You can try and employ as much consistency and routine into your life as possible, but the only consistent cog that will keep turning is the one of change. On paper, this week looked like an exact replica of the last. We planned to run another 85km, swim 10km, do 4 gym sessions and fit in 2 adventures. An intense week but one that we could manage.
Things were going swimmingly, literally, we were starting to see some improvements with our swimming times and feeling more confident about the upcoming SwimRun in Bali.
Midway through the week Jackson and I were on the motorbike back home to Moalboal. It had been a large morning, up at 3.15am and on the bike by 4am for a two hour ride to Oslob, followed by a swim with the magnificent whale sharks. During the ride we went into a corner and the bike slipped out from under us on a corner nearly sliding into the railing alongside the road. We both came off heavily on one side, taking a lot of skin off the left side of our bodies. Fortunately, there was no damage to either of our heads and neither of us were seriously injured.
That was our second crash within the week, a bit silly right? Luckily clutch handles only cost 20 cents to replace. (There is always a positive.. I’m sure it would have been an expensive thing to replace if it happened in Australia.
Time to fly to Bali
I managed to get another run and swim in, but within 24 hours my ankle had blown up like a balloon. I knew there was no structural damage as I had only just ran half-marathon that morning so it had to be an infection. I couldn’t believe how quickly things changed. One minute I could see my ankle bone, and the next, my ankle looked the same size as my quadricep. I went to the local Filipino doctor who was quick to sort me with some antibiotics and other necessities for open wounds. Jackson on the other hand, had a very sore wrist from the crash.
We returned our Jeep and headed to Cebu City to catch the flight, I was very glad to be driving instead of on the motorbike. My last international flight for the year, we boarded to head to Denpasar in Bali. A huge day of transit from 4am to 1am the next day put us in Canggu, Bali. Off 4 hours sleep, we ran another adventure bag cleanup. What a wild 48 hours!
Adventure Bag Cleanup Canggu
We had another fantastic turn out for the Adventure Bag Crew, with around 40-50 people showing up. We filled another whole small truck with trash which was kindly collected by the recycling team at eco bali. Like Philippines, Bali has a huge issue with plastics. A problem Jackson and I have been pushing hard to show the reality of on social media. Thank you to everyone that turned up and spread the word even further. These events, not only do they make a small but immediate impact, they leave a butterflying impact too. They leave an impact that cannot be measured, from all the onlookers, no-one will ever know if these people were inspired and in the future go and pick up rubbish on their own accord.
When we finished the cleanup, we went to the main hospital in Bali to see what was happening with Jackson’s wrist. After spending many hours there, and deliberating with the staff about what we wanted to do and how they were going to do it, we found out that Jackson has a small fracture in his wrist. We were now 5 days out from the SwimRun… what were we going to do? We had a semi-plaster put on his wrist and decided that we would leave it there till the day of the race.
This was hard to digest for us, after putting our heart and soul into training for the last month in preparation for the SwimRun, we weren’t sure if we were even going to be able to compete. Dealing with this disappointment was an interesting mental test for both us, especially Jackson. The lingering questions were – Should you feel sorry for yourself or how long do you take to move from the pity? The mental approach and reaction is usually a lot more important than the incident/accident.
Our tactic was to rest Jackson’s wrist up until the race, tape it heavily and hope for the best!
So what was planned to be a straightforward week of training and adventure bag collecting, really turned into quite the whirlwind leaving us both physically and mentally exhausted.
Above it all, we learnt a lot and will continue to learn from the situation. Not to mention, swimming with whale sharks and collecting over 50 bags of trash, what a week!
I can’t wait for the SwimRun next week!
Big Love,
JL
“You are the catalyst, the action, the change, and the result. – Josh Lynott”
