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Nanatwich Sprint - 16th September 2007
I was a little bit apprehensive about my second triathlon. I didn’t feel swim fit, didn’t think that my training had gone successfully well in the couple of weeks prior, and wasn’t happy with my start time – 11.52am is an awkward time to fit eating around!
We arrived in Nantwich at 8.30 to see the first of our group off on his way, and with other friends starting off throughout the morning I was the last of us to start…. I shouldn’t have worried about having registered a swim time of 10.30 (33 seconds faster than my first tri) and as I came in only slightly slower at 10.37 I felt I was off to a good start.
Having restrained myself from committing road rage with a woman in a mini who was blocking the road to get onto the main bike route, I settled down and focused my attention on picking off some of the competitors in front of me. The first half of the course I felt I was going a pretty good speed regardless of the wind that had picked up throughout the morning. The second half wasn’t so good. The worst bit was when I was overtaken by a mountain bike and I couldn’t catch her – but maybe I shouldn’t be admitting to that!!! About a mile and a half from the end I had to slow almost to a stop as I had really bad cramp in my left calf, which worked its way up to my hip flexor….in the end the only thing I could do was peddle through it and fortunately it was gone by the time I got off the bike.
Even though the run transition gets easier the more you do, it’s still a bizarre feeling getting off the bike and running!! This is my least favourite part of the race, but with the gains I’d made on the swim and bike I knew that even if I only achieved the same run time as June, I’d still have an overall PB. However, I was feeling stronger than June and even though I stopped a few times to stretch, and it was pretty windy, I did a much quicker run even managing a sprint finish!
With a new PB by 5.27 mins across all 3 disciplines, I was really chuffed!! My marathon days are well and truly over (unless of course it’s New York), but there will definitely be plenty more triathlons – I may even go up a distance!!!
So, all that was left to do was enjoy the rest of the day, start the BBQ and crack open the vino!!!
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