Sunday, January 23, 2011

My most amazing day

Today was the day that my team partner and I competed in our first triathlon. This was a special one just for women and proceeds go to breast cancer research.
the day started very early at 5am... yes you read correctly I was up at 5am and by the time I got the girls up, my support team arrived and we met up with my partner in crime.

Now no event is possible without coffee and this guy was making a killing!!

We registered and received a really nice singlet top, sun visor and swim cap. You can see here my timing chip that I had to wear on my left ankle (note the pink toenails and fingernails!!)

I have big black numbers on my right calf and right arm... in permanant pen!
The order of a triathlon for those who don't know, is swim, cycle and run. Our distances were 200m swim/6km ride/2km run. Quite doable we thought, this was the medium course. My partner and I have been training for months and felt really confident that we would do well and have little or no problem with the distances....

We were partly right... Swim was pretty good, I did get stuck behind a couple of ladies on the last pool can (floating thing to swim around!) so lost a few seconds and also at the steps waiting to get out... Then on the bikes and away I went.. need to work on those transitions! the ride itself was good, but I was puffing a bit and could see the running track.. it seemed MUCH longer than 2km.

My family and friends had placed themselves along the course at intervals which was great as I was cheered on not once but up to 4 times! They really kept me going.. and the thought of my team mate who had a big head start lol.

When I got back to transition I couldn't find my position on the rack for my bike and lost valuable time (lesson to learn!) this kinda threw me off my timing and I struggled to keep going. We had to do 2 laps of the running track, I felt that I ran twice as far as I was supposed to! The weirdest thing is that running is usually my weakest leg and I beat my partner in this and she beat me on the bike which I usually blitz her on... I think I better at hills than her lol.

At the end of the event we received a lovely medal and a huge sense of achievement.
I placed 43rd overall (out of 129) and 8Th in my age group out of 15. I have to tell you though that I placed 3rd in the run leg!!6Th in swimming and 9Th in cycle. My team mate really did well and came 22ND overall and 4Th in the age group. she came 4Th in swim, 3rd in cycle and 7Th in run.
We can now call ourselves triathletes and will be doing this again!

3 comments:

Maddy said...

"CONGRATULATIONS" Fantastic results both Andrew and l are in awe of your achievements. Good Luck with the next one.

Christine M said...

I agree with Maddie. Well done Libby. I don't think I could ever do a triathlon!

Jennifer said...

Well done Libby - most impressed. Congrats.