My race
After we got back from Steve coaching our club swim session last
evening we ate my preferred pre race
meal of fish and potatoes that was hand made for me by my super cook husband. He
had made a delicious haddock and salmon fish pie with a mashed potato topping
earlier in the day and all I had to do was turn the oven on so that it was
ready after swimming. It was early-ish to bed last night so that getting up for
Worthing Triathlon would not be difficult. To relax our minds we watched one
episode each of Season 5 of Hell on Wheels and one of Preacher both of which we
are loving.
I woke at 4.30 am, got up and made my coffee/honey mix for
my bike drinker. Steve woke up just a little later. The race venue is only
about five miles away and since transition was to close at 7.15 a.m. We didn’t
need to leave too early because at that time on a Sunday morning parking would
not be a problem. We parked just a short way across the green and walked our
bikes into transition, laid our bike and run kit out and made mental notes to
help find the bike after the swim. Mine was directly in line with beach hut
number 142 and Steve’s was in line with a dog-poo bin just out side the transition
railings.
After a unusually lovely few August weeks of sunshine and
warm weather I had predicted on Facebook yesterday that Sod’s Law would cause
the weather to break before morning, even though Steve’s favourite Surf website
had forecast condition for late last night and this morning as ‘GLASS’…… Wrong. By the time we got to the
race base at the Goring End of Worthing beach area there was a fairly strong wind
blowing and dark grey black clouds all around. I’d say the sea was looking
choppy if a wanted to be kind and the full high tide was not until and hour
after the last wave of swimmers set off.
The last wave was all 55+. So I would be setting off last
with men and women in all the older age groups. I am in the 75-79 age group and
was the oldest person racing, not just the oldest female. I figured that
I would be on my own fairly quickly since I was starting with five age groups
that also included my husband in the 65-69 group.
The current was running in one direction and the wind was
blowing a hooley in the opposite direction. On giving me my last, coach to athlete
advice, Steve told me where to start on the beach and to take it easy in the
swim section, his final words were a question “You don’t mind it being rough do
you?”
It was rough. A more than the usual amount of registered
competitors had not turned up at all, some chose not to swim when they saw the
state of the sea, and I am told about twenty did not finish the swim and either
swam back to shore before completing the swim or were taken out of the water by
the life boat. Looking at the results of some people I know, some cut the swim
short but went on with the rest of the triathlon none the less.
I allowed myself to settle in and had planned to swim only
at my pool warm up pace so that I could swim slowly and deliberately rather
that start with a faster pace. My reason was that I breathe to the left and so
was going to be slapped in the face on the outward leg. There were big waves,
about a metre I would say without exaggerating; Big rolling waves so that
sometimes you could not see the next buoy at all. One of my more worrying
traits is that love the feeling of being lifted and dropped by a rough sea I
find it quite mesmerising; another reason to take it easy. Steve is right you
see, he knows that I enjoy the power and movement of the water.
At the swim finish I did have a job standing up because of
the injury I am carrying but one of friends, who is a fire officer and knew I
might find the swim exit hard was marshalling that position, took my hand and
helped me for a moment to stand up straight. Thank you Garry Locker much
appreciated. I was pretty pleased with my swim.
The bike ride was very windy and I opted for safety over
speed, since it was a hilly bike ride with some exposed sections. It also
rained whilst out on the bike and I took the down hills sections carefully too.
Since I was the oldest person in the field I had not expected anybody to be
behind me after the swim but at least three people passed me at intervals on
the 40km course. After they had gone I knew I was the last athlete because a
motor bike marshal was passing by, stopping at a lay by somewhere until I
passed again and shepherded me all the way back. On the run I did not realise
that a marshal on a bike was doing the same thing until he came alongside in
the last kilometre or so to ask if I was ok. The return was head on into a wind
that had been building up in strength during the event and I was walk-jogging
the last few km because it was difficult to breathe directly into the wind.
Even though I was the last person, there was lots of
support, all the Marshalls Marshalls must have been after all their hard work putting
on such a satisfying event that was a qualifier for the European Standard Distance
Triathlon Championships in Kitzbuhel ,
Austria
Swim TR 1
Bike
Tr 2 Run Total
Steve 25.15
2.36 1.34.00
2.11 1.11.36 3.15.38
Daf 37.05 4.42
1.52.31 2.31
1.19.42 3.56.31
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