With champs like these, baby we were born to swim/bike/run

My last triathlon of the season was the Greenwich Tritons sprint club championship. This was at Leybourne, a lovely lake and a nice flat-ish course.
Given it was a sprint distance and I'd done two middle distance triathlons this year, I wasn't too nervous in the run up. Mostly I was exhausted having had not much sleep all week. I was fully expecting to come fifth out of the five Triton girls entered and looking forward to a nice short race just for a change. The nerves did eventually kick in on Friday night just as I was unsuccessfully trying to catch up with my lack of sleep!
The day dawned grey, windy and dreary, by which time we were on our way to the lake. I registered and began to rack up, at which point I realized I had left my aero bottle at home. I know at this stage I really should have learnt to drink from a bottle cage but for me this was going to mean a very thirsty bike ride!

Some of the Tritons before the race - I managed to sneak in the back!

The swim: "Where's my lightning bolt Scott, no corkscrew turns either"

I named this because Scott the swim coach had been testing our sighting using letters and images (including lightning) on a piece of paper. He'd also been teaching us different ways of turning round a buoy. The swim was a complete mosh pit, there were people kicking and punching everywhere, despite me putting myself near the back. Someone tried to swim over me so I apologise but I might have kicked them!
I got out the swim after 18 minutes, slower than my previous times. My transition was terrible due to my wetsuit not coming off quickly and I faffed a bit too...

Bike: It's not how it used to be (in a good way)

Once I got on the bike I remembered how I'd brought it down to Leybourne about the second time I'd ridden it and wobbled round the cycle course in a "make or break" test. I've spent so much time on my bike since then I am much more confident and much better balanced (although not so much that I can get my water bottle!). I essentially tried to push the bike as hard as I could as I knew my run leg was going to be poor. Number 90 and I were chasing each other all the way which gave me a great marker to follow. I spotted Lizzie W at the side of the road and hoped she didn't have a puncture after our discussion about whether we would bother to change a puncture earlier! Thankfully she just had a dropped chain so no having to faff with changing tyres...
Number 90 eventually got ahead of me and I miraculously didn't have to stop at any of the roundabouts and I finally got back into transition, only to see one of the other Tritons, James, finishing their race already!

Run: Doing it for the fun of it -What else would we be doing on a dreary Saturday morning?

My transition this time was fast and I actually came out onto the run before number 90 and a couple of others (no idea what they were doing). They of course came past me in no short order soon afterwards while I was struggling with jelly legs (that'll teach me not to do any brick sessions - or in fact any running - recently). My run was the slowest I've done for a long while there, but not too bad relative to my recent 5k times, just seem to have got really slow, something to work on over the winter I guess. I went past this lady who had two dogs, one of was "hopping" or perhaps bounding with its two front feet - very odd! I then ran past the Dartford Whiteoak tri lady who had told us earlier in transition she loved triathlon - so much so she had done a marathon during the week, was off to do another marathon that afternoon, and was due to line up for Thorpe Park triathlon the next day! I absolutely empathised with her and told her she was doing really well as I ran past.
On my run back towards transition on my first lap I saw Coach W who appeared to be bowing to me!
The second lap was almost as eventful. Someone came past me - unusual for the second lap, shouting "Don't worry I'm a lap behind you!". The lady with the hopping dog's other dog managed to stand right in front of me so I had to do some quick weaving! But finally I was on the home run, Coach W telling me to push it all the way to get a good time and it was all over. Last triathlon of the season done and it wasn't even 11 in the morning!

Finished!

It wasn't fast and I'm sure it wasn't pretty, but I was fourth out of the female Tritons (one pulled out but hey). I have realized that I do this purely because I enjoy it and I really love my triathlon club.

 Anything is possible, right?

Midnightman - a bit of a surprise

This year's Tritons club champs for the standard distance were Bewl and for the middle distance Midnightman. I had a bit of dilemma, because I managed to get a place in Ride London, so could I do Ride London, Bewl and Midnightman on consecutive weekends? After a bit of humming and harring and remembering how much hard work Bewl was the weekend after Ride London and how much I dislike Bewl (a lot!) I decided not to enter Bewl, but put myself into Midnightman.

In the two weeks running up to the event, I realised I really hadn't been doing much running and definitely nothing of distance. I decided to take myself off for a long run on the Sunday before, only to find myself struggling up Shooters Hill, then when I'd finally made it to the top to come crashing down on the way back down the hill. Luckily I wasn't too hurt, mostly bruised both to my skin/muscles and my ego. The week running up to Midnightman I thought, I really need another weekend... but I didn't have one.

The day of the race was very odd. I'm now so used to having to get up at the crack of dawn to get to a race that sleeping in (or attempting to) and having a relatively relaxed morning was very different. We got there relatively early, around 3:30 and I racked up. There were a couple of ladies who had done this race before and were chatting and being very friendly. I discovered this is a very friendly race - everyone is happy to talk to you and later on cheering you through the later stages was just lovely! I had a bit of time before the start of the race, so we sat down. We rapidly discovered there were some particularly vicious mozzies/gnats that particularly love biting - I think I ended up with several bites in minutes!

