So I have survived my first open water triathlon! It took place in the beautiful grounds of Blenheim Palace, and is a very popular race - always well oversubscribed. I'd signed up for it last year - back then all I'd done in the way of triathlon was the 10k run at the end of a relay team for the London Triathlon. I could hardly even swim!
It was another early start as I headed off to the venue, got there around 9am to pick up my timing chip, rack my bike and set up my gear for transition. I had a while before my wave went off at 11.10am, so had a bite to eat and watched the elites for a while. At 10.30 I got changed into my tri suit and wetsuit and checked one last time everything was in it's place, ready to go. I was super nervous about the swim, having not swam in open water since I was a teenager on holiday by the sea, or in the lake district or rivers in Yorkshire!
Our wave gathered by the swim assembly point by the edge of the lake and we had a short briefing. The guy was very good and knew most of us were -probably bricking it! We were given our swim hats (dark green for our wave) and then starting getting into the lake. Some people jumps in (it was a pontoon entry) but I just slipped in! It wasn't too cold, a nice 16 degrees actually which was fine. The wetsuit helped a lot with buoyancy too. We had about 5 minutes to get used to the water and get near the back or sides if nervous (which i did!). Then we were off! Swim went mostly well. I took it gently and did not go off too fast, just tried to get my breathing very steady and relaxed. It was strange not having any walls or floor or having to turn every 25m. I was like Dora from Finding Nemo - "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!". I couple of times I took too deep a gulp of water and my breathing messed up. I tried not to panic but had to come up into breast stroke for a few moments to get relaxed. This happened several times particularly when I felt my wetsuit was feeling tight - I wasn't used to it enough! But we finally came to the final turn after about 500m and turned back to the exit point (750m total). It was good to finish and get out of the water, but very disorientating. I was thrilled to have completed the first leg of the tri and my first OW swim!
Staggered up the hill to transition, trying to pull my arms out of the wetsuit. Got to the bike and was still struggling with the wetsuit but it came off eventually! Dired my feet and forced my feet into socks and trainers. On went the cycling jersey, sunglasses, race belt, helmet, gloves, and took the bike and ran off towards the bike start. Onto the bike and I was off!
Good bike route - very exciting and certainly not boring. It was 3 laps of a 4-ish mile route and was quite hilly. A lot of steep downhills with a sharp turn or two, and long slogs uphill. But it was great to be on the bike though and exciting to build up the speed. It was just as I was starting out on the first lap that i saw two friends, Victoria and Rebecca from skydiving, also out on the bike course! We waved and shouted encouragement at each other! I took plenty of gels on bike so I had energy left for the run.
Although I enjoyed the bike course the most, it was great to get back into transition and finish off the race with the 5k run. It was just as i was coming into transition that I realised I had not taken my running water bottle out of my bag and left it out ready to grab. This meant spending valuable seconds opening my bag to find it! Luckily it was right at the front so i got it out immediately. I also took off my jersey as it was quite warm now, and as I ran out of transition I twisted my belt round so the number was on the front.
The run was tough. I was shattered!! It was also hot and I was getting exhausted. Luckily the run was much flatter than the bike course so no hills to contend with but still felt more like 10 miles, not 3! It was 2 laps, and for a while I was worrying I wouldn't get in under my target time of 2 hours. But finally came round towards the finish and still had time to spare, which was great as couldn't manage much of a sprint finish. Came in at 1.58 in front of really great crowds!! Whoohoo! i was so pleased to have finished my first OW tri and under 2 hours!
Looking forward but also very nervous about my next tri, which is an olympic distance in less than 2 weeks time. After that I am doing the sprint London Triathlon and 2 super sprints in the same day at the Jenson Button Triathlon in Luton.
Next challenge though; Saturday's HSV Aquathlon followed by Sunday's London to Brighton bike ride! Bring it on...!!!
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