This race isn’t my A race for this year but I had history with this one! I completed this race a couple of years ago, it was my first standard distance race and although I had a good swim and bike I bombed majorly on the run! For this reason I was actually a bit nervous for this race. However, I had my awesome support crew Paul my husband and friends Saleema and Chris….and not forgetting Jasper the dog! They helped keep my spirits up whilst waiting to start….the worst bit for me is that wait to get into the water!
After waiting for the sprint leg to finish it was our turn! They had said the water was 14 but actually when I started to wade in it felt much warmer which was good….this meant I was unlikely to get the dreaded claw hand from the cold.
Now there were a lot of people in this wave that were racing for the Hertfordshire Triathlon Championships so it was pretty full on for the swim start…Elbows and feet everywhere! Despite the amazing water temperature I was struggling a bit to breath….standing around in a tight wet suit and then laying horizontally thrashing about had done nothing for my digestion. I continued to power through but had to stop a couple of times. That wasn’t my best swim but I got it done.
The bike however, different story. I really enjoyed it….nice fast route with just a few bumps to get the heart working! I was super happy with how it went and I got a PB from my first race of just under 10 mins!
Then onto the run…..my nemesis for this race. Despite my fears I felt strong and got the pacing just right and even managed to over take a few people on the run! I finished with a very big grin on my face in 3hrs and 3 mins. A new PB for this distance for me.
Properly on the countdown for Island Races 70.3 now! 🙂
Special shout out to my amazing support crew, my husband for spending many weekends watching me race/train and my awesome coach Allie.
