On Friday the 18th I was up early and on my way to Abingdon for my second sprint triathlon of the year. This was also organised by Try Tri Events the same company as the Andover Tri two weeks previous. I had done this triathlon before in 2010 when my goal was considerably less serious. I doubt I even had a real goal and definitely did not have a time in mind. I completed it then in 1h33 and this year wanted to cut that by 10 minutes.
My timings were pretty tight before the race. I got to transition registered and racked quickly (moving someones bike and kit over as they had taken up two peoples space). After that it was almost instantly to pool side. I was in wave 5 so right in the middle which concerned me a little. The Andover Tri had the fastest swimmers in the first wave and without wanting to sound arrogant I thought I would be higher up than wave 5 even despite this triathlon having three times the amount of entrants than Andover. However, it turned out that the slower swimmers went first in this triathlon. It was four to a lane but the person who was due to go first (this is pre arranged by swim hat colours) didn't show so I was to go first in the lane. This was actually a good result to me as I knew then I would have no-one in front of me to get in my way. I wanted to push myself in the swim and I did just that. Maybe I went of too fast to begin with competing with the other swimmers as I began to feel sick after a tough 6 lengths of going flat out. By that point I had also caught up with the person in my lane who pushed of last but thankfully as we only had three in our lane I just tapped her foot to let her know I was there and then overtook her and pushed off the other wall without effecting mine or her swim. By this point I had a new goal - I wanted to be first out of the water. In order to do this I had to get infront of the people I started with (number 2 in each lane) and then overtake the people who pushed off 10 seconds before me. I was taking tabs as to who was in line with me with some skillful peripheral vision. As I neared the last 4 lengths of the 16 (400m) I had gained and knew I could do it. I jumped out of the water and I was first out of the pool. The guy in the lane next to me wasn't far behind and whilst running to our bikes he said "Nice swim!" (I thought so too). The run to the chip timing mat was about 30secs so I did my swim in about 6m50 - not a PB but not bad. This made me 52nd out of 270 people so not a bad statistic.
So onto the bike. I had a 1m37s transition and then was on my way. I wanted to complete the 22km course in 45minutes. From the get go I was staring at my Garmin. I wanted to keep it around 30km/h the whole way round. At some points my legs felt like lead and on many occasions I'm sure I was scaring my other competitors with my grunts of "Come on!" that I was shouting at my legs. I was playing cat and mouse (my favourite game whilst cycling) with one bloke in particular. He would overtake me and then when there was a hill I would overtake him. This went on for the whole course and although frustrating for him I'm sure was a great bit of motivation for me. (I did finish ahead of him though - result!). Although this was motivating something during the ride was quite demotivating and yet outstanding. Whilst going up a short and sharp hill at the beginning of the second lap I heard some clunking coming from behind me. This was in fact an old touring bike and depressingly it came zooming past me and my fellow companion who at that moment in time was the mouse. It's not all about the gear! I did think to myself imagine if he actually had a road or TT bike! I saw Dan towards the end of the first lap and his face was shocked when he saw me so quick. He asked how long had I been and I shouted '21 minutes'. I completed the first lap in 22minutes so I was on my target of a 45minute finish. Including the weaving transition I finished in 47m04s which I was pleased with. This made me 119th out of the 270 competitors.
So on to the run. I had a 26 second transition. My goal on the run was to push through the pain and push up the big hill I knew we tackled twice as it was two lap course. I wanted to keep my Garmin as close to 5min/km as I could. I was hot but plodding on. Whilst pushing up the hill for the second time a wave of nausea came over me. I didn't want to slow down so carried on through...the sick followed through too. Weirdly after doing this I felt a huge sense of relief and pride. Now, I like many who train as I do will feel the need to be sick due to effort and exertion on many occasions but actually being sick due to effort is something I have never done. I looked at my efforts (represented by the sick on the floor) for a brief second before picking the pace up again and pushing to the finish. As I rounded the track where the finish line was placed I felt the sick surfacing again and not even someone running past me could push me to sprint as I really didn't want an audience if I was sick again. I did however complete my 5km in 26m09 which for me is a banging time and one I could never have thought I could achieve even 6 months ago. My overall time was 1h23m, 10 minutes faster than my 2010 efforts, the exact result I wanted. 10 minutes cut off in 2 years not bad! I did not come in the top three women overall but that was due to the amount and caliber of athletes there was that day. I did however come 17th out of the 88 women and 3rd in my age group so still top three on one level. Furthermore I also beat a Sky News sports correspondent that I thought I recognised at the start - chicked! 😉
I left feeling relieved and happy - the first time I felt like that after an event for a while. I sat and admired my medal which is awesomely designed - another shiney to add to my ever growing collection. I even justified having a little of the Easter Egg I was given at the finish in the car on the way home. Another great event, thanks Try Tri! Since then I have had a donation to my justgiving page saying they saw my very distinctive tri suit and since read my story - I can't find your email to personally but if you are reading Thank You!
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| Easter Egg Medal |
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