It was nice to see the other Tritons - AJ, Sophie and Claire were joining me in the middle distance, and I had much joy telling Francois that he was the only Triton man in the middle distance champs, so all he had to do was finish to win!  Eventually we had our race briefing and finally we got into the water, by which stage the cool water was a nice refreshing temperature after overheating slightly in the sunshine!
The swim was a bit of a disaster for me - my goggles kept ever so slightly leaking and I started to panic that I would lose my contact lenses. I had to stop to let the water out, which delayed me. I started to leave it until I got to a buoy but I think I ended up having to stop three or four times, delaying my swim quite badly! The water was nice and the buoys easy to spot so the swim went OK apart from that. Trying to get back in was interesting - I wasn't entirely sure I was going the right way but finally I got in and I could take my blasted goggles off and run into transition. My wetsuit (which due to my nails is starting to look like I've been attacked by a wild animal) was really resisting being taken off but finally I got myself ready and out onto the bike course.

Oh, that bike course. It was essentially an H shape with some really nasty dead turns at the end of each one. As you span down Bob Dunn Way the wind just blew against you making me feel like I was cycling through custard. On the way back it was much better as you had the wind behind. The dead turns were a real trial. I managed to mess several up by not getting round them properly and having to clip out to get round! The sun started to go down and I realised I was going to have to turn my lights on soon - I could reach my light on the front but not on the back. The sun sank deeper and deeper giving us a beautiful sunset and I got to lap five out of ten just as it set - so I decided to stop at the aid station, grab some food and fill up my bottle, and switch on my light at the back. By lap six Thea and Lizzie turned up and were a much needed boost - so much energy and enthusiasm! There was also a lady with pink LED lights and the two ladies that I'd spoken to earlier in the transition that kept me going. The last three laps I also went past a little boy that kept holding his hand out for a high five, which I was actually able to give him - my balance on the bike is a lot better than it used to be! I found out from my Strava that I'd beaten my 90 k time by round about half an hour, mostly because it was so flat a course (which of course meant you ended up pedalling all the time!). I kept checking my watch to see how much further I had left to go, and was so glad when it was my last lap, the last time I had to attempt those dead turns (which I managed!), and I could come into transition.

And out onto the run. Running will never be my best discipline, or my easiest. But there is always a small satisfaction of knowing that you've done two thirds of the race and now all ahead of you is 21 km of (mostly) tarmac. The run course was pretty busy to start with, there were many of the speedier half distancers ahead of me and it was nice that so many of my Triton colleagues took the time to cheer me on as they streaked past. AJ came past me quite soon after I started and asked me how I was feeling. I said, "Ask me again in an hour". People told me I was looking strong but I knew I was really slow. But I kept running. They also kept shouting out my name. I was really confused as to how so many people could know my name until I remembered that it's printed on the back of my trisuit! I hadn't brought my race belt with me that holds two small water bottles, and by the end of my first lap I was really starting to feel the effects of dehydration, as well as a desperate need to find a ladies. By the second lap I was absolutely dry to the bone, but I'd noticed a couple of the other runners running with bottles, so the next time I got to the aid station I asked for a bottle of energy drink. That energy drink saved my run, absolutely no question.  I finished the whole bottle going round the next 5 k. There were many things that I went past on my way around, including a Beefeater (at the start of the run I was desperate for a steak), a taxi cab advertising a bingo club all the way the other side of town in Cricklewood (!), a big party with a BBQ and chalk on the pavement cheering random people on (including one that said "Good job random stranger". On my final lap it got a lot quieter and started to feel a lot more like the other half ironmen that I have been to - apart from instead of some quiet country lane, I was running round a housing estate in the middle of the night in Dartford! I can't tell you how much of relief it was to come round the final corner, after the BBQ party had started to break up, and see the red lights of the bikes winking at me from transition. I speeded up for the last few yards and finally I was finished! I'd completely smashed my previous time and finished in 7 hours and 18 minutes, completely exhausted, worn out and a little spaced out too! I really felt for the full distance entrants who were still cycling around when I had finished and could go home.

Swashbuckler - never say never again

In September last year I did my first ever half ironman/middle distance event in the New Forest. I swore I'd never do another one again. Then, a month or so later, Rhiannon announced that she was going to enter the Swashbuckler middle distance. She was trying to convince the rest of us intermediate riders that we should enter. I wasn't convinced but at some point I must have told Thea that I wouldn't enter unless she entered as well, thinking that she would never enter. Then she surprised me one day and told me she'd entered. Damn it, I thought. So of course I then had to sign up. We were joined by Tamara, Emma D, Harriet, the Lizzies and Lindsay.

The training was inconsistent, and just seemed to involve a lot of activity interspersed with exhaustion, the horrible cough/cold combo and an inability to run further than 14 km and not much faster than around 7 minutes per km. I was tired, slow, aching and was very nervous running up to the event. Everyone kept telling me that I'd done it before, I should be OK, but I wasn't sure whether it made it better, or worse!

The day arrived, one of those beautiful English mornings that start with mist and promise to be nice later. We were all nervous, and there were several hugs exchanged. Six of us were in the second swim, and that was the last I saw of most of them for the rest of the day...

