Monday 14 May 2012

Turns out not.

Full results published and, er, well, it's a weird race.  Only 26 women out of 174 finishers.  I was 13th, so slap bang in the middle of the field, 4th in my age category (out of 8 overall), the first two women were in the 55-59 age category and finished in roughly the same time as Mr TOTKat, and in the top 5 women, 3 were over 50!  I beat both of the 34-39 competitors and would have been 11th, 10th or even 9th woman if it weren't for the weird stuff that happened at the end of the bike leg (though still 4th in my category).
  • 7th fastest female in the swim
  • 15th fastest female in the 800m run to transition
  • 14th fastest female on the bike (though should have been about 10th)
  • 14th fastest female on the run - which given everything else I'm pretty pleased with
Given that I'd had at 3.5 hour bike ride the day before (and a 400m TT in the pool), plus the head-mess at the end of the bike leg that resulted in a thoroughly defeated and "why bother" feeling for a good chunk of the run, I think that wasn't a bad show at all.

I learned a few things:-
  • I can drink in the saddle and eat gels (taping them to the top tube really is a good idea)
  • Remember to actually start the bike computer so it doesn't auto-turn off after the first 10 minutes cycling while flying down a hill
  • With a totally new course, make sure I really pay attention and understand the route and how many laps of each bit there are (tiny loop plus big loop = 2 laps in this course's parlance)
  • Ignore the PA system unless you're actually crossing the finish line
  • Focus on swimming in a straight line more
  • I must not expect a good position or time when I've just put in the heaviest training week of my life - too much mental pressure on myself
  • More focus on nutrition is needed - I think I was bonking towards the end of the run
  • Cycling cadence of around 90 is really a good thing
 I'm still crapping myself about Wimbleball and more so for Bolton now.  I need to spend more time talking through that with Rich.


3 comments:

  1. What hastened in the bike ride?? Did you do extra laps??

    ReplyDelete
  2. I got confused at the end of the bike when I heard over the PA "We'll see the first Olympic distance athletes in about 10 minutes" - I thought I'd screwed up the bike route, went to find marshals, chatted for 2-3 minutes and then decided to go and run anyway even though I'd probably be DQd. Then I couldn't find my place in transition because A. someone had racked over my stuff and B. my running shoes were so soaked (from the 800m run up from the swim end to transition and the fact that some bastard had dumped his soaking wetsuit on top of them) that I didn't recognise them, and C. I was flustered and upset about the bike leg.
    I then realised on the run that the guy on the PA had meant the first -runners- would be -finishing- in 10 minutes and then kept an eye out for a marshal to say "please don't DQ me, I was confused and I -did- to the bike course right". Didn't find a marshal until the finish.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Considering all the above, your times are great. Well done!

    ReplyDelete