Open Water Spring Triathlon - 12 May 2013
“My first open water Sprint (Super) Triathlon was met with some trepidation, although my Aquathlon, just 4 days earlier gave me more confidence with the open water swim, particularly with it being in the same lake. With so much to think about and organise you just can’t seem to get there early enough, and I had even registered the day before. But, I got everything into transition as I wanted it and was in the water on time and warmed up raring to go by the 5 min briefing.
A swim of just 400m with 100 competitors (all women go in the 1stwave) was a bit of a fight, but I picked a good line and despite not being as quick as I would have liked, came out the water in 30th. The wetsuit was coming off easily until the final stage of getting it over my ankle chip and as my transition was positioned in a puddle of mud I was struggling to keep my balance, so I had to sit down, in the mud, to wrench it off.
A late decision to ride my new bike despite only testing it on the turbo the night before proved a good decision (even if it did end up muddy after my transition!) and I quickly made up some places. Only a few people came past me, and every time I looked up I thought smugly to myself ‘I’ll have you on the run’ and I did! My bike was 25thfastest of the women and, as expected, I made up a number of places on the run, with the 6thfastest time amongst the women and finished 16thand 3rdin my age category. I was 134thout of all, including men, out of nearly 400 competitors. Overall a pleasing result with the knowledge that there are a number of areas that I can work on to improve, before my full, Olympic distance, Triathlon next month.”