I hadn’t initially planned to race this triathlon. Being on a Friday would mean yet another day off work and I’d been a bit scared to ask my boss! But I plucked up the courage when a substitution entry came available – the worst he could say was no, but very kindly he didn’t.
A slightly snotty nose wasn’t going to get me down nor stop me from racing hard. I was excited to be riding my new TT bike and my enve wheels were also getting an outing.
I racked my bike in decent time, although a little confused as to what to put in my bucket; Jailbreak give you transition buckets which as far as I could tell was basically to put your wetsuit in after the swim. After triple checking I had everything ready in the transition area it was more or less time to get my wetsuit on and head down to the water.
The dam swim was more like a sea swim with the wind causing waves to crash over our heads. It was a mixed start and the plan was to swim behind my training buddies but as soon as the start gun was fired I had no idea where they were! It seemed to take forever to reach the first buoy. After that it was slightly more pleasant since there was less congestion and less arms and legs hitting me!
I came out of the water feeling good. Obviously I had no idea of my position at this point but hoped I wasn’t too far back! I ran into transition, grabbing my bucket on the way past and managed to run to the wrong row so had a slight panic when I couldn’t find my bike! A slight detour and I was reunited with my speed machine.
I was quickly out on the bike leg, enjoying having the tail wind to ease into the ride. I tried my best to stick to my race plan, otherwise my coach would tell me off afterwards! My legs weren’t feeling the freshest – perhaps the accumulation of DC two weeks ago and the Die Burger last weekend, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from having a good race!
The head wind was tough on the middle section and again as we came back towards the transition area.
The long run from the dismount line back to the bike racking gave me time to ‘find my legs’ and fortunately they weren’t feeling too bad!
As I exited T2 they announced I was 4th lady which was good to know, but I had no idea how far ahead the other 3 were. I could feel my leg muscles twitching a bit and I tried to stretch them out as I ran so not to start cramping.
The first turn around point enabled me to see how far ahead the 3rd placed lady was. Catchable I thought….
I gained a small amount on her in the first lap and I was now about 100m behind as we started lap 2 of 2. My legs were tired and there were a few mind games going on in my head! I knew that I would be so annoyed with myself if I came 4th so somehow I managed to start pushing my pace and the gap to 3rd was decreasing. I think I timed my overtake pretty well and didn’t dare look round to see if she had responded!
I really appreciated all the shout outs from fellow training buddies. Its great motivation when you know so many people are rooting for you.
I was delighted to cross the line in 3rd, behind two very good athletes.
Thanks to 32Gi, Celtic Bicycle Wheels, Gundle and my coach Dave.
Result: (1.1km swim, 44km cycle, 11km run) 3rd
Swim: 22.45
Bike: 1.18.41
Run: 54.08
Total: 2.35.34
