My favourite race of all; it's Blenheim!

In the journey through the various races I've done while learning about and enjoying triathlon, there are some races I just love.  Blenheim Sprint Triathlon is one of them and probably at the top of the list.

The first time I raced at Blenheim, I'd only done a few sprints before (at Thames Turbo) and this was my first big, commercial race.  And it was amazing!  Even though I DNFed due to an ongoing knee injury I really really enjoyed it.  The grounds are beautiful,  the lake is clear and still, the course is gently undulating on the bike and run and the support is warm.

"For me, the swim was glorious. An utter breeze. It felt easy, smooth and I went a little off course a couple of times but was way ahead of the majority of our wave by the turn buoy. I wasn't entirely sure where the end of them swim was, but carried on feeling fantastic and quick until I finally worked out where the finish was.
Again, still well at the front of the wave, I was helped out onto the pontoon with little trouble and squeaked in surprise as one of the support volunteers unzipped my wetsuit for me when I really wasn't expecting that. Very helpful! Thanking them both and tearing off the arms and top part, I ran up the hideous slope towards transition - really steep! Glancing down at my watch, my heart rate was 184! I rounded the corner at the top of one of the slopes into transition, pulling off my swimming caps (mine plus the race one on top) and goggles, and a huge grin spread across my face as the crowd were clapping and cheering for everyone and as I was still near the front of the wave and the competitors were relatively spread out, it meant that they were cheering for me! Yes, me!"

Looong slope up to transition 

The next time, I raced under odd conditions due to work troubles, but I loved it again.

"I got overtaken by a little blonde girl about 750m from the end, which made me kick up two gears and then curse the fact that I'd had those two gears and not used them - and there was plenty left to hold that pace -and- put in a sprint finish. I got overtaken again by two more girls, who I hung on to, hoping they were only on their first lap of the run. When they peeled off left to do their second lap when I was finishing my second, I laughed out loud because I hadn't been racing them, had a huge grin and sprinted to the finish."

I did grin, honest! It was just a bit after this was taken.

I missed it last year due to the bridge problem they had (what a stroppy I was about it too!), but I'm back again for a 3rd time at Blenheim on Sunday this coming weekend and I know it'll be an awfully slow swim compared with the last two, the bike could be excitingly quick and I'll take whatever comes on the run.  I'm extremely rusty on racing sprints, so I'm sure I'll be hilariously slow in the transitions, but it's going to be lovely!

I wish I knew (Race Report: Thames Turbo Sprint #4 2013)

Bank holiday Monday.  Thames Turbo Sprint Tri day!

Vicky Gill - Ladies Winner and setting a new course record

Usual 04:30 alarm; up, brekkie and off to park and register by 05:45.  This race, I was in the 4th wave of starters and quite far down that wave for start time.  [Start time at these races is seeded by overall estimated completion time, wave 1 being slowest, 4 fastest; then by estimated 400m swim time, fastest first in the pool.]  So from registration time, I had a 2 hour wait before getting into the pool to start.  Thankfully there were some nice people around to chat to, both competitors and spectators (thanks Rowe family, @abradypus, Danny), so the 2 hours passed relatively quickly.

I had my usual "I don't feel like this; I don' wanna get in the pool" minor funk before getting in and getting on with it.  My swim was pretty average and uneventful and for all my whining that I hadn't re-set my estimated swim time to something sensible, I was in a perfect spot in the swim - the guy in front never showed me his feet and the guy behind never got close.  I popped out of the pool, trotted into transition to my bike, which was nicely racked towards the end of a rack.

Shoes on, number belt clipped on - ARGH! IT'S SO LOOSE! - I tried to adjust it but the little loops that hold the loose ends were jammed into the plastic buckles and stopping me from getting it any tighter.  I tried a few times, managed to get it a little tighter, enough that it wouldn't just flap around on the bike, and then gave up.  Helmet and glasses on. Trot out to the bike mount line at the pedestrian crossing.  More errors!  I skidded about a bit trying to clip in my shoes and then was in a silly low gear as I spun up the wheels on the spur down to the main road.  I decided not to get down on the bars for that part as the traffic can be unpredictable there and I just spun out at a high cadence all the way to the junction before turning out onto the main part of the course, getting down on the bars and then getting into a better gear.

