Firstly, thank you so much for everybody’s best wishes and congratulations about my triathlon. It was great to have all that support, I love racing with my performance being held to account to people, I think it brings out the best in me!
The morning of the race I was what can only be described as uncharacteristically petrified. I’m usually pretty calm before our normal races, I know there is nothing else that can be done by that point, just go out and prove your training works. This felt different though. Bigger, more things to sort out in the hour before the start, do I have my numbers in all the right places, is my bike in the right spot, will I find it easily after my swim, have I got my wetsuit, will my goggles steam up, watches sorted, trainers and socks ready, it’s raining, will I get a puncture, where are the toilets, energy gels, 1.8km of transition to run around in between each leg, where do I go out of transition…all this just before my most challenging discipline, 1500m swim in an open water lake I haven’t been in before.
Our start was called, along the blue pontoon ready to get in. As the hooter sounded, in an instant I had relaxed and remembered a point I had read in the Brownlee’s recent biography book I had finished the night before “everyone goes off too hard in the first 300m and pays the price later in the swim”. I started relaxed, let the frantic legs in front get settled and got on with my swim and it felt like the best swim I had had in months, I was even enjoying it! A respectable 32:40 for me was some 15 mins behind what the Elites would manage but I was ready for the 1km bare foot run to transition trying to get my wetsuit off and remember where my bike was, suit off, socks on, cycling shoes on, helmet, glasses, check, good to go!
An undulating bike course around the outskirts of Hyde Park with wet roads made for some slow cornering but I really enjoyed the ride. My last race had been spoilt with a puncture, I was that focused I forgot all about that memory until the last lap of 5 by which point it was all positive and knew it had gone well to that point. There is a lot of bike envy at any cycle event, and when you see a £5000 time trial speed machine hum past you I did get a little jealous, but they usually spend that amount to make up for their running inadequacies!!! Step forward a Stadium Runner on tour!
10k, 4 laps of Hyde Park, I knew I was going to smash it….I had it my head that this is where people struggle after the bike, they always do, but this is my discipline, others can have their swim for the time being, I was going to run fast and empty the tank. Felt great all the way round, half way in 17:50, finishing in 35:40, that’s the way to do it, 4th quickest time of the day.
Overall 134th out of 642,
Swim 32:40, Bike 1;06.54, Run 35:40
Total time 2:22.49.
Overall I was delighted that it went exactly to plan, my training had paid off, my first year of Triathlon’s pretty much done, can’t wait to keep improving next year. Next up Netherthong 10k (one thing about triathlon run routes is they don’t have many hills so Sunday should be fun) then Holmfirth triathlon, then project Leeds Abbey Dash for a tilt at a sub 34min…out in the open now, accountability and all that!!!
Thanks again
Si