The swim was a lot saltier than I expected. I didn't really think about the fact that it would be high tide, thus the river would be full of sea water. It was extremely buoyant as well, which isn't something I've experenced a lot. It wasn't as much of a moshpit as I'm used to with open water races, which was nice, and I managed to get into a rhythm, even if there was this guy who seemed determined to backstroke across me (it seems backstroke is now allowed). It did start to feel like hard work and the water tasted HORRIBLE (I really thought I'd be sick!) but my overriding issue was the swim cap. Several times it felt like it was about to slip off (the issue is I have a large head and normal caps don't really fit), so I had to stop and tread water at least twice to try and fix it - very annoying! By the time it came to the end of the swim, it was pretty much fallen off... I was happy to be out by 41 minutes, but it seemed that everyone else had made it out. I faffed far too much in transition trying to sort myself out and getting ready for the bike.

On the bike the views were glorious. It occured to me that I should have a race in the New Forest every year, it's such a beautiful area. The ride was quite flat and I enjoyed the majority of it. The only issues I had were that I'd lost the straw to my magic handlebar bottle, so I'd had to improvise with a couple of ordinary straws, which kept floating to the top of my water bottle, not great. I had to keep pushing the straw back into the bottle so that I could have a drink...
There are moments when you cycle that you end up in a dark place, which is full of pain and profanity. This was mostly directed towards my saddle, which felt after a while that I was sat on a metal bar... perhaps it's time to get a new saddle. The marshalls were absolutely brilliant, especially the one near where I'd stayed the night before, who was so full of enthusiasm it really helped keep me going. I was desperate to stop for a rest, but I decided to get to the half way point before stopping. When I got to 45 km, I was in the middle of a village, so of course I didn't want to stop. In the end I didn't stop and kept going through the pain and the annoyance of having to sort out my straw throughout the whole ride. I kept thinking of my difficult climb in Malaga where I just kept going through the pain and the desire to stop. It was so good to finally come round towards Beaulieu for the final time and then into Buckler's Hard. It took me 3 hours and 42 minutes, a PB for me for the bike.

On to the run, and the sun had finally come out, of course. There were loads of people doing their second lap as I started off, after grabbing some water and "energy drink" from the aid station. The energy drink they gave us was a bizarre mixture that tasted weird but did help a little on my run. I essentially ended up running between aid stations and stopping at each one for a bit of a pep talk. Again the marshalls were just lovely and brilliant. I had both Harriet and Lizzie run past me cheering me on, and near the end of the first lap, many people saying "not far to the end". I had to keep telling them that I still had another lap to go, sadly! I had to struggle back up the hill in Buckler's Hard past the finish line and carry on to the aid station at the top. That was tough. I had a nice chat with the aid station marshalls, said "Let's do this" and started on my second lap. I knew this was going to be lonely, and it was. It felt like there was nobody else on the road left, they'd all finished already. I spent a lot of time trying to convince myself that I could do this, but at around 14 k I met a dark place again and had to stop to walk for a bit. It didn't help that my hips were absolutely killing me by this stage (what I used to call a "pain party"). I decided that I would walk for a minute and then carry on running. At around this stage a guy with a yellow shirt came past me, and I finally realised it wasn't just me on my own on the second lap. I struggled on, convincing myself that I could do it and slowly getting past the mile markers and on to the next aid station. For some time I followed a guy with a red cap. Earlier on, the faster swimmers were wearing red swim caps and in my slightly beleaguered state I was convinced this guy was still wearing his red swim cap! He was slowing down so I actually ended up going past him and finally found out that he was wearing a red baseball cap as opposed to a swim cap! I made it, somehow, to the last aid station. I was so glad I was almost in tears they were still there, and worried I was going to get cut off. They tried to encourage me that the finish was still there at the end and I was nearly there. The final bit of the run goes through the forest and the trail goes in a straight line. I didn't realise how long this path was from the first trip around and ended up shouting (when nobody was around) "Will this path EVER end?!?" I was having real trouble breathing and had to try and calm myself down so I didn't end up panic breathing. After quite a lot more plodding eventually the masts of the boats at the harbour finally came into view. I was so glad to see these! And so I made it through the marina and the people clapping, actually running up the hill to the finish... I was through to the end!

I couldn't quite believe I'd finished it... again! All that pain and endless training for seven hours and 50 minutes of effort.

Afterwards, I couldn't help but feel a bit low. I don't normally like to talk about this, but I started wondering why I am a triathlete. Why I continue to put myself through these things when I am clearly absolute rubbish at it (3 hour half marathon... some people can finish a whole marathon in that time). Whether I should just give it up as a bad job. Wondering whether I deserve to call myself a Triton, and why nobody has taken me to one side and asked me to leave (like they did at a badminton club I was once a member of). I just thought about the fact that half the Tritons I was with had left by the time I'd finished, and this made me feel unworthy. However, then I got a couple of messages who said that they were so proud of me it helped me feel a bit more proud of what I'd achieved - I'm now a double half ironman!

Now, when's the next one?