Well the Triathlon season is in full flow and the countdown to the Half Iron Man in September is on! So I thought that it would be a good 
idea to familiarise myself with the Bowood lake by doing a Sprint Triathlon there to get a feel for the layout…
All my ‘Try-Hard’ team decided not to join me, so it was quite an odd feeling going on my own and working it all out for myself… But I’m a grown woman, (I had to remind myself) and even though there was the pre race nerves (actually slight panic) when I couldn’t get my computer emails open to retrieve a QR code to get my race chip… I had to calm myself down, just get myself together!
It is funny how our brains start to panic like this, I had to remind myself that it wasn’t a polar bear, it was just a computer failure and I’m sure its not the first time its happened… And sure enough, the lovely chap at registration, said “No worries” you’ve got everything else so it’s fine have your chip”…
Second moment of “Oh my word” was seeing how far it was from the lake to transition… It’s about a 500m run uphill in bare feet and wetsuit… Cripes, I thought to myself!
But I was there in plenty of time, so watched the youngsters doing their thing, and went and watched each transition so that I could remember what I had to do… All the Marshalls in transition were so nice and helpful. And when it was finally time to get my wetsuit on and walk down to the lake for a debrief before racing, I met a couple of likeminded women about to race in my wave. We chatted and laughed about running or walking! to transition and shook off our nerves whilst walking the 8 odd minutes to the lake.
Then the fun begins… You are ushered in to the pen before the lake, given a pea green swimming hat, offered a last drink of water, and then given an amusing rundown of the race, by very jovial race official…
After a few good luck hugs from my new friends, the wave was set down the ramp to start the race. Once over a certain line you were racing… There were a few minutes during the swim which were rather like being in (that well known about) washing machine. I got hit a few times and someone swam over the top of me going around the 2nd buoy. I also hit someone and came up to say sorry but of course their head was down so I said it to the sky! Then about 20 m from the end I realised I hadn’t set my watch… Darn, I’d practiced which buttons I had to press the day before and that morning as the last triathlon I did I had got totally confused and it looked like I’d swam the whole thing when it uploaded to Strava… Hey hoo, I just needed to remember what button I needed to hit next! Anyway before I knew it I was around the last buoy and helped out the water…
The next bit was the bit I was dreading, that run in a wetsuit in bare feet. However, I didn’t stop. I was so chuffed with myself, I actually felt really good. Got to transition scoffed half a banana, and got my wetsuit off and my bike stuff on. There are rules in transition and the biggest one is that you cannot touch your bike until your helmet is on and done up! That all went to plan, but when I went to do up my left shoe the mechanism broke. So I had to hobble out of transition and get on my bike with one shoe done up and one not… Nightmare! Oh well nothing I could do, just crack on with one loose shoe…
You had to do seven laps of the bike course. And the riders are responsible for counting their own laps… So I’d taken a tip from the race organisers and put 7 stripes of duck tape on my top tube… I’ d rehearsed taking the tape off after each lap that morning, and knew that as I came in I should have one remaining piece of tape left… After the first 100m I remembered… WATCH! Hit the button! Oh flipping heck that was close… And I didn’t realise how pleased I would be on lap 7 that I’d hit the button, because my brain just wouldn’t work as to whether I should have a piece of tape remaining or not… I knew I should. But trying to count it out again whilst battling with a loose shoe and going as fast as I could against a brutal head wind, seemed to make normal brain function disappear! So that’s why I was pleased I had ‘hit that button’ on my watch, as I could see that I had done 21K…
The next bit seemed easier… Hobble into transition with one loose shoe, rack bike, helmet off, trainers on, another bite of a banana and off I went, on a rather hilly path… Just 2 laps to remember so I didn’t have to think too much!
Before too long the finish line was in sight… I was very pleased with myself… Got handed a drink and medal and that was it!!!
I came 5th out of all the females and 2nd in my (old) age category! Very pleased with that I can tell you, and so was my PT Paul!