Halleluiah! I have finally won a triathlon! After 2 years in
the sport, 12 different races, 4 second place finishes, 4 third place finishes,
and a couple of anomalies (including the shockingly bad 32nd place
at Dambuster last year – the least said about that debacle the better –) I have
finally won. Maybe the motto ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try / tri again’ isn’t
just a meaningless idiom after all. Duathlons, fine, cracked those a while ago,
but whenever water is involved, it all tends to go ever so slightly to pot. I
am by no means an atrocious swimmer: when I go to the pool to train, I can
totally hold my own in the “fast lane”… mind you, the slow lane often contains
a plethora of people doing a superb variety of breast-stroke, backstroke,
side-stroke and fuck-only-knows-what-stroke, so perhaps this is not really the
most accurate gauge of my aquatic capabilities. In the pool, my all-time 400m
PB is 7:02; in open water I tend to swim slower as I can’t avail myself of my
thunder thighs to get a damn good push off the wall every 25 meters! However,
in competitive triathlon, the top ladies are banging out swims in the region of
5 minutes for 400m and, assuming they can bike and put together a half decent
run, two+ minutes is a hell of a lot of time to make up over the sprint
distance. But today, it all miraculously came together. I posted my fastest competition
swim split of 7:24 for the 400m and it felt comfortable. I hauled myself out of
the pool not remotely out of breath and was able to follow on with a slick
transition and a good getaway on the bike.
The bike course was a hilly affair, climbing 900ft over the
20kms up to the Hardye Monument above Dorchester, then a fast descent down, including
crossing two cattle grids – always a total boneshaker – and a fast, flat last
section back to T2. The climb was into a headwind and felt like a real slog,
but I took comfort from the fact that I kept picking people off and that nobody
– including the men –overtook me on the bike leg. Since getting my lovely
Lively Liv, I have developed much more confidence on the bike and my descending
skills have definitely improved as a result. I love the ‘swoosh’ noise Lively
makes when cutting through the air…. a noise I had only ever experienced up
until now from other riders as they zoomed past me at speed as I slogged
ever-onwards aboard trusty old Cannondale. The long-term aim is to get her some
snazzy new deep-rim carbon wheels to make her even livelier, but at £500+ a
pop, that’ll have to wait for the time being!
The run was fab. Off road, hilly and over distance (3.5
miles instead of the advertised 5k at 3.1): everything I love and everything I
need to offset the time lost on the swim! Last week, at Honiton Tri, I posted
the fastest female run split but, at 2.8 miles, the run was some way short of
5k and so the run to swim time ratio doesn’t weigh in my favour. In fact, this
win came at just the right time as, despite improving on my Honiton Tri time
from 2016 by a minute last week (all of which came from improvement on the
bike), I had felt frustrated and deflated to still finish as second lady, and I
was beginning to doubt whether an overall female win would ever be possible for
me in triathlon, given my crappy swim credentials. Truth be told, I have had a
rather naff week in general, involving much soul searching. Following my resignation
from my role as Club Captain and Communications Officer of my tri club, I have
spent a couple of weeks questioning my future in a sport which, at times, can
be very money-orientated, materialistic and elitist. Several bouts of introspective naval-gazing, the penning of a very negative blog post (which was never intended
for public consumption, but was cathartic to write nevertheless), combined with
some good talking-tos from my bestie tri buddies – Anne, Jim, Garry and Moira – and now today’s win and ensuing bout of endorphin fuelled, post-race euphoria,
have made me sit up, sort my self-indulgent, sanctimonious shit out, kick
myself up the pants and put a halt to the miserable, moody mare attitude.
But, let’s not get carried away… I won at a pool swim event.
The telling factor will be whether or not I can repeat the success at an open
water tri, which tends to involve even more sub-aquatic demons for me than the
benign waters of a leisure centre pool…. even with its floating verruca
plasters and added ammonia extras! But, for now, I need to be positive, to celebrate
this milestone with some prosecco (cheers!) and keep working on my swim
survival skills so that winning becomes less of an ‘oh My God, I can’t believe
it, I got so lucky’ occasion, and more of a regular thing! Over the past few
weeks I have developed the diligent habit of swimming in the sea for a good 30 min
plus session with my old Exmouth Harriers buddy, Rich Bishop; and, whilst I am
never going to be one of these people who deludes themselves that a refreshing
dip in the murky, jelly fish-infested waters of the English Channel can be anything more than
tolerable, I am beginning to grow in confidence in open water. For the Brutal
Half Iron in September, I will need to swim 1900m in a freezing cold mountain lake.
On present form, I should do that in around 38 minutes, but, to be competitive,
I need to shave that down to the sub-35 region. It’s a big ask, but I like a
challenge. Bring it on!
Honiton Sprint Tri, 9/7/17
400m / 20k / 5k: 1h06m03s. 2nd lady
Dorchester Dash Sprint Tri, 16/7/17
400m / 20k / 5.5k: 1h14m09s, 1st lady