It was time to put some effort in, so off I went.  Slowing slightly for the roundabout at the short-end turn point, I started to wind it back up again for the run back down to the church and on to the flight of mini roundabouts in the villages.  Argh again!  There's a right-hand turn at a narrow point in the first village where there are often vehicles turning right.  Coming up to that junction was a very slow cyclist, with a bus stuck behind it, which also wanted to turn right.  No way to over or under-take the bus as there was no room and it was turning right, I had no option but to ease off the pedals and wait for the bus to turn right.  Argh!  It had to wait for 2-3 cars to go past on the other side of the road before turning!  Never mind; on with it down to the left at the traffic lights.  No further incidents on the bike, strong, confident cycling down to the far end roundabout turn and then back, into a reasonably fierce head-wind.  I was over-taken by one, two, then three men on squashy bikes with whooshy wheels, but the third one (511) was only just pulling away.  He might be catchable!  A peloton of bank holiday cyclists went past me and interjected between me and race number 511.  They sat there for a bit, pulling away from me very very slightly and then eventually overtook 511.  Who then eased off!  Catchable!  So catchable, I eased off too.  Bah!

I caught him just as we eased into the bike finish funnel and then off to the non-compete zone back to T2.  We had a bit of a chat and I said I'd been hoping to go sub-40 minutes on the bike that day, but the wind and the bus had certainly put paid to that.  Oh well!

Back to T2, bike racked nicely in a huge gap where the people around me hadn't got back yet.  Shoe swap, helmet off, sun-visor on and off to the run out from T2.

And I felt -GOOD-.  Really really good.

Trying to run through the stitch, but not doing well
(Thanks to David Rowe for the photo)

Trotted down the road to the park entrance, being overtaken by 3 people who were quite nippy.  Into the park, up to the first km marker and then... oh dear god, the worst stitch known to humanity hit my right side.  I slowed to a walk and stopped.  Tried to breathe it out but it wasn't going, so started walking and trying to massage the muscles.  This was not good at all.  It just wouldn't shift and then eased a little, so I started to run again, legs feeling absolutely great, but the stitch sharpened again.  I passed Mr TOTKat and @abradypus at the water station and quite vocally explained my predicament as I passed them.  It went on; run, walk, run, walk for the next 2km up to the corner which was just under 2km to go.  I don't know if it was Rob telling me "just under 2km to go" that made the magic happen, but the stitch went away completely and I started to run properly again.  It just felt so good in the legs and lungs I really wish that stitch hadn't happened.  I motored on in to the finish line and stopped my watch.  01:21:27 - I'd started it early in the pool and it included the non-compete zone between bike and T2 so I had no idea what my overall time was.  I really wanted to beat 40 minutes on the bike and really wanted to beat my previous PB of 01:16:14, but was pretty sure I hadn't.

After a chat with Liz Pinches and Richie Thorpe, @abradypus, Mr TOTKat and I ambled back to the pool for some tea and a bacon roll.  I went to print my results while Mr TOTKat scored tea and food up in the cafe.  And there we go.  I smashed my bike PB, by 3 minutes, despite the bus and the wind.  And I beat my overall PB by just under a minute too, despite the awful run and average swim.  3rd in AG, which is OK I suppose.  7th woman on the bike overall, which is OK I suppose.

Not a bad day, not the best day, but I'm thinking Zell Am See may well turn out interestingly.  Hopefully I'll've got all the crappy luck out of the way and no more stitches!

I really really wish I'd not had that stitch; I wish I knew what the run could have been.  I'm thinking it could have been around 25 minutes, but I'll never know.

Turned a corner

Taking one day at a time is proving to be very successful.  I'd been getting really wound up looking at things even on a weekly level, never mind monthly or zooming right out to seasonal level.  Stress levels rising, happiness levels plummeting, generally an unpleasant state to be in.

