The week leading up to my triathlon was not a brilliant one. I was crazy busy at work, I was exhausted and I sprained my ankle so couldn't really do any last minute training. By Saturday morning I was already feeling pretty nervous. I still had 24 hours to go and I was starting to feel the butterflies starting to roll in.
I have recently been elected onto my church's council and Saturday morning was my first away day with the rest of the council. It was a really good meeting with lots of personal and communal steps taken in the right direction for our church and for our own journey's in faith. So, I had that to distract me on Saturday morning, and it did a really good job. From 9am until around 2:30pm, the nerves went away! It was great, I was completely distracted from the fact that I was about to embark on a challenge that I wasn't sure I wanted to do anymore.
The little friend inside my head kept asking the question 'Why did you sign up for this?' and I couldn't really come up with a decent answer. I didn't really know why I was preparing to do a triathlon anymore - all the enthusiasm and the excitement of training and working hard had vanished. All I could see was a 2 hour long session of pain and embarrassment....... at this point it was Saturday afternoon, I still had about 18 hours to go and I was already a bit of a mess.
We (mum and me) left the meeting early and bombed home to set up the car and drive down to Taunton straight away. Dad was being our lovely chauffeur so that both of us could sleep/rest before and after the event without the stress of driving. Thankfully I slept for most of the two and a half hour drive so wasn't feeling obsessing about everything. I think that once there was nothing left to focus on, my head just went into melt down mode about the whole event and the confidence in my training went out of the window.
Saturday afternoon slipped by slowly with a book and some TV, anything to distract my head enough to put the butterflies to sleep for a while. Big carby dinner and then I hit the sheets pretty early. My bed was the most comforatble thing I have ever slept on. My aunty had put two matresses, one on top of the other, because they had a spare and OMG! It was heaven, I had the best night sleep I could ask for before my first triathlon.
On Sunday morning there was still a lot of waiting around. Breakfast and getting ready, waiting for Dad to come back from the dog walk - all the waiting was just making me feel SO sick. Breakfast just made it worse too - the butterflies went to town when I fed them. I swear they were practising for some sort of high speed, death defying stunt show inside my tummy.
We set off for the event in good time, all suited up and everything. Parking was a nightmare - it seemed like half of Taunton and their families had rocked up to watch or compete. They turned the car park of the sports centre into the transition zone so everyone was parked in the residential roads. I think we were about 7 streets away in the end. We joined the river of people in flip flops, with helmets on, bikes and kit bags that was slowly drifting towards the centre. Apparently, the etire for pre triathlon participants is tri suit under pyjamas, flip flops and helmet! It is a fantastic look, I have to say. I joined in with my lovely orange scrub trousers - a gift from the hospital, post op - and donned my helmet, just to complete the trend!
Once we had officially signed in and got marked up with our race numbers! They literally drew the numbers onto our bodies - just incase we lost a limb, said my Dad lovingly, they can match all the limbs up to your bike later.
GEE! THANKS DAD!!! He is so helpful when I am ready to hyperventilate.
We headed to the transition point to set up all our kit. You have to hang your bike is a specific point with all your cycling and running gear ready to go. Once we went in for our breifing we couldn't come back to the transition zone until T1 (where you change from swimming to cycling). This was quite intimidating as I had to be sure that everything was set up perfectly before I left - any mistakes and my transistions would be screwed. Luckily, beacause Mum has done like a million of these (well, 8 now) she knew what she was doing and gave me a hand.
Whilst we were setting up there were people coming out of the pool and going into transition for the bike section so I could watch how they were doing it and how they were getting on. It was calming to see other people going through the motions and not finding it too stressful by the looks of things. You can see people heading off on their bike and going out to their run whilst setting up so you really get a feel for what is going on and how you make it through the whole event.
We went in for our briefing at 11:00am after saying good bye to Dad and one last check list through our station. They took all of us, about 20 people, into a squash court which they had turned into 'The Briefing Room', a guy came in to explain the whole event, health and safety rules, go through the three different courses with us. It was very helpful, for one thing it told me exactly what I needed to do to get through the morning and also, there were at least 6 of us in my wave who were first timers so I felt much better about my lack of confidence.
After our chat we were taken through to the pool side and were given our timing chips. The event was SO well organised! I was wave 11, and we were getting our timing chips sorted, wave 10 were on the other side of the pool being allocated into lanes and stretching, wave 9 were in the water doing their swim and wave 12 were waiting to go into 'The Briefing Room' as we left. It was a like a little clock with all the cogs working to perfection! They were so organised that they labelled my hands with my lane number and the colour of my hat - yes, the COLOUR of my hat - for the lane I was swimming in.
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| Lane 3 Black hat |
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| Wave 11 |
And just like clockwork as wave 10 got into the pool, we went round to the other side of the pool to get sorted into our lane groups and have a little warm up and wave 12 came in to get their chips. It was like a train station! I loved it - my OCD was very satisfied with the organisers.
