Days Out...

Triathlon!

This morning I was up bright and early at 7.30am for my triathlon, which took place in and around Wilmslow. Although my start time wasn't until 9.35am, I had to be there in advance to register, put my equipment in my transition space and apply my temporary tattoo numbers (!).

The first leg of the race was a 400m swim which went OK, I did it in ten minutes fifty two seconds, which isn't a personal best, but I was happy with it. It was mainly as I was held up a little as a couple of the people in my lane were pretty fast, and so overtook me which involves you being tapped on the foot and having to wait once you finish that length for them to swim past. I managed to lose my goggles last night as well! I wasn't the last one out of the pool in my lane though, which was encouraging.

Next was the cycle, so I had to run out of the leisure centre where the swim had taken place, and rush to put my leggings and t-shirt on (pretty difficult when I was soaking wet!) before mounting my bike at the specified point and setting off. It was a 24km ride, which was pretty daunting considering I went on my bike outside for the first time in about ten years only a couple of days before. It was actually much better than I expected, despite a horrible hill in Ashley which nearly defeated me. The route was very pleasurable to ride along, it was mainly country lanes with little traffic, and there were lots of cute animals along the way. I went past the pub I used to work at, and some local families were outside their gates cheering people on which was very sweet.

After jumping off my bike at the dismount point, I wheeled it to the transition section and had a quick drink and grabbed a cereal bar to munch as I began my run. My legs were getting stiff after all the cycling, so the change to running was hard, especially as about two minutes in there was a footbridge with loads of stairs to climb! When I reached the 2km mark and there was a steep hill afterwards I had a bit of a lack of confidence and thought I would end up walking some of it, but I pushed myself and carried on, and found running got easier the further along I got.

It seemed to take forever from 3km until the next sign, until I realised it was for 5km, so I either missed one, or they did it on purpose to spur you on! I had to go back up the footbridge at the end before crossing the finish line, which was a great feeling, and loads of people were there clapping and cheering once I'd completed it. It was better than when I did the Manchester 10km last year, as less people took part, so I finished by myself, which makes it feel like more of a sole accomplishment.

You could type in your race number to a computer and it gave you all your times, but unfortunately mine messed up a little as I must have missed one of the timing pads at some point, but I had my overall time (2 hours six minutes woohoo!) so they could estimate the transitions and cycle.

I actually really enjoyed competing, and though I have been training for over three months, I thought I would struggle more than I did. It gave me a massive confidence boost getting a much better time than I expected, and I was really grateful of the good weather (it started pouring down shortly after I finished!) and the support from my mum, who also took the photos!