Summary:
Finish 03: 02: 03
Swim 00: 43: 02
T1 00: 04 : 37
Bike 01: 10: 03
T2 00: 02: 34
Run 01: 01: 45
To say I was nervous looking at the swim the day before was probably an understatement and it didn’t change until I actually started the swim on Sunday. My anxiety was only fuelled finding out that there were 550 people in my wave – great!
The wave was split due to there being so many people, the first group obviously the confident lot and then the rest.
Once the swim started it was better than I thought, of course it was the longest I’d swam surrounded by lots of other people and I do mean lots of other people!
Some of the important things I was trying to remember was just to break the swim down into small sections, not to kick too much and don’t worry about other people. It was a long swim but much better than my shorter swim at Dorney a few weeks previously.
Thinking I was nearing the last turn buoy coming up I actually sped up slightly, only to realise that wasn’t the right one and I still had quite a bit to do before the final stretch – schoolboy error!
Eventually got out of the water, great to see my little boy and my long suffering girlfriend cheering me on and looking pleased I’d made it.
I was so pleased to have done the swim that I almost forgot I had 2 more events to do, so I got myself together and onto the bike.
The bike was quite uneventful just tried to keep at a half sensible pace, recover from the swim and not completely wear myself out for the run. The course was alright, quite flat-ish even though I did manage to get up to nearly 60km a few times, that’s seems quite quick on a bike especially when you can hardly see because your sunglasses are full of salt from sweating. (I soon realised I should clean them off).
Once again great to see Lynn & Sid cheering me on!
Out of transition 2 slightly quicker and looking forward to the run, the easy bit, yeh right. I felt tired, which I don’t normally when running, it was hot but my run should have been at least 10-15 minutes faster. I was laughing to myself that I just couldn’t get my running together as I thought this would be the easiest part for me – welcome to tri…….
It was great finishing around the 3 hour mark but knew it could have been better, that said the biggest achievement was being able to complete the swim. I’d say that was a bigger personal goal than completing a marathon even though the marathon was more physically draining.
The event itself was very big, obviously. A little bit like going to Westfields just for a pint of milk, next time a smaller maybe more picturesque event please.
Thanks for everyone’s advice and kind words, I look forward to many more events!
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