Another 4am wake up call to get sorted, have breakfast and walk the dog before getting to Stanborough lakes for registration at 6am.
We had quite a showing this race, myself, Ali, Lucy and Pippa for the girls and Mark, Eugene, Michael, Gerry and Tijil for the guys. The course for this race was exactly the same as the sprint champs had been only double the laps, so a 2 lap swim (1500m), a 40km bike (2laps of 20) and then finally 4 off road laps of a undulating grass course (10km).
As my training has taken a back seat to career, family and niggling injuries this year I knew I wasn’t going to superfast or get a PB but was looking forward to a nice local race.
In the swim – nice and steady and I felt like I as doing well, until the end when I thought we had to go around a long float at the end of the lake but I could see coach Musty shouting and waving at me to get out – oops! No worries though, a 31:10 swim including the run into transition.
Off out onto the bike, wondering if my bike would behave itself as I’ve yet to have a race or training camp on my bike where the wheels / bike frame combo hasn’t caused problems. Early sat morning after a short ride my back brake had completely locked up again, but thankfully my local mechanic sorted it for me ready for Sunday morning. The bike went well, brake was rubbing slightly and was annoying but wouldn’t have changed my time at all, however going over a very big pot hole on lap two my saddle saddle dropped down. Thus made for an uncomfortable second lap. No woman overtook me on the bike and I passed a couple so I knew I had done ok. Apart from Tijil who is just ridiculously fast on a bike, none of my squad mates passed me either so I knew they would all have the pleasure of crushing me on the run instead. Happy with a 1:20:29 – its not a flat course and felt I did well.
Now for the run – well the run hurt. I had a stich in my side on the first, second and half of the third lap so I wasn’t happy, it eased off near the end so I think I picked up the pace a little for a strong finish. Run time of 48:23 – oh dear!
I wasn’t feeling confident in fitness for this race so it picked up my confidence a little ready for ironman Wales this month to come in 4th female and to win my AG and get a nice trophy for Herts 35-39AG champion. So now I’m Hertfordshire champ for sprint and standard distance so I am pleased with that and happy for Tijil to also win his AG meaning Squad S4F came third overall in the club championships. Well done squad, everyone did coach Musty proud.
Got home to discover I had stepped on glass coming oout of the swim and had a nasty cut on my foot, so a quick visit to minor injuries unit to sort that – oh well its not like I’ve got an ironman in 2 weeks or anything………Ooops!