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My final Triathlon of the yearPosted on Sunday 14 December 2008 at 08:29 - Post Comment
I've only gone and bloody done it! 250m swim, 20km cycle and a 5km run, all taken care of in the paltry time of 1 hour, 19minutes and 3 seconds. I came 59th of 79 triathlon racers.
I can't tell you how chuffed I am. In the process of training for, and racing in, these three events I have managed to lose over 7kgs in excess blubber, improve my placings in each race, and throughout it all I've manager to not keel over with a coronary. A real result however you look at it.
The day today was pretty ordinary in the way of weather, with a bitch of an easterly blowing that proved to be a nasty head wind for the second half of the cycle. It kept the temperatures down though, so that was a little consolation. The swim was the longest I've yet done, but all went well and through pacing myself I managed to exit for the cycle without feeling like I was about to cough up a lung. T, along with my mum and dad, was there to cheer me on and passd me my towel on my way to transition for the cycle so thanks guys for fronting up and supporting me!
The cycle went as well as 20kms on a mountainbike can go. The super-racer types blasted past me on their carbon kevlar wonder-machines, but seeing as the great thing about tri's is that you only race yourself, I didn't hate them too much. I didn't get any opportunities to draught anyone - nor anyone me, so all in all it was pretty lonely.
The run was another matter, as I started catching a fair number of the earlier racers and after the first lap of the 2.5km course I still felt pretty strong. Telling myself that this was the last time this year I would have to run around a bloody big field, I really put some effort into that final circuit and ran through the finish feeling tired but elated that I had managed to do this - for me - big thing.
I would never have even considered this in the UK - so thanks NZ for encouraging me to be a part of this great sport. I reckon I'll be doing a few more next year!
My results for the three events were: Race 1: 70th of 76 finishers in 48 mins 58 seconds Race 2: 57th of 68 finishers in 1 hour, 4 minutes and 53 seconds Race 3: 59th of 79 finishers in 1 hour, 19 minutes and 3 seconds
For those who want a laugh, here's some links to pics of me during the event:
Bike: Sprint Finish
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