08 March 2013

An attempt to get back into triathlons...

On Tuesday I took part in a triathlon organized through my work. It took place at Green Park, a business park in Reading, which is where my office will be re-locating to in about August. There were about 25 people from my current office taking part, partly in teams and partly as individuals, and it was a great day. I did the baby-distance - 200m swim, 9km bike and 3.5 km run - and in hindsight I'm glad I didn't go for the longer distance.

Leading up to the triathlon I was quite worried. I had taken part in the same triathlon last year and I did okay, but I hadn't done much training over the winter, apart from a few 2km jogs home after dropping the kids off at school. I went for one proper bike ride and one swim in the week leading up to the triathlon.

I was also worried about the weather. It was still pretty chilly, with me having to scrape ice off the windscreen even on the morning of the triathlon. I was already thinking that I may have to use the heated changing tent that I laughed at last year. But then as if by some kind of miracle it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day getting up to about 12 degrees Celsius and I didn't need to worry at all.

I started in the last swim wave, which was a very fast swim wave, and I was the second to last person to get out of the pool. Thanks to my lovely bike I managed to overtake a few people. But I went way too hard on the bike ride and had nothing left for the run. I thought I was going to be sick and was tempted to walk, because I was wondering whether I would be just as fast. I managed to overtake someone who was walking and decided that running was probably still more effective. Right at the very end, when I saw the finish line I loosened up a little and felt like I was able to run properly again.



I was disappointed about the fact that I was slower than last year and particularly about my running time. But I still enjoyed the day and I am determined to actually do some training and manage to do a sprint distance triathlon later in the summer. Here are my results.




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