1900m swim
56 mile bike
1/2 marathon
Up at 04.45hrs. Transition at 0600hrs to fiddle about with kit, get ready and wander to lake to watch the men go.
All ladies go together at 7.30am.
Swim was the best I’ve ever had. I wasn’t scared, we could stand up in the middle of the lake as it was so shallow and after 287 of us had sang happy birthday to Emily we all set off at the starter horn.Stuck my head in – complete blackness – brilliant. Water was so churned up by the time 1700 men had all gone off th
at we couldn’t see a hand in front of us the whole way there and the whole way back.
Best swim I’ve ever had because I couldn’t see or imagine any fish. But it was a long way so I sung a favourite hymn to pass the time. Not terribly enthralled about doing double the distance for IM Vichy in August. I may need a few more hymns.
Time 46:33
Came out into transition really smooth and grabbed bike and ran out fresh as a daisy.
Rode out and overtook scores of ladies and men on the bike. Didn’t bother counting as I was on fire and if I’d turned to look I would have singed my face. Bike was fab. Loved it all. It was hilly and there was a strong headwind until we turned at about mile 28 to go back…
It became apparent that there was a slight clash of events between OSB and the Sandringham Carriage Driving Trials 😖 as we approached Sandringham to see many horse boxes, several carriages and also two worried footmen, one grappling reins from atop the carriage and another on the ground fighting to keep two enormous carriage horses with eyes like organ stops calm as hundreds of bikes were cycling past. I’m sure there may be one or two strongly worded letters sent to Outlaw for this minor oversight…. we all know how much horses love groups of whirring bikes approaching them 😳
Bike Time- 3hrs 16mins
Back into transition after 56 miles, looking forward to a run but had to waste time using the portaloo. Wasted a few minutes because then I saw my eye make up was really dreadful so I had to spend time tidying that up. Looking at my finishing time it’s probably something I could have easily avoided so I’m slapping my own wrist for that.
Finally the run. It took me four miles to feel my feet normally again and as usual, six miles to warm up. So after that I began to be pain free. Nothing much to report only that it was beautiful running through the estate grounds.
Time- 2 hours
They let you grab that banner thing over the finishing line which I liked. All the staff and marshals were very friendly and encouraging. A really great event and definitely my favourite triathlon to date.
I wasn’t at all nervous leading up to or right before the event, I wasn’t scared of the swim this time. I know I can ride 56 miles. I know I can run 13 miles. So all of this combined made it a really relaxed and fun event for me.
Again it’s thanks to Neil, Caroline, Alice, Lucie and of course Ironmate Mark for helping me with the recent swimming fears this year.
Position 18 out of 58 in my age group
Position 88 out of 287 females
Position 685 out of 1242 overall
