Chatter

The Busso buzz is definitely building around here. Today I started seeing the first photos of Busselton appear on my social media and I would expect that will take a significant jump tomorrow. People are starting to roll into town and get excited.

There has been quite a bit of talk around town too, all the usual stuff, the weather, the new swim leg, sharks. All the fan favourites.

When it comes to the weather, I am not normally one for watching it closely when it comes to races. Usually the forecasts are so changeable (particularly a few days out) that it doesn't necessarily achieve much other than increase stress levels. Besides worrying about the weather won't change it, so it isn't really worth the effort. In my view the only useful reason to be checking the weather is if it is going to be hot (or cold) enough to impact your race plan. In these cases it never hurts to be informed so that you can make smart decisions about hydration, nutrition and pacing. No need to obsess over it though. People still love talking about it though

Having said that, the forecast is looking pretty nice for Busselton this Sunday. 9 to 25 degrees with some cloud. If that forecast turns up then it could be a pretty lovely day out, not perfect, but not too bad either. Fingers crossed

The other common topic of conversation is the new swim leg. Basically the swim leg now doesn't head around the jetty but instead heads offshore about 300m, then swims along parallel to the beach and back. There have been a number of reasons given for the change to the swim leg, but the main one is to try and reduce interruptions to the swim from unwanted sharky visitors. As with all changes some people are against it (shocking) with the main complaint being that they will no longer swim around the iconic Busselton Jetty and that the change to the swim leg won't do anything anyway since there are still sharks in the ocean. But others are happy to be swimming a little bit closer to the beach. In my opinion whether the new course is a good thing, or effective, or fun etc is largely irrelevant, after the incidents at the last two Busselton events the organisers really needed to be seen to do something to ensure a swim leg goes ahead, and this was one of the few options they had available. I think doing nothing was not really an option that they had. Fingers crossed that trying something new pays off and the swim leg goes off without a hitch.

As race day gets closer the amount of chatter about weather and sharks etc will only increase. It is all fun for building up the event as long as people don't let it distract them from what they are there to do. In the end it doesn't matter what people are saying around you, you are there to do one thing, no matter what weather or large marine fauna shows up.