I had already written this blog in my head before the race had even started and was collecting a bank of words like 'horrific', 'painful', 'terrible', 'never again'.....but actually (and I never thought I'd say this) I absolutely loved it!
Supporter's Hamper |
The race day started with a 3:30am alarm clock call. We arrived at the race venue about 5am and I couldn't believe how waterlogged the transition was. I began tiptoeing all the way around the edges of the fields but after a while realised this was completely useless and that I may aswell wade through the oceans of mud like everyone else. It was a dark and drizzly morning but not too cold and spirits were high. Being our triathlon club championships, my morning was brightened up by the glowing orange trisuits of Rugby Tri dotted around transition. Strangely, you could choose where you wanted to rack your bike and I opted to put mine right next to a huge puddle! I was still munching on food whilst putting my wetsuit on as I was worried about not having enough energy to last me through the race.
A muddy run into Transition |
The race started at 7am and after a few warm-up strokes, I positioned myself right in the middle of the pack. I got a good start when the hooter went and seemed to be in clear water. Approaching the first buoy I got a bit boxed in with swimmers from my right and left merging and almost forcing me up out of the water, I couldn't continue to swim as their were bodies infront of me so I started to tread water only to me bashed over the head by swimmers right behind me. A few kicks and punches later and I was round the buoy, swimming to the next one. I had quite a clear swim until the bottle-neck effect around each buoy, I think I need to toughen up a bit rather than waiting for everyone else to go round. I kept the swim steady and relaxed and was out the water in 32:28 (20th overall including the men!) which I was really pleased with (especially as this was 6 minutes faster than last time!)
A slow transition |
I ran through the oceans of mud and into transition and gave Mum & Chris a wave. I decided to put socks on as I haven't ridden or run as far as the race distance so wanted to be comfortable. I also put my rear flashing light on my bike as I wanted to make sure I could be seen by traffic on such a busy and long cycle route. Needless to say my transition wasn't too quick but I really don't think it matters all that much in the long distance races (this made a nice change to the fast, furious and frantic transitions of sprint racing!)
I tootled out on my 58 mile cycle and just told myself to keep it nice and steady. I wanted to make sure I didn't push a massive gear and that my legs were just spinning the whole time. I hadn't even been riding 10 minutes when Captain Keith zoomed past me, we gave each other a quick cheer and I carried on riding, totally unphased by the people who were going past me, or the people I was catching, this was all about pacing it and enjoying myself. I hadn't ridden this distance in training and thought I would massively struggle but actually I really enjoyed it. Scotty went past me later on and that was nice to have another quick cheer. I exchanged places quite a lot with a handful of girls and they looked pretty good so I thought I must be keeping good company.
Finishing lap 2 of the bike |
The new racing flats! |
Dismounting the bike I was still laughing and smiling and Mum & Chris were like "come on, you're in a race!" but it didn't really seem like a race in my head, just a real challenge that I wanted to accomplish. I racked my bike and put on my gorgeous new racing flats ready for the run. As I turned to run out of tranisition I looked at the new racing flats.....and then looked at the big mud swamp that lay between me and the T2 exit. I couldn't possibly run through it, I thought. It was too long to jump over, so I would try and tip-toe around it. I put my hand out to just touch the racking as I scuttled around the outside of the swamp but as I touched the racking the whole thing collapsed!!! About 10 bikes fell to the floor in a heap in the biggest commotion you could imagine! Absolutely horrified I didn't know whether I should try to replace the racking and pick the bikes up. Marshalls were running over left, right and centre so I decided to finally adopt Mum & Chris's approach that I was "in a race" and with that legged it straight through the puddle and out onto the run.
Being a half-iron lady is a great feeling, I'm already looking forward to another one!
Hey Sam, What a great read. You did amazingly well! It is such a great achievement you will be wanting to go longer and longer! I am still thinking about doing a half but I know that I will have to train super hard for it!
ReplyDeleteWell done girl. :)