Yesterday I
competed in my first event of this year. It was The Frostbite organized by Tuff
Fitty Triathlon Club in Littlehampton. It was the sprint distance that is half
the distance of the main event, the Frosty. The challenge that it presented was
not too scary and it is a great event for beginners and more serious
triathletes alike.
For myself,
being longer in the tooth than most of the others (rising 80) I chose to do the
short race. The first reason for that decision was that for a start, it is only
the first weekend in March and so having completed the 400 metre swim, one is
expected to leave the pool in your wet tri-suit (you can put a coat or
something on if you are sensible) and go out on Littlehampton promenade and
complete a 5km run or 10km for the longer race. The decision proved to be a
sound one, since after a week of spring weather it had turned back to the ugly
face of late winter and named storm Freya came along with the timing of a
maestro and hit the coast with torrential rain and wind gusts of 40-50 mph
providing Banshee like background music.
When my
husband/coach checked the day out at 5 am, he turned to me a said I don’t think
you should do the race in this b-awful weather. In a rare moment of defiance, I
usually do pretty much as my coach suggests, I told him that I was doing it no
matter what the weather. It is not often that I object to his sporting
decisions and so he agreed, provided that after my swim I put on a hat coat and
gloves to do the run in the rain and howling gale.
The frosty is a really nice sociable event that certainly most local people like to do as part of their pre-season training, there were lots of smiling faces even with the storm and as we all passed by bus and other sea front shelters, we were reminded that some poor souls were trying to get some sleep at that un-Godly hour as we passed homeless people wrapped in cardboard and plastic, hunkered down as best they could.
Running to
the east, on the first stretch of the run route, after a quick once around Mewsbrook Park, I was thankful that the storm was
blowing on my back making it easier to get into my stride. At the turn point at
the far end of the seafront road came a different story altogether and it was
hard to even breathe for the entire length of Littlehampton prom and so we were
all looking forward to the return leg, back to the Freedom Leisure Swimming and
Sports Centre and the wind behind us again. It was strange that in conditions
like these, that the rain, lashing as it was, seemed acceptable with the help
of nature pushing us to the finish. I presume that I was not the only one sensible
enough to have taken warm clothes to wrap up in afterwards having clawed off
the soaking wet sports clothes and dried ourselves.
Personally
I was very happy to have the first event done and dusted, since I am doing all
the events in my 80th year programme, and there are quite a few, to
raise money for two local charities. This was the easiest one tucked away. Next
up is the national Swimathon when I will swim the longer challenge this time of
a 5000metres swim, that is 200 lengths of my nearby pool in Littlehampton where
I live. The Swimathon is on for three days running and I will do that 5000 metre
swim on all three days. Almost ten miles.
2019 Main
event of the season will be Ironman 70.3 Haugesund, Norway. This race involves:
Swimming 1900
metres in a lake, then a 90 km bike ride around the Norwegian Fjords in that
area, ending with a half marathon, (21 km) run around Haugesund town and
harbour.
Then later
in August I am already qualified for the GBR age group team to compete in the
ITU World Triathlon Championships in Lausanne,
Switzerland.
The National Aquathlon Championships follows in September; a swim in the River
Arun and a hilly run in Arundel, West Sussex.
The
charities I am doing all this to help are:
The
Chestnut Tree Children’s Home, for children with life shortening conditions.
And also
for Age UK West Sussex
The link to donate is: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Daphne-Belt
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