Then, before I knew it, I was in the water with my hat on ready to set off. There were 4 people in a lane, all with a different hat and we set off 10 seconds apart. The pool etiquette was that if you had your toes tapped in the water the person behind you was going to overtake you at the end of the next lane. Mum was actually in the lane with me and off before me so we had already made the agreement that I would overtake her straight away as she knows I'm a faster swimmer. So, after the first length I overtook Mum with no problem, then there was a woman with a white hat in front of me. By the end of the second length I'd gained on her but wasn't close enough to tap her feet. I got her about 2/3 of the way along the third length and tapped her toes... so you would think that she would stop and wait like she was told to. But NO! she turned round as if she was about to push off again so, naughty as it may have been, I cut her up. She knew I'd tapped her and she should have waited so I forced her to. I got a right evil glare but I didn't care - after that there was a lot of space between me and the last person in the lane, a guy in a green hat. He was pretty quick so there was space for me to get into a really good pattern with my stroke. It felt great and I realised by about length 8 that I was gaining on this guy too! This surprised me but only spurred me on more to be honest. My competitive side reared her head and decided to chase him down. I didn't really pick up my speed but I didn't let up at all. Just kept eating into the meters until we were swimming up the same side of the lane together. Then I knew I could get him - and I did!!! 4 lanes to go and pretty much slapped him on the foot (I did feel bad, it was a little aggressive) and over took him! WAHOO! I had lapped every body with 3 lanes to go. With 2 lanes to go they put a little paddle into the water so that you know exactly where you are. I was feeling much more relaxed now that the swim had gone so well. With one lane to go I over took Mum for a second time and powered home to the end.
Hauling yourself out of the pool after a swim like that knowing that you now have to get onto a bike for 23km is hard! It's a big drag and you feel like the water is trying to pull you back into the pool. The length counter for our lane was really lovely when I got out of the water though, which really gave me a boost.
'Good swim, really lovely stroke, consistent, WELL DONE!' was exactly what I needed to hear as I finished my first stage.
Into transition I went, about 4th out of the pool according to Dad who was giving me a running commentary from the fences of the transition zone. It is not pleasant putting clothes over a wet tri suit but I was glad of the running top once I was out on the bike as it was chilly! My transition was pretty slow - will need to work on that for the next one - which meant that I left for the bike behind people who left the swimming pool after me. That was a little frustrating but I was still doing okay and I was wasn't too worried about my time at this point. My sub 2 hour goal was still well within my grasp so off I went.
The course was really hilly! It was all up or down, I don't think there was much of it that was actually flat. Mum caught me up just before the half way turn and we played tag for most of the way back. I need to work on my recovery after a big hill as that is where I lose power. At one point, at the top of the most horrendous hill ever, I had a little dry heave - all the lactic build up made me feel horrendous! Mum went past me there again and that was where I lost her. I slowed down to recover from the almost vomiting situation and she vanished into the distance. Thankfully, after that, it was pretty much downhill back to the sports centre so I did gain ground on her again and we came back into transition pretty much one after the other. I knew that was the last time I'd see Mum until the end though as she is a much faster runner than I am. She set off and just vanished into the distance!
There was a lot of encouragement coming from Dad which was brilliant, I definitely needed the boost. Although, all I could should back was 'I CAN'T FEEL MY TOES!!' which he seemed to find very amusing.
I set off on a shuffle more than a run and headed out for 2 laps of a 2.5km circuit. It's so horrible to try and get your body to adjust from cycling to running - breathing goes out of the window for starters. I felt like someone had tied and elastic band around my lungs too tight! They were expanding but not enough. I couldn't quite see how I was going to manage another 35+mins out on the course. My legs were screaming at me 'what the hell are you doing? Why are we still moving? WHAT!' But I knew that it would get easier as long as I kept going. I got a seriously painful stitch about 1/3 of the way round the first lap which was really not ideal. It was horrible so my shuffle slowed even more and then, because people are funny and the course directors like a giggle, I turned a corner and hit the most monstrous hill! I mean, it was more of a small mountain than a hill, it just kept going, I couldn't see the top because the hill veered round a corner and vanished behind a hedgerow.
I swear, one half of the 2.5km lap was just a hill! It was horrid, I couldn't do it - I walked and jogged and walked and jogged as much as I could until I got to the top. I was a little disappointed but still - it was just MONSTROUS and there were lots of other people who were struggling with it too. The encouragement from the other participants was brilliant. Everyone was really chatty and positive out there which made the whole thing much easier to get through. Second lap was just as tough but I managed to run more of the hill second time around as my stitch was gone. All together my run was SLOW but the thought of my two hour time kept me going when I really didn't want to run anymore. Coming round the final corner was excellent, I could see the finish line and Mum and Dad were going crazy for me. The commentator was chatting me in too. He must have had everyone on a system as he was calling me by name as I approached the finish. It was such a brilliant feeling! Getting to the finish line without any major injuries and within my time goal too! I was SO happy.
What I loved was, because of the timing chip on my ankle, I could get my times immediately!
I GOT A PB!!!! My swim time was the fasted I've swum in about 6 years! I was impressed. Bit frustrated with my transition times but that is something I'll get more used to as I get more experienced with triathlons in general.
My bike was fine - I think I'll have to get skinnier tiers if I want to shave major amounts of time off of that. And some more power in my legs after a hill climb.
And the run, well, when my general fitness improves and I can actually manage the massive hill, it should be quicker than that!
But I was really proud! I finished. I actually did it and I enjoyed it too. I have definitely got the bug now.
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| Me and Mum after we'd finished. |
BRING IT ON!
Check in soon
M xx
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