Firstly, what an excellent event! Another one organised by Xtra Mile Events with excellent tshirts and goodie bags.
Beforehand I was ridiculously nervous - as I wasn't sure how hard it was going to be, and I was a bit worried about transition...having not practised this part at all!
I spent ages sorting out all my kit, trying to make sure everything was in the right place and discovered things I hadn't anticipated - i.e. I couldn't wear my trainers to walk to the swimming pool if I needed them in transition for when I exited the pool!
The 400m swim took me just over 8mins and went fine - I got overtaken once and then overtook the man back - everyone was very friendly and it was competitive, but not horribly so - probably a benefit of not being in the fastest swim wave! Arms a bit tired I pulled myself out the pool, jogged across to the transition area, enjoying the good weather! Quite comically I sat down to lace up my shoes and drink some powerade while everyone else zipped in and out of transition. I cautiously wobbled off on my bike and as soon as I reached the main roads I was so happy I'd practised the course before hand. Men on very snazzy bikes were zipping past me, but I managed to catch a woman from my swim wave up! Coming back into transition I dismounted well ahead of the line, just in case, and quickly dropped my bike off. One benefit of not having cycling shoes is I already had my trainers on ready to roll.
The run was my favourite part - all the way round I was catching people up and flying past men who'd given me the same treatment on the bike!
I've never felt such a sense of relief and achievement when I reached the finish line - and I loved every minute of it! I'd also never felt so tired from a race in my life!
I was 12th female, and 5th in my age group - very happy with that and the standard of competition was really high, with Jacqui Slack (Elite Triathlete) taking first place
Love, love, loved it!
No comments:
Post a Comment