Breaking things up into manageable chunks works.  I looked at my week and moved training sessions about to fit with my work travels in a sensible way and then just focussed on each day as they came.  On a Tuesday, if I was in Bury Saint Edmunds, I'd get a run session in in the morning before work.  On a Thursday, if I was tired from the day before and needed to get in to work for an 8am start, I'd just do that and if I ended up in the office for almost 12 hours, then that's what happened and that was enough stress on my body for the day without trying to wedge in a sports training session or getting wound up about not having trained.  Move on.  Live with it.  Tomorrow is another day.

And I've got out on my bike and started to feel the movement and synergy with it more.  Been cornering and handling better, sitting on the brakes downhill less, getting down on the drops (unheard of), taking a drink while pedalling (also unheard of) and today I went for a speculative spin on my TT bike and it was OK.  I was able to get down on the bars right out of the traps.  And this was right after a good swim session where I got through the whole session without wussing out and missing part of the main set, and did it in less time than coach estimated for the session.

5x100s x 3 - endurance session

Things are looking up.

I'm going to race on the TT bike tomorrow.

I'm also going to mash the run like I did at the 15km race at Clapham 2 weeks ago.

And if I don't place well in the field, I don't mind all that much.  It's been a tough 9 months since I crashed, lots has happened and that's OK.

Blenheim Sprint Triathlon 2012 - photos

I swam (1 minute faster than last year)

I biked (3 and a bit minutes faster than last year)

And I ran

Yep. Ran.

Actually ran.

 Running at Blenheim was a big deal, having DNFed last year.

A difficult, but good sprint

Blenheim last year was a mixed race, but a wonderful experience overall.  I always think back to what happened at the swim exit and run to T1 with fondness.  I was pretty early out of the water in my wave and despite the horrid 400m uphill run to T1, the reception of the supporters was absolutely amazing as I rounded the final corner into T1.  I was greeted by a huge wave of applause and cheering and it lifted me up higher than I've ever felt in a race before or since.  OK, so due to my knee troubles at the time, I had to stop racing after the bike leg and as a result did not complete the race, but the experience of T1 far far outweighed that on the day and ever since.

I needed this race in order to put in some of the final building blocks to get me through the Ironman Ultimate Challenge.  If I didn't do this race, I wouldn't be in good stead for the first Ironman (UK 70.3) on the schedule next weekend.  For me, these Ironman races are not only a significant financial commitment, but they come together to form a major life event for me.  Almost every waking moment when I'm not at work, I'm training or preparing for or planning for or thinking about these races.

So, I raced.  Some of you will know what a really hard decision to carry on and do that was under the circumstances of the 24 hours before and that I now need to be up all night to support something important.  And it was a good race, despite the mental turmoil.

The water was cold and very churned up and silty.  I got a good mouthful at one point when someone with a phenomenally sploshy kick was alongside me.  I got a kick in the jaw near the end of the swim too and the whole thing felt terrible, which usually means that it's quick.  And it was quick. A whole minute faster than last year.

The bike was windy as all hell, but again quicker than last year, this time by 3 minutes and 5 seconds.  Lots of people don't learn about the beginning of the bike course.  There's a short downhill run into a short rise.  People free-wheel down the downwards bit and then end up cursing and sawing at the pedals to get up the rise, instead of powering down the hill then using the momentum to swing up the rise.  There are a few sections of the bike course like that and with 3 laps, it's really something people should learn and take advantage of.  Anyway, I had some fun over-taking a good few people in the first couple of km and then over-taking and re-overtaking a guy in orange-soled shoes who was very distinctive.  Yes, there were a few people on squishy bikes with whooshy wheels that over-took me, but today wasn't about really slamming it - especially after yesterday's hour of spin bike work.

Oops, I left my bike computer on after the bike leg, so the last split includes all of the time for my last 5km of the bike, T2, the run, getting back from the finish line and then realising it was still on.  Still, very nice average and top speeds for not trying very hard on the bike leg.

