again upon entry, we had to don sarongs that were provided. Entry into both Borobudur and Prambanan require visitors to wear sarongs. We also went through the foreigner entrance. Both places include a light refreshment upon entry – tea, coffee, water.

From Prambanan

Very little information at these tourist attractions are provided in English save for a few notice boards. A lot of the museums were also in Indonesian only. And even though we went on a tour group, there was no guide. Just a driver.

Prambanan suffered some considerable damage during an earthquake. It was also closed to the public earlier this year after being affected by a recent volcanic eruption.

As usual, lots of pics (albeit not very good ones).

The main entrance:

From Prambanan

The weather was insanely warm in Indonesia. All we did was sweat all day. So hot. The kind of place where you have the ac on all night at 18 degrees. And there seemed to be very little shade. I was just constantly hot and sweaty.

From Prambanan

This was what was inside one of the temples:

From Prambanan

Rock carvings:

From Prambanan

Now, I’ll tell you what seemed to be all the rage in Indonesia. Brace yourself.
The selfie stick!
Yes, a stick in which you can attach your smartphone to take a selfie pic.
Short arms? No problem. The selfie stick is here to help.

From Prambanan

I do believe it is someone’s birthday next week. (Nudge, nudge, hint, hint.)

My friend who I travelled with was mobbed everywhere we went. The worst was at the Yogyakarta Palace. But here at Prambanan, she got mobbed again by schoolchildren. They like foreigners. And be foreigners, they like Caucasian English-speaking foreigners. They all wanted photos with her. She was constantly being asked to have photos taken and even fill in homework questionnaires. The schoolkids were given questionnaires to ask various tourists.

From Prambanan

Borobudur: Check.
Prambanan: Check.
And it was only our second day there.

Hakuba Ski Resort in Photos

March 24, 2014October 8, 2016memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

Given my debilitating bout of hay fever that comes with the arrival of Spring, it means that Winter is over. Bring on summer, I say.

No more snowboarding for this season. Ended the season about 2 weeks ago at Nozawa.

But last month, I got to snowboard at Hakuba for the first time. Had only ever been there briefly in the summer many years ago. Hakuba was full of Aussies! Soooo many Aussies! And we’re not a classy bunch. The hotel we stayed at was full of Aussies. We took the shink there this time and then a connecting bus, given the previous week’s failed attempt to get to the ski resort due to the snowpocalypse.

This is how you travel in style:

View from the window of the accommodation, right at the base of the ski slope:

Hakuba is a great ski resort for the village vibe and its facilities. It’s also quite international – plenty of bars and dining options and a few onsens as well. It was one home to the Nagano Winter Olympics back in 1998.

Hakuba ski resort consists of 7 separate mountains, so you need to select your mountain pass options wisely. And the mountains are connected by free shuttle buses. Over two days, we managed to board at 3 of the mountains. Happo-One is best for skiers, not snowboarders. And the runs are quite steep and moguly.

Iwatake was great as was Tsugaike (athough Tsugaike is probably a little more beginner-friendly). Iwatake was pretty ideal out of the three we visited. Would have liked to have spent more time at Tsugaike but only managed to do a couple of runs there.

It was an awesome weekend though. Bluebird days and the mountains and the vista were absolutely majestic.
If a picture speaks a 1000 words, then consider this blog post Homer’s Iliad.

Ogle the Mogles:

EPIC:

JUMP

February 24, 2014October 11, 2016memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

Went snowboarding again over the weekend. This time we actually made it to the ski resort!

Bluebird days and magnificent mountain views.
Plenty of reasons to jump for joy.

The evolution of the snow jump:

From Jump

Oh what a feeling. Hakuba!

From Jump

Defying gravity:

From Jump

Star Jump:

From Jump

Holding up the sun is hard work! You’re welcome.

From Jump

Taking a break:

From Jump

Woo Hoo:

From Jump

Happy Days:

From Jump

If only there were two of me….oh wait, there is!

From Jump

Fun times:

From Jump

Yekaterinburg Photoblog: Part 1

February 21, 2014October 11, 2016memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

It’s time to re-visit or rather finish what I started during my time doing the Trans-Siberian journey. I never did get around to posting the rest of my entries.
I last left off at arriving into Yekaterinburg.

