My kingdom for a surf ski...

Friday
AM - 40min spin on Betty in front of the telly.

Saturday
Rest :-)

Sunday
AM - Trishave All Women's Triathlon - 250m/10k/2.5k

At the Aquathon last weekend, I had a good swim & bad run. Today, it was reversed. Horrid swim. Good bike. Even better run.

I caught up with TA & Mouse (who were doing the sprint event) along with Gnome & NTR not long before the briefing for my race. It was wonderful to be able to spend the day with them all - and thanks so much for the cheering & sideline coaching!

The swim was easily 50m longer than the (enticer) club race I did early last month. Did I mention the swim was horrid? I have no idea why. But it was horrid. I'm not asthmatic but I can begin to imagine what those suffering asthma go through. Half way in the swim, I was treading water, my breathing producing a sound which resembled a death rattle & I was looking around for a surf ski. There were no surf skis to be seen so I just thought "suck it up princess" & tried to get on with it. I have no idea what happened. Last week's swim was more congested. Dunno. So much for last week's confidence boosting swim...

Anyhoo, needless to say that I was happy to be out of the water & onto the bike. My bike leg was good. I just focused on keeping my cadence up & managed to spend alot of time in a higher gear (at a high cadence) than I did during my last race. I also passed a few people :-)



Coming out of T2, I took off after 'high fiving' Mouse & NTR, immediately passing someone. Over the grassy knoll & by the time I was in front of the grandstand, I was thinking that my speedy start was a bad idea - as evidenced by this photo!


Having said that, it was my cardio fitness that was letting me down. My legs actually felt good - for the first time, I didn't have the dreaded dead/jelly leg sensation. And before anyone asks, yes I worked hard on the bike. Maybe the strength training is starting to pay off?



Apart from my lungs screaming at me, I enjoyed the run - and not just because I managed to pick a few more people off :-) As a back-of-the-packer and normally the 'passee' and not the 'passer', I don't often pass people so I have to admit that I enjoyed doing it today (*she blushes*). I forgot to stop my watch - again - but suspect my time was 43:xx and - notwithstanding the longer swim - a new Enticer PB :-)

Ian & Gnome quickly arrived to congratulate me. Gnome gave me a lovely compliment -he said words to the effect of 'yes, you certainly are a runner' :-) It was lovely to be reminded of that after doing so little running over the last 7 months.

I spent the rest of the morning hanging out with Gnome & NTR whilst cheering on Mouse, Coach TA & Wildthing, all of whom had great races. Congrats girls !

I was somewhat ambivalent about the race but I'm now glad I did it. Not only did I get to spend the morning with some of my favourite people, I learn something new every time I do this caper. Now if I could only work out the reason for my crap swims & I'll be motoring :-)

Results to come. I hope.

Edit: the results are in !

S: 6:16 - not too bad given it includes my asthma/panic attack
B: 24:32 - not bad given it includes both T1 & T2
R: 12:35 - assuming the course was accurate (a big assumption I know) -5.02min/k pace - OMG, no wonder that hurt. For me, that's absolutely smokin' :-)

Total: 43:23 meaning a 28 sec PB :-)

Placing:
Out of the water - 63/124. Finished - 36 / 124! Nice :-)

Photos courtesy of Gnome (c) 2008