Taunton Sprint Triathlon was a great day out: short and sharp with nowhere to hide, a really friendly, mixed field, great event team and I was back to racing with friends. Pool swim, rolling bike course, 5.7km run. 10/10 would do it again.
Swim: 50m in and my lungs are on fire, my stroke has definitely been better, but another minute passes and I’m a quarter of the way through. Head down and splash through it. Done. No idea of my time, assume my heart rate is about 200. Best leg it into transition.
T1: Decide socks are for wimps.
Bike: Rolling with some beautiful views. Caught at two red lights but it did give me chance to breathe. Attempted to power up the hills and get some good power output on the bike but after a tumble last week my Garmin decided not to work. Disconcerting to not have the data to look at but as I had no idea what I should be aiming for anyway just cycled by feel trying to chase the riders in front.
T2: Bike in, helmet off, trainers on. RUN
Run: The aim of my run in triathlon is to try and not loose too much of whatever gain I may have made on the bike. I’m typically less confident with the run leg but earlier this year I decided it is a sucky attitude to have. I started writing three things down which went well after each of my training runs so that I finish them knowing I achieved rather than concentrating on what was hard or what felt difficult. I can’t say that the change in attitude has made me a stronger runner but it definitely has made me stand a bit taller, and feel much less defeatist which I think on race day did enable me to run strong. Not rapid. But strong. Winner winner.
Finish: Blistered feet.1st in my age category and 5th female coming in at 1hr16.