The train arrived into Yekaterinburg really early in the morning. From memory around 5am or 6am.

I would spend the entire day here, with a train booked out that evening at around 9pm or 11pm. I figured I could get in a full day of sightseeing without having to spend a night on accommodation there. Yekaterinburg is a stop worthy of an overnight stay though. First thing first, was to find a shower facility inside the station. Along the Trans-Siberian railway stops, quite a few of the major stations are supposed to have shower facilities. I was keen to try one out and experience it. It’s an experience you’ll probably want to skip.

Here was the awkward looking shower cubicle:

I had my backpack with me and it was a rather small space trying to shower and change, and not get everything all wet.
Shower done. Feeling fresh. Had to spend the whole day on the move since I had no accommodation. Next was to store my backpack for the day in the station luggage holding area which I found in the basement.

Dumped my luggage here (and no that is not my suitcase!):

And then set off for the day, exploring Yekaterinburg. And it was still not even 7am yet.

One of the things that really struck me about Russia was the amount of space, Wide. Vast. Amounts of it. Everything was so wide and big. Such a contrast to Japan where everything is small, compact and compressed.

I passed a bison fur and leather store:

Note, these do not express my personal views on fur.

I loved all the enormous buildings and architecture:

There is also a lot of interesting history in Yekaterinburg. It’s one of the bigger cities in Russia as well being quite the academic hub with a main university here and lots of history and culture.

One of the major tourist attractions here is the Church of All Saints otherwise known as the Church on Blood – so called for it’s bloody history where the last Emperor of Russia and other family members were all murdered here during the Russian Civil War.

The building is pretty magnificent though.

Passed another cathedral – a blue coloured one. Not sure what it was called. It was just an interesting colour.

Stopped for breakfast at some point – pastries and a cup of tea:

Had managed to kill about 1-2 hours of the early morning so far.

I had two main reasons why I wanted to stop at Yekaterinburg. The next post will explain one of the reasons. Enjoy the suspense.

Snowpocalypse

February 15, 2014October 11, 2016memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

Tokyo had some unprecedented snowfall yesterday. Ended up getting stranded and didn’t get home until 6am this morning. What a long cold night it was.

It snowed all day in Tokyo yesterday. Some workplaces declared snow day. All we got was a 5pm earlymark.
When I left the office a little before 6pm, here is what it looked like outside my office building:

It wasn’t too bad. Subways were running (although a few train lines were down).
I headed to Shinjuku where we boarding a bus bound for Hakuba for a weekend of snowboarding.
Our bus left Shinjuku at 7:30pm and we hit the road. It took us an hour just to get out of the city and onto the highway.
We then spent 5 hours on the bus only to travel 50km and we were technically still in Tokyo. Traffic had been diverted off the highways as the highways shut down due to the snow. We just crawled along.

At about 12:30am the decision was made to head back home to Tokyo. By this time we were outside Takaosan train station. There was no way we were going to reach our destination. Snow trip officially cancelled.

Stopped in the middle of the road, where we walked to the nearby train station to use the toilets:

Here are some pics in the middle of the night at the pit stop:

We made it back to Tokyo where the bus dropped us off in Shinjuku. It was now 3:30am and we were stranded in Shinjuku as no public transport was running. They close during the night. Not a single taxi was available either. We tried to hail over a dozen taxis. They were either all full or no one wanted to pick us up.

By this time, we were super tired, freezing cold and wet. Ugh. Sooo cold.

These were the conditions trying to cross the roads in Shinjuku:

With no way to get home, my friend and I camped out a ramen shop where we ate a bowl of ramen at 4am. Even the 24 hour Maccas was closed! They had decided to close at 4am and were only doing takeaway to stop people from camping out inside.

Cars struggling in the snow in Shinjuku:

I finally got home at 6am this morning, once the trains were up and running again at 5am. Had a long hot shower to thaw out, and crawled into bed with my hot water bottle.

There was so much snow for this weekend, but ironically no one could get out to the slopes to enjoy it. All the highways have been shut. Quite the adventurous weekend so far, and it’s only Saturday morning!

Am now settled in for having a bludgey day indoors. It’s freezing though and super slushy outside. although it has stopped snowing.

Here was the view from my balcony this morning: