KONA Countdown: 32 days to go – by Andre Piehl

​That question that we all grapple with – is there a perfect balance between work, family, friends and triathlon?  

I am not even going to call it ‘health’ because when you hit the Iron Man distance there is NO balance and its not for health reasons.

​As my wife Sharon once said – “Iron Man is a cult”.

Since then it has been part of my life and every now and again when I decide to go for a BIG one (nothing bigger than KONA), then all balance goes out the window.  Every spare second is taken up by some form of training, doctors appointments, visits to the bike store, recovery routines such as massage and ofcourse going for the ‘Jetfuel’ drip and getting the Vitamin shots.   Add everything up and be honest with yourself – there isn’t much time for ALL the other important things in life.

It is at times like this that I am soooo hugely grateful for a supporting wife and kids that tell me they understand “daddy must do triathlon”.  Sharon, just knows I will irritate her if I don’t at least do some training.