The run... meh!  Turns out I could have give it a heck of a lot more, but again that wasn't the aim today.  The aim was to ease into the run and then see how I felt.  I felt OK, if a little warm and the rises weren't half as horrible as I thought they would be.  I got overtaken by a little blonde girl about 750m from the end, which made me kick up two gears and then curse the fact that I'd had those two gears and not used them - and there was plenty left to hold that pace -and- put in a sprint finish.  I got overtaken again by two more girls, who I hung on to, hoping they were only on their first lap of the run.  When they peeled off left to do their second lap when I was finishing my second, I laughed out loud because I hadn't been racing them, had a huge grin and sprinted to the finish.

Overall quite pleased, 7% faster swim, 7% faster bike and no idea about the run as I DNFed last year.  The results are screwed up online and there are loads of people who clearly didn't do 3 laps of the bike course, but I'm provisionally 9th in my age category and that is only likely to go up if the results are properly and fully scrutinised for finalisation.  So, for a race where I wasn't really racing, I had a great result.

Happy.

Now back to work.

PB again - and some big scalps

Thames Turbo race two happened.

The Thames Turbo sprint race series is the reason I've done more than one triathlon ever.  It's really well run and organised, very very friendly and welcoming to those who are new to the sport, safe, well-marked, well-marshalled and given the standing of the triathlon club itself does tend to attract some pretty nippy triathletes too so there's a challenge.  I first thought I might want to try triathlon in 2010 and went looking for a 'civilised' sprint distance one - having heard all the horror stories about open water mass starts, I wanted one that was in a pool!  I ended up entering all 4 of the sprint series in 2010 (yes, we're a bit 'all or nothing' in our house) and sadly ended up missing the first one due to breaking my coccyx while skiing earlier in the year.  So, I shivered in the freezing cold and cheered Mr TOTKat around for the first one and then froze myself to bits and got the transitions between each discipline awfully wrong in the second and third ones, improving bit by bit through each one through the year.

I enjoyed it, kinda liked it, wasn't that great at it, but wanted to get better so entered more in 2011 - all 4 Thames Turbo races and then some others... Blenheim, then the Virgin London one (Olympic distance) and having enjoyed that one, also entered the HSBC one...  anyway, I digress.  The Thames Turbo races really got me fired up and were proving a good benchmark course, with some people we started to get to know online through them as well as to say hi to at races.

And, well, although I'm having a bit of a broken brain at the moment, I logically know that this race was pretty bloody good.

This time, there were three waves.  Seeded by overall race time into waves, then by 400m swim time within the waves, all of the athletes are sorted and allotted a start position and bib number.  Usually, I'm in the first wave (being slower than 01:20:00) and near the start of the wave (being sort-of-quickish in the swim).  This time, I was in the second of the three waves.

The first wave started off and plopped into the steaming water of Hampton Pool in 6C outside temperature as the sun started to come out and turn up the thermostat.  As the pool filled up, athlete by athlete 15s apart, there was a bit of congestion as the sometimes optimistic 400m estimated swim times people had declared proved to be just that... a bit optimistic from some but not others.  As the first wave completed, the marshals left a large gap in the swim starts to allow the first wave to almost clear the pool before starting the next wave.  I was up in this wave so off came the 4x layers of tops, tracksuit bottoms, skiing socks and trainers and I paddled in the baby pool for a while before body marking and then my turn was up to get in and get on with it.

I made it about 6 lengths before 2 people wanted to overtake me at once, so I stopped at the end of the pool to wait for them to pass but everyone got very English and I ended up having to say "go on then!" before dropping onto the toes of the second one and then overtake someone else that length myself.

The swim felt... meh.  I knew I'd lost time waiting for the two guys to pass and one of them was Mr 196 who I'd chatted to in the line to start.  T1 and I had a long trot to the opposite end from the Swim In to where my bike was racked next to the Bike Out - handy as that meant I had a shorter run in my cleats before the bike mount line.  I've not yet tried the trick where you attach your shoes to the bike with elastic bands as my bike handling skills aren't that good (or at least I don't have the confidence) that I can reach down and do up my shoes while cycling.  Hopping onto my bike in the mount area, I took a few turns of the pedals to get going and down to the junction with the first turn.  As soon as I was through that turn I got down onto the aero bars.  This is still very new for me and I find the bike incredibly twitchy when down on the bars but it's a lot easier with race head on than when not.  The tough bit is getting on and off the bars, once I'm on them I'm fine and that's why I got Stormtrooper (so I can change gear down on the bars rather than faffing on and off them).

