Strewth's Training Blog

WAG Triathlon


Activities - swim 400m, cycle 14km,
run 4km

Yes, after a terrible night's sleep waking hourly to hear the rain and the thunder I rose at 6.30am to peer out the window at a dismal looking Sunday knowing there was no way I could chicken out now! Today was my first triathlon for the season and it felt like a winter's day. It definitely called for a wetsuit for the swim leg. As I was securing my bike to the rack on the back of Mr B's car an hour later my neighbour came over for a chat. At that stage I was feeling decidedly negative about the weather and the event. I am not a confident swimmer but I'm an even less confident cyclist if the roads are wet and I had a dreadful feeling in the pit of my stomach. However determination took over and we made it to the start in spite of the churning stomach. The water felt cold but the wetsuit was a godsend.

Swim leg - 400m

Now 400m may not sound far but believe me it usually feels like 2km in the open water of the lake with several other bodies kicking and flailing arms whacking you in the face. However with a wetsuit I felt amazingly buoyant and could have swum it twice. Yes, I was still hit on the head, and pushed and shoved but I just kicked harder and kept swimming. I felt confident and non-drownable. I didn't panic once. I wish I could swim in a wetsuit for every triathlon I ever enter. It made all the difference to how I felt. For one thing I actually passed people, I even passed people in the wave ahead of me. My wave was the last to leave and I was in fear of being last out of the water and therefore last in the entire event but it didn't happen. I was well in with the bunch and with such a good start felt really good throughout the entire event.

Cycle leg - 14km

I spent far too long in transition. I put on a bike jacket cos it was pretty cold, dried my feet before putting on my shoes, had a drink, put on my number belt, my helmet and my sunnies (even though the weather was decidedly bleak) and ran out to mount my bike. It was a good ride. The road remained dry and the rain held off. I didn't become too hot even with a jacket on but I didn't freeze either. At times the head wind made it a bit of a battle and there was a scary moment crossing a bridge when a bus drove past and my bike wavered a bit but on the whole the cycle leg was pretty comfortable and there were lots of different sorts of bikes out there.

Run leg - 4km
Again I definitely am out of practice with transition. I even stopped to tighten my laces and then I lost my bearings for a moment and stood there trying to figure out where the run leg started! However I set off at last to find my feet felt like solid blocks and didn't want to run properly. It took me more than a km to get into my stride and the turnaround point felt a long way. However, after the halfway point I began to enjoy myself and ran much more comfortably. I even managed a sprint down the finishing chute and finished with a smile on my face. Yes, I had finished the first triathlon of the season and actually enjoyed myself. Now that's a first!

CJ and I hung round for a while waiting for the barrel draws and the results to be announced. CJ won first in her age group and I came second in mine so we both received awards which was pretty exciting. CJ did a great time of 58minutes. My time was nearer 70minutes but one of the joys of being in my age group is that there's not too many competitors after a certain age. The winner in my age group is an Australian champion so pretty much unbeatable but I was very happy to be second even if there may have only been two in my age group!!

We decided to use the run leg of our tri as the run for Rae's Turkey Run in the US so we wore the Turkey Numbers which I had printed off and these photos are taken with our trophies after the tri was over so that we could wear Rae's numbers. See CJ's blog (froggie61) for more reports on the WAG Tri.