Team Win.

So, my final hit out of the 2016 tri season happened last weekend at the Roadford Relays. A team event with my club, N1, seemed like the ideal way to end what has, on reflection, been a pretty decent first proper season as a triathlete. The only issue: I was organising all our club’s team entries – 6 teams in total; 24 triathletes – which was infinitely more stressful than the actual taking part bit! I’m not sure how my suggesting that “it might be a nice idea to do a relays event as a club” turned into me becoming organiser-in-chief of said event, but, moral of the story, don’t suggest things if you don’t want to be the person responsible for making it happen! Actually, it wasn’t all that bad, but, inevitably, the stress levels rose as the day drew closer and members started to casually mention that they “don’t have a wetsuit” and they “have never swum in open water before”, or they “have a broken bike”, or, the worst one, coming the night before the event, “tore a calf muscle out running, can’t compete”. Thank goodness for the team spirit of the whole club and the willingness of a couple of individuals to go around twice, ensuring that we could close the 6 teams we entered.

Waiting for Anne in the change over zone, ready to receive the timing chip and start my leg.

 From a personal point of view, I actually had a great race. I did the third leg (of 4) for our ladies’ team, with Catherine on first, then Anne second, both getting us off to a strong start, then me, then Helen bringing it home. My swim, miraculously, felt really good. As I didn’t start first, in the mass start, when I got in I had clear water – no bumping and barging and jostling for position. This meant I was relaxed from the off and able to establish a good rhythm straight away. To my delight, I actually started to pick slower swimmers off: something that never usually happens to me (quite the inverse actually!). Turning around the final buoy, things were perhaps going a little bit too well: I felt strong, I only had about 100m left to swim, so I put my head down, powered on, and didn’t look up to sight again for a long while. When I did, to my dismay, I was no longer on a line for the buoy and the exit, but heading for the mud bank off to my right! I had managed to veer almost 90° off course: what a numpty! Lost the best part of a minute correcting my line, but emerged from the water feeling positive, only to be knocked back my husband’s dulcet tones enquiring as to where I thought I was headed – the Isle of Wight? – as I ran past him and up towards transition.

Here I come!

Emerging from the water after what felt like the most comfortable open water swim I've experienced to date!

Now you see the sun, soon you won't! Variable weather conditions at Roadford!

The bike course suited me well: hilly! It was on the edge of Dartmoor, so not a flat bit in sight (all apart from the short and sweet section along the dam wall). I attacked all the hills and the 13km route seemed to fly by in no time. The weather had been superb all week – unseasonably hot for late September / early October – but not so today. Downpours on a Biblical scale punctuated short, sunny spells, and, as I came back over the dam wall, a hail shower. Yes – another hail shower, timed just for me to hit it on the most exposed part of the course. At one stage I was actually struggling to see, the hail was driving right into my eyes. But now, whenever I race, I just see it that I survived two days of far worse at Slateman, so yes, I can cope with anything else that mother nature has to throw at me! I call it my ‘post-slatemanist slant’; it’s akin to a postmodernist slant whereby you arrive at a serene state of acceptance as a result of having experienced the extremes. I believe it has only served to toughen me up!

The run, well, the run course was weird. Very narrow, very twisty, very slippery in places, very congested. I’m not fully running fit at the moment, but that didn’t really matter on this course, as my pace was dictated by the terrain and not by my fitness levels. I was pleased to post what I think was the fastest female run split of the day and to give Helen, our last leg athlete, a decent enough gap over a talented, former pro, triathlete from a sponsored triathlon team. Helen held her off and N1 ladies claimed the top female spot overall. The sponsored team, who finished three minutes behind us, had two really quality athletes in their midst, but they didn’t have the consistency that we did: we didn’t have a weak link. Yes, my swim was the slowest (surprise surprise), but my run split made up for it; Cath’s bike was amazing, Anne’s swim was as speedy as ever, and Helen was consistent across the three: between the four of us, our overall times were very even. What a great way to end what has been a great year with the club. Even the extreme rain showers could not dampen the spirits and the cheering of us N1 gang. Joining this club was the best decision I made as far as progressing with triathlon is concerned.

Team Win / Team N1: Helen, Catherine, me and Anne.

 So, I’m now entering the triathlon off-season. There are a couple of Autumn duathlons that have peeked my interest, so they will be a focus over the coming weeks, and maybe a few of my favourite Autumn trail runs. Other than that, the main goal for the winter is to improve my swim…. Much in the same way that my main goal for winter 2015 was to improve my swim, and that never really happened. But this time, I am committed! My cycling buddy, and Roadford team mate, Anne, has very kindly offered to give me some pointers: she’s a swimming teacher in her day job and spends 20+ hours a week identifying and correcting people’s faults: lucky her; I’m now letting her loose on mine! I think, for me, the swim is going to be a very slow burner, but I’m not planning my Ironman debut for a while yet, so there’s plenty of time to get me up to scratch before shit gets serious and I need to start swimming crazy 3.8km distances.

Plans for 2017? Well, the European Duathlon championships that I qualified for back in March are now confirmed: they take place in Soria, near Madrid, at the end of April. That’s the main goal for the Spring. After that? We’ll see…. got a few ideas in mind…