Long story short, I overtook a lot of people on the bike and got properly overtaken by only one person that made it stick.  Mr TOTKat!  Mr 196 overtook and got overtaken by me 3-4 times and I won out in the end (he was faster in the swim by 23s and in the run by 3 minutes, so roundly beat me overall).  Mr TOTKat and I had a bit of a chat in the non-compete zone back from the end of the bike to transition, which was nice.  T2 was a little bit slow in that I nearly fell over a couple of times.  Then the run, which I was a bit apprehensive about due to the awful stitch I got last time.  I trotted out with a high cadence and just hoped the stitch wouldn't come.  As ever, the marshals and the kids that help, were supportive and encouraging which is always nice on the last leg and I managed to run through most of the stitch that did come, only slowing to a walk for 4-5 paces to breathe through it and carry on.

The final km of the run, I cranked it up a notch and my legs felt completely fine, but my guts didn't (as is usual when I'm going reasonably quickly for me).  Down to the path for the final stretch and opened it up a bit more, to the final bend and the last 100m sprinting past a couple of ladies to throw myself over the line and collapse onto the grass.  I stopped my watch and looked at it - 01:22:14 including the non-compete zone!  Even if I'd spent only 5 minutes in the dead time I'd've smashed my previous time!  Very very happy and I said thanks to Mr 196 for the chase in the bike leg and we headed back to transition to get warm clothes, a cup of tea, cake and our results.

I scampered (er!) up the stairs to the results gazebo on the cafe terrace and printed out Mr TOTKat's first.  Then tried to print mine and the paper got stuck, so I ejected the roll and the stuck bit of paper and tried again.  Oops!  The PC said it'd lost network and thereafter stopped printing anyone's splits.  Er, I hope it wasn't because I'd opened the printer (it can't have been, srsly).  So I didn't have any idea what my splits were until later on when the results were up on the timing site:-

• 3rd in VW40-44
• 3rd in F40-49
• 2nd bike split in VW40-44
• 2nd swim split in VW40-44
• (11th run split in VW-40-44!)
• 12th of 131 women on the bike
• 17th of 131 women overall
• 21st of 131 women in the swim
• (let's not talk about 58th of 131 women in the run *cough*)
• I beat Helen Smith (VW40-44) on the bike (17th in the ITU World Champs in 2010, 20th in the ITU Long Distance World Champs in 2011)
• I beat Clare Cunningham (SW35-39) on the bike (Paratriathlete - 2nd in ITU World Champs in 2011 and 2010, 1st in 2009 and many more)

 I think I'm pleased with my bike performance, but I know there's more to give there.  And there's _definitely_ more to give in the run!

So, thank you Thames Turbo for firing up my passion for triathlon and giving me a safe, inclusive, well-run set of races to take part in.

Second race of the season and my new TT bike

It's upon us already; the second race of the season.  And like the first one it's going to be cold and potentially wet too!  It's going to be an even earlier start than last time as transition closes at 06:15 on Monday (the race director will be on site from 04:30!!)

I'm a bit excited, but not so excited that I'm even thinking about racing on my new baby when I've only just picked him up:-

I call him "Stormtrooper" (thanks to the new chap at Triathlon Zone for putting that idea into my head :o))

I'll be racing on my usual Fuji Team Pro Special Edition now that the guys at Prologue Bikes have made it feel right again.  I had it in for a full service at Evans a couple of weeks ago and it came back with a rattle at the back end, which we thought we'd fixed after taking the cassette apart and putting it back together again, but the rattle came back.  One of the guys at the Wimbleball familiarisation weekend we went to, one Sam Baxter, recommended a shop in Sheen so I went and found it this morning.  Turns out they're really nice guys.  They stripped down the cassette again, found that two spacers were missing (one that came with the wheel and one that came with the cassette), replaced them, adjusted the slightly out of whack back wheel, the rear and front derailleurs and didn't charge me a penny!  All rattling has stopped and I feel confident throwing the bike around the road again.  Much much happier about racing on it on Monday now!

