Cotswolds Triathlete

I’ve come a long way.

This morning, I competed in my first-ever triathlon, the Cotswolds Triathlon. And I survived! It was a great experience.

The Highs

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  The Run and Bike Legs: Though it rained just about the entire time I was cycling and running, both went quickly! And I beat my target time for both of these legs.

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  Staying at the Bathurst Arms: This is a Pub located in Cerney. I was a bit hesitant to book the room initially because Pubs are generally loud and smelly places–not necessarily the perfect place for a quiet night before race day. Upon booking it, I was justifiably nervous, but in desperate need of a room. But, I am now sincerely happy that every other inn, pub and hotel within 5 miles of the race was fully booked! With a setting so serene and picturesque that my gawking made us miss the turn! Its front lawn features a babbling brook, the staff are friendly and helpful, there’s lovely food, a bed made in heaven, updated baths and soundproofed rooms. A nice serendipity, I’d say!

• My time! I set out aiming for a finish at 1 hour and 20 minutes. Despite my panic on the swim,  the pelting rain and a 3 minute transition (because I insist on wearing socks…), I hit my target time of 1 hour 20 minutes. YAY!
• The race marshalls. We all know that I never ventured to be the first and fastest in this race. My goal has always been to finish. Good thing because the ‘novice triathletes’ like myself were released in the last wave, we were the last to do everything. And because I lost time on the swim, I was really very late in the game. But, while other triathletes (mainly uber competitive males) said unsupportive things like ‘push harder, pick it up ladies, etc’, the race marshalls along the course always knew exactly the right thing to say. Note to others…’nice effort’ is not an appropriate cheer 🙂

Lows

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  The Rain: Pelting down so hard that the marshals asked me to slow down during the cycling bit as the roads were extremely slippery. Not the greatest thing for my time, good thing I wasn’t too bothered about my time anyhow 🙂

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  The Swim Leg: Now I know how salmon must feel… With 50ish people in each wave for the swim, it’s a bit of a mad dash at the start. Arms and legs are flailing about and it’s all you can do to keep from getting kicked! Add to this that this was my first competitive open water swim AND my first time wearing a wetsuit and perhaps you can understand the scene. If not, witness the madness in our video. Being a bit uncertain and unable to take a full breath in my wet suit, I decided to hang back from the crowd and take my time.

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  The huge magic marker tattoo of ‘608’ emblazoned on the back of my leg for a week or more 🙂 To keep everyone straight, they write your race number on the back of your leg with a huge sharpie. Thankfully, the lady who wrote mine had neat handwriting.

Over the last couple months, I’ve been training a lot–integrating heavy amounts of swimming, cycling and running into my workout routine. Today, I glanced at my workout schedule over the upcoming month as G and I continue training for the Royal Parks Half Marathon (10 October). I was sad to see only running on the agenda…I’ll miss my POOL swims and cycling about Regents. Oh well, onward and upward…