So this was my first triathlon, so I was a bit worried about how it would go.
The swim was always going to be the challenging part, I had been doing swim lessons for the 6 weeks previously and only the week before I managed to swim 100m of front crawl without stopping. So the 300m of the tri was always going to be a challenge. In the small pool at CP the water was really choppy, so I wasn’t able to breathe effectively. So I dropped back to breaststroke for the middle section. That allowed me to keep going and not take a rest.
First transition was a mess, I had way too much stuff with me, and changed my mind about what i wanted while sorting myself out. I also put my cycle top on before my heart rate monitor. doh. I took nearly 5 mins in transition, the chap who won overall was less than 60 seconds.
A trisuit clearly helped them, and I need more practice.
Bike stage (20km), 9 laps of the park. Including a steep uphill section, very pleased with how that went. My laps were consistent with only a few seconds difference between each lap. I was overtaken by some very nice bikes, mine still had mudguards and rack attached. At 12kg and not the most areo, some room for improvement there.
Counting laps with the Wahoo, and by eating Jelly Babys from my top tube bag worked well as a tactic.
Second transition was better, at about 2 min.
Run (5km) managed to get going, and still had the ability to run. I had hoped to do a practice run after bike, but that hadn’t happened. So I had been worried as to what sort of pace i would manage. In the end I was 8:45 ish per mile which is about my cruising speed at the moment.
Overall sub 1h:30m which i am dead pleased about.
I will sign up to do it again next year, but not going to sign up for a longer one until i have worked more on my swimming.
