the results are in!!

So it’s OVER (or just begun!) – my triathlete virginity has been lost, gone, never to be returned!

I’m going to give a blow-by-blow (no pun intended) description of the event, but I know you’re desperate for the final result so here she is:

(drumroll please!)

out of 140 fellow ladies competing, my placing for each leg was broken down into the follow:


25th for the swim (yipppeeeee!)

25th for the bike (who would have thought it???) and

95th for the run (ahahha, like as if I was ever going to score well here peoples)


so, overall, I came 51st out of 140! Am well stoked with that result, particularly in doing well in the bike leg, which was unexpected. Actually finished the race smiling (with pictures to prove!) Let me say, the weather was absolutely miserable, rain and wind and freezing cold – but the triathlon was brilliant, and I had a ball!

Here’s a breakdown of each leg of the race, complete with official times:

SWIM: 400m in 7mins 54secs.

My theory of swimming with the slower swimmers in a bid to get out early kind of backfired in that I was overtaking a lot, and ended up in a four person backlog to get out of the pool (wasting 30 seconds!!) the good thing was that I was (apparently) the fastest person in the pool and as a result looked rather impressive (enough for a lady to comment to husband and pass on her admiration!) Husband was timing my swim on trusty iphone, as we can see from pic below:





T1: Transition was hectic due to the rain – all my stuff was sitting in a bag and I was struggling to remember what I needed for the cycle leg. Was also scared of being disqualified for things like touching bike before putting helmet on, and not mounting bike at correct place. Accidentally scowled at the lovely cheerers due to stressful transitioning business and apologise muchly!

BIKE: 23 kms in 54 mins

Started off on bike, ready for streams of people to start flying by me – and then started to realise they actually weren’t going to. Indeed, only a few people overtook me on the bike, which was brilliant for my morale and meant I really really enjoyed the ride. I didn’t push hard at all, kept in the same gear 90% of the time, spinning mostly, and found myself overtaking others on going uphill, and being overtaken on the hills on the way down! The roads were terribly wet (and it was still raining) – so I used my brakes all the way down the hill in fear of coming off. Sure I wasted time, but at least I didn’t come off! Was even singing to myself during the ride. LOVED IT. Could definitely have gone faster + harder, but felt I didn’t need to and am glad I didn’t.

T2: Transition 2 was super quick, as I didn’t have clip in bike shoes to change. Dropped my bike and helmet, grabbed my headband (to keep fringe off face, peoples, not for aesthetics!) and took off for the run.

RUN: 5kms in 31 mins

Was so frozen from the bike, did not feel legs – literally – for the first half of the run. My skin was red raw, can’t remember last time I experienced this. Track was super muddy for about ¼ of the stretch which helped because it meant I couldn’t run fast even if I wanted to. Legs picked up pace a little later, but then the last 1km I got a really bad stitch. Felt like I had broken a rib (never done that, but could imagine?!) Not sure why this happened, as I didn’t drink a drop during the whole race – perhaps my body just knowing how tragic a runner I am and giving me an excuse to whinge. Bunch of people over taking me on this stretch, as was expected.

OVERALL: Had WAY too much fun for this type of business! Would love to compete in the London Triathlon next year, so will definitely keep training over winter. Will dedicate some real time to improving my running, now that I know my swimming and cycling are on an even level. At the end of the event, felt incredibly good (except for stitch) and know I could definitely manage an olympic distance triathlon.

sounds like there's a new countdown on the horizon....