Doing something the average person doesn't do.

I wanted to complete an Ironman in the year I turned forty.  Initially I intended to do it when I had actually turned forty, but once I was bitten by the idea I didn't want to wait that long.  It's a compelling need to do Ironman.

I started triathlon in 2010 when, as a former swimmer who had recently taking up cycling and running, Mr TOTKat said he wanted to do another triathlon after doing one a few years back and I looked around online.  I found a "civilised" one where the swim was in a pool and it wasn't that far from where we live so would be quite easy to get to.

The Thames Turbo Sprint Triathlon races are held at Bushy Park/Hampton Open Air Pool - a half hour drive from our house.  Thames Turbo Triathlon club is one of the oldest and largest triathlon clubs in the UK and "...can count three World Champions and other elite athletes amongst our alumni: Stuart Hayes, Spencer Smith, Richard Stannard and current World Champion Tim Don have all been Turbos on their way to the top!"  Their sprint series is geared towards introducing people to the sport of triathlon and every race the question is asked "how many people are here for their first race?" and so many people raise their hands... the races are excellently run and marshalled, with firm but fair application of the rules.

In 2010, we entered the whole race series and I ended up having to miss the first one having injured myself skiing earlier in the year and was signed off from running by the physio.  I cheered Mr TOTKat on at the first one, while freezing in insufficient clothing on a cold Easter Monday morning that started as the alarm went off at 04:45.  All of the races are on bank holiday mondays and for the first three races of the series in 2010, it was utterly freezing cold and we suffered horribly with the temperature both when waiting and when spectating.  We made a lot of mistakes in the first couple of races, but learned and got better, stripping down the equipment in transition to just bike shoes, running shoes, bike helmet, race belt and sunglasses.  Makes for nippy transitions (and oh boy was I glad of that at the British Super Series race at Blenheim - I was way up the field in the fourth discipline there thanks to that learning at the Thames Turbo races).

The field of competitors at the Thames Turbo sprint races is asked to estimate their overall race time and their 400m swim time.  The field is then split, roughly at the 01:20:00 mark and those who estimate over that time for the whole race go in the first half, and those who estimate a faster overall time go in the second half.  Those halves are then seeded by swim time to determine the order in which you start in the pool.  This stops a lot of congestion in the pool and works really well, it also means that the slower athletes aren't the last to start in the morning and left to finish last, extending the race duration out for a very long time.  As a former swimmer, it's my strongest natural discipline and I seed early in the swim starts, but until 2011 I was in the first half of the field of competitors.  There's a great advantage to that on a bank holiday monday morning in that there's almost no traffic on the roads, and that's a big plus for a race where the roads aren't closed.

Over the Thames Turbo races in 2010, we improved and we did a couple of 10K races too.  Come Christmas 2010 we were sure we wanted to do more and, in a night of tipsy foolishness, we registered for all of the Thames Turbo races for 2011, all of the British Super Series races (some of which had a choice of sprint distance or Olympic distance and I decided to take the plunge and sign up for one Olympic one), most of the Clapham Common 10K races and the Speedo Hampton Court Thames swim.  And over 2011 we started working through the races, having the odd injury niggle, missing the odd race because of it, signing up for a couple more races here and there, a half marathon, a 5km swim... and then someone started me thinking.  I can't remember how Paul seeded the idea into my head, but he did.  And it sat in the back of my head.

I bought a few books, read them, looked at all of the courses and decided that heat was a bigger enemy than hills.  And the decision was made.  I'd wanted to do an Ironman race when I got to forty, but the race calendar was against me for the end of 2012 and I didn't want to wait any longer. MrTOTKat asked whether I'd be OK with him doing this too.  So.  Wales is the choice at the moment and we're signed up for Wimbleball Half Ironman already, which is at a good time in relation to when Wales will most likely be scheduled in 2012.  We're volunteering at the first Ironman Wales to get an idea of what the event will be like, and the course and the area.  If all goes well, we'll register for Wales Ironman 2012 while we're there.

