WOMEN'S TRI, - INVERCARGILL!........

G'day!

Well, - in some regards I wasn't too worried about this race as I knew I could cover the distances easily.  I have been training, (particularly running) in a consistent manner of late with good progress.  I knew I was in no shape for a PB or anything still.  Guess I was just wanting to go out, give it my best shot and see how I went and experience a Southland triathlon!  Being a Women's only tri, I knew it would be a supportive environment which was nice for today.

The swim was based at the local 50m Olympic sized pool which was nice, - therefore I didn't need a wetsuit!  I don't own a wetsuit, didn't need one for my triathlon's in Perth and don't really want to lash out money for a good wetsuit/tri-suit or the like till I drop quite a bit more body fat or a couple of dress sizes or thereabouts.

My biggest concern was how cold the bike ride was going to be here after getting out of the pool and running to transition, (in which I wore a 1 piece swimsuit over a sports bra, then cycle shorts over my swim suit)!

Well, as I left home, turned the outdoor temp gauge in my car on, on the way to the triathlon......it was 9 degrees celcius at 9am!  Luckily no strong cold winds, (which would be worse) just a bit chilly for my liking when I had this tri pending!  So I parked car, got out bike, did warm up walk, got my entry stuff, found transition, set up bike/helmet and also left a pair of fingerless cycle gloves there due to the weather!

Then got sorted, got a locker for car keys, warm clothes and sorted the long sleeved pullover top I wore over my sports bra, 1 piece swimsuit and cycle shorts for ride and run.

It was a 300m swim in pool, 13k bike ride and 3k run.  After our instruction we got underway.  I didn't fit my googles properly and didn't have time to fix them, - out of a field of 23 I came out of the swim 2nd last!  Without my google and slight pre-organisation issue I may have been able to improve that by a couple of spots but I realised....I need to improve my swim technique!  I can swim long distances, but have crap technique!

Anyway, now time to put on shoes, socks and a long sleeved breathable type top over my swimsuit/bikeshorts/bra.....then run outside about 200m to fetch bike.  By now, (10.10am) temp would have hit about 14 degrees, I was warm from swim, pulled sling-over top over top, had no annoying wind and I biked hard for the course conditions so didn't notice the cool weather!

I used my roadbike, managed to overtake quite a few peeps who beat my on the swim but had mountain bikes.  I felt slightly bad for them.  This was on road but most cycling around here is mountain bike, (or the like) based so if someone can only afford 1 bike, want to ride recreationally, I'd say a mountain bike would be more versatile!  I think I overtook one person on a road bike.  By the time the run came round, I held my own!  Think I passed 2 people well ahead and gained lots, (but couldn't push self to quite overtake) a group of 3!  One of the ladies who I passed on the bike blitzed past me on the run though!  There were a few elite level racers, some had all the gear, including good bike, bike shoes, clipless pedals etc who used today's event as a training race for their up and coming events.

The roads were still open to traffic so care needed to be taken to look for cars behind when overtaking.  But roads were well marshalled for the event.

My time was 1hr, 1 min, 50 secs haha!  I came in 9th from 17 in my category but 15th from 23 overall, (there were lots of elite youngsters!) I'm happy with my race effort, gave it my all, but can see areas I can improve.....with training!  Results and official exact times should be on a website soon!  And a nice sunny afternoon.....hitting a high of 19 to bask in haha!

Talk soon,

Pip :-)