Jim Aifandis

April 28th, 2008

Konalulu - Honolulu Marathon 2005

With a career of ten marathons (five being at the end of an Ironman triathlon), I was after a personal best time. In a race where I forgot something so important, and where the first half was absolutely nothing like the second half, it was a most amazing result.



Excerpt from chapter 10, Nocturnal, Eternal
In big city marathons, the timing system logs your start time when it detects the chip on your shoe crossing the timing mat. Just as well coz the walkers at the back of the pack could take over half an hour to reach the start line after the gun was fired, which should have been aimed at the walkers starting at the front of the pack!


Excerpt from chapter 15, Houston, We Have A Problem
The highway was mentally tough. It went on forever but the worst part was that you had to run back. Oh no! Forever times two!


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April 14th, 2008

It was a hard day at the office in Lanzarote as I battled the wind, lava fields and volcanos. Find out all about the Hotmix Highway, Coarse Concourse and the dreaded Marble Motorway. And did I find the canary I was searching for?

Excerpt from chapter 11, Earth, Wind & Fire
The best hill climb was done watching a herd of camels walking in a line, transporting tourists around a small volcano. How fantastic was this! Lanzarote was never boring and never dull with all these Dromedaries. I recognised one of the tourists. It was Lady Penelope.
		”Hello L Pen”, I said. ”Good day James”, said Lady Penelope. “Your job application for the pilot of the new Thunderbird 6 has been unsuccessful on this occassion for your information. We can look after ourselves all right. Take or leave us, only please believe us. We ain’t ever gonna be disrespectable.“ ”Err, um, oh well thanks for letting me know L Pen. Can I ask the reason?” ”Certainly James. Your level of fitness was too low.”


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April 14th, 2008

“Once again a fantastic synopsis of your life!!! Well done for brightening up my day”
“You are truly hilariously funny - had me on the floor!”
“I have tears In my eyes!!!!!!!!! U are a classic!!!”
Find out what’s so funny about swimming 3.8km (2.4mi) then cycling 180.2km (112mi) and then running 42.2km (26.2mi).

Excerpt from chapter 14, Spittin’ Chips

The water bottles at the aid stations were just weird. Using my teeth to open the top would result in me biting the whole top off and spitting it out. I was bound to swallow one of these things sooner or later.


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