There are two hard things at the moment... not getting over-excited and starting a training schedule too soon, and getting my head around how I'm going to fit all of that training that will be required into my life.  There will probably have to be changes and sacrifices made.  Ironman isn't a walk in the park, it isn't easy, it's not called "ironman" for nothing.  Otherwise everybody would be able to do it.  But.  It's not something the average person does.

Disappointed

I didn't break 01:20:00.


The race entry list was FULL.  And I was in the second (fast) wave.  Having missed the deadline to update my estimated swim time ( I wanted to make it slower due to technique confusion at the moment), I ended up with a few faster people behind me, which meant that I had to stop once to let one person past in the pool, then again to let two past, and again once more to let one more past.  I probably lost 10-15s due to that.

T1 was quick - the guy after me in the start order who overtook me in the pool was probably a bit miffed that I came and went while he was still in transition before me and trotted out behind me.

The bike... well, it's not on closed roads, so there's always the luck of the traffic lights.  I was lucky and they were green and I sailed through.  However, I had to come to a complete stop at two of the roundabouts, the second of which was extremely frustrating as there was a car indicating left at the head of the traffic queue who was very hesitant so I had to wait around 10-15s for them to sort themselves out and then decide not to turn left in the end.  A little way after that roundabout, I was stuck behind two cars, a learner at the front who was not happy to go at more than 20kph, with traffic coming the other way on a relatively narrow road, me and another race participant had to hang way back (non-drafting race, of course) for 400-500m of faffing.  I probably lost another 20-30 seconds there overall and added a bunch of rage.

T2 was very nippy as my bike was near the bike in and run out.  Heavy legs weren't too much bother, but a double stitch (one upper right abdomen, the other lower left) made me slow to a walk for a few paces to try to sort it out.  I still put in a run+T2 time of a minute faster than ever before.

Overall, 01:20:57.  30s slower than last time.  The run was encouraging, the bike very frustrating and the swim just annoying.  I coulda done it.  I coulda.  But it didn't happen.

Why is it only Tuesday?

I'm impatient for my finger to get healing.  Now I have dressings that don't stick to the end and tear it off whenever they get changed, the pain is reduced and the healing has actually started.  I -need- it to have closed up properly before Monday.  Monday is the last sprint triathlon in the Thames Turbo race series and I need to get to the start line, never mind actually finish.  What with an open wound on one finger, one knee that works if I tape it up, the other being more than slightly unreliable regardless of what I do to it, it's going to be a tall order to finish a sprint triathlon.

It makes me sad to think I've come a long way with this new sport in a reasonably short period of time and I may end the season this year as it began, with a DNF and disappointment.  I've taken 15 minutes (which also happens to be 15%) off my race time over 4 races so far and am confident I could get another minute or two off that time still, to get under 01:20:00 which would put me just about in the top 20% for my age category.  I so want that this year, to end the season.  And if I'm stopped from even starting the race because I have an open wound still...

Thursday this week I have a session with my tri trainer and he's going to do fitness assessments and general base-lining and I'm going to have to tell him I've done nothing of the plan he left me two weeks ago, because my knee hasn't been up to it.  And that I can't swim at the moment either.  It's just a catalogue of mishaps and makes me feel like a disaster area of self-inflicted (in one way or another) physical damage.

I can't work out how/where to get into Pose running.  The support in the UK is quite limited and the web site is awful.  I just want to find someone who can assess whether it might help/it's suitable for me.  Every lead on making running less stressful and worrying for the longer distances next year has to be followed up.

I can't give up on long course.

I won't.

Really rather pleased

I now have my splits vs. category and a whole bunch of other stats...

Category Rank Percentiles (Female 35-39):-
Swim -  92.35%
T1 - 92.35%
Bike - 85.2%
T2 - 41.33% (oops!)
Run - DNF



Gender Rank Percentiles (all competing women):-
Swim - 91.28%
T1 - 90.2%
Bike - 82.66%
T2 - 40.7%
Run - DNF



So yeah.  Rather good at swimming and not toooo shabby at cycling in a very competitive category.  I'd expect my run to be way down compared with swim and bike, but I'll have to wait for next year to find out :o)