A PB at Pitsford

 On Sunday the 13th July I was competing in my first triathlon since Ironman Lanzarote, and my first Olympic distance for nearly a year. It would also be the day I would see Ryan, Rosie's boyfriend, become a triathlete in memory of Rose. We had arranged to do this together many months before and his determination and dedication to training for this event was lovely to see. He pretty much learnt how to swim, and bought all the kit needed with my apparent knowledgeable advice. On the lead up to this event I was not feeling good. I was having another emotional crash and didn't want to go. I was up at 4am on Sunday morning as it was a 2 hour drive and started at 7am. I couldn't gain the necessary motivation to compete that morning. The thing that finally kicked my butt into gear was when I was lying on the sofa drifting back to sleep feeling sorry for myself when I looked up and saw my favourite picture of Rose which I have as a canvas on my wall. She was looking down on me and I knew I had to do this for her. Inspiration restored I got all my kit in the car, making sure to pay attention to my head set cap on my bike for extra inspiration.

The canvas I have of Rosie on my wall

Some extra motivation on my bike

 The drive was long and somewhat emotional as within minutes of being in the car 'Let Her Go' by Passenger (the song I chose to be played at Rosie's funeral) came on the radio. Tears began to roll down my cheeks and my fight began to kick in. I stopped at the services to cram a muffin and a coffee down my neck as some form of race fuel (I know bad me). I got to the race site at 6.15 and Ryan arrived shortly after me with his Dad. We walked down to registration and I helped Ryan through the formalities of triathlon and racking. Before long it was time to get in the water. I am a quicker swimmer than Ryan but he was the quicker runner so the plan was for me to go ahead and see him on the run. The swim was relatively calm in comparison to the beatings I usually get with over 2000 people as there were only 107 people competing! I just took it easy (maybe too easy in hindsight) as I had no expectations of myself. I was out of the water in a disappointing for me 27m53 (which made me 25th out of the water). After a 2 minute transition it was off on the bike. I wanted to push myself here and as I had the adrenaline from competing running through my veins I was ready to do it too. The course was tougher than I imagined and was that lovely 'undulating' but at least it meant I could take advantage of getting on my bars when going downhill. I was averaging 31km/h and keeping constant tabs on who was around me. The aim of the game was to not let many overtake me and if it's a girl, have them! My sister, her family and their good friend and family came screaming past me 15kms into the ride and gave me a boost. I saw them a further twice around the course. I overtook a woman at 18kms in who I had spotted only for her to annoyingly overtake me 1km from the finish. I could see when she was on the bike that she was a better runner than me but that was not the point, this angered me. I was second woman for the majority of the bike and lost out in the final 1km. I did however come off the bike as third woman in 1h18. So it was onto the run, my weakest discipline and where I knew I would frustratingly see people come past. The weather was getting increasingly hot by now and although the setting for this loop around the lake was beautiful it was a challenging and undulating off road course. I just wanted to keep at a consistent pace, aiming for 5m30 per km. These did begin to slip and I saw, as predicted, people run past including three women (meaning I finished 6th woman). I did have one guy however who ran past me and said "You beasted that bike, I was trying to get you the whole way but just couldn't get you. Well done". With my pride taking over I let out a smile. I crossed the line in a disappointing 59min 10k run split (although it was slightly longer than 10km).

I even managed a smile coming into the finsih

This gave a total time of 2h48m32 and made me in 63rd position overall. Despite my inability to push more on the run that was a huge PB of 21 minutes. My 'disappointing' swim was 3 minutes quicker than last years efforts, my bike was 10 minutes faster and my run was 5 minutes faster, the rest was made up from faster transitions. Considering the Olympic in Reading last year was a week before Wales and was flat I would take that. Had I actually felt ready for the event who knows what I could've achieved! Moving forward with this PB I know where I can make gains - I need to focus on my run. Coming in with a podium position on the bike and losing it on the run is just demoralising, hard work wasted, but it also gives me a focus. Another point is although I do enjoy the distances in an Olympic triathlon they are not what I am training for. I have never done speed work on 10km so I can't beat myself up too much for once.



 Ryan crossed the line in  2h57m50 - not bad for his first Olympic triathlon. I'm sure Rosie was watching down with a huge beaming smile full of pride. He also admitted once he had finished he thinks he has the bug. I did warn him that triathlon is addictive!

Ryan and I showing off our medals

 After Sunday's efforts it was just 2 night shifts before heading to Lanzarote for the third time this year. This would be a training week that I was going on alone for some much needed miles in the legs and reflection after everything that had happened recently. There is SO much to write about that truly life changing holiday so stay tuned for the next blog!