Inter Services Standard Distance Triathlon 2008

(OW 1500m swim, 44km bike, 10km run)

OK, lets start with the gossip. Jamie Elliott woke our whole room up (all 8 of us) at 0230 last night to try and remove a foreign object from one of his orifices. Now I wouldn't wish to speculate what it was or what he was doing, although it's fair to say that when Nurse Vicky removed said foreign object first thing in the morning it wasn't buzzing. Jamie, you certainly missed an opportunity there - I understand Vicky had her nurse uniform with her and surely when carrying out a surgical procedure she should have been encouraged to wear it? Just a thought.

On to the race itself, the weather was mild and a little blustery, but generally conditions weren't too bad. A lot of racing recently had meant I hadn't done a great deal of training but I was feeling OK.

Swim - I found a start place to the right of the pack and at the hooter I let the fast swimmers get going before following them. The first 3 or 400m were an absolute bunfight; I don't think I have been punched and kicked so much in my whole triathlon career as I was today. After the initial fisticuffs it settled down and I found some clear water and settled into a nice rhythm. The turns were uneventful and I was almost enjoying it. Almost. I was absolutely amazed to see Westy alongside me as I came out of the water. A quick look at my watch confirmed I had swam at roughly my expected pace so what on earth was Westy doing this far back?

T1 - Went OK, yes I'm a girl and put socks on. Get over it.

Bike - I really enjoyed the bike course and when I was going I was going well. It was unfortunate that there were roadworks with a contraflow on the A15 that we had to negotiate twice, and athletes bike splits were heavily influenced by whether they got through these unhindered or did not. I was badly held up on lap 1 but got through OK on lap 2. The last part of the bike course was absolutely great, really fast on quite good roads and I got down to some serious 11-tooth action.

T2 - No problems here, and onto the run.

Run - Out of T2 I picked up an energy drink. I have no idea what it was but within a few steps I regretted it, as it hit my stomach and seemed to expand to something like 10 times its original volume. I struggled on and suffered the ignominy of being overtaken by Reg after about 2km. Seriously, well done mate for finding your run legs today. At the end of the first lap things improved a bit and I am pretty sure I managed a negative split so am happy with that.

Race total was just under 2:30 (maybe 2:29:40) and initially I was somewhat disappointed. However, the Vet winner recorded 2:20 so it perhaps wasn't such a disaster (and yes I do know that there were Vets racing in the Senior team that went MUCH faster, Sags being one of them). The RAF Vet team came second so I have another trophy for the office cabinet. Happy with that.

The BIG news is that Lonsy once again finished behind me. Yeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssss!!!

It was nice to meet up with everyone today and well done to all those who raced well. It was great to see Dale racing again, even if he had to hobble round the run being overtaken by a number of Army guys after kicking their butts in the swim and on the bike.
And a final comment - I was advised by Chairman Pete to stop wearing a 2 piece tri suit due to suffering from a "muffin top". Apparently, there is photographic evidence to support this but I'm pretty sure it has been photoshopped. Either way I guess I need to lean out before Aberfeldy.