The Triathlons Begin

The fun of triathlons stated today with the Brecon Triathlon.  I honestly mean that as well, I really do enjoy them.  OK, I enjoy them once I’ve started.  Getting my kit together the night before and the hanging around to start isn’t the best and I always get nervous before hand but I honestly do enjoy them!

Despite this being labelled by the organisers as a “novice” triathlon it is a fantastic one to do and the field is always a mixture of complete newcomers and first timers to highly experienced and competitive triathletes using it to build their form for the bigger races coming up over the summer.  For me there were a few reasons for taking part this year.  Firstly, it’s quite close to home so it means that all the family (and we’re quite a crowd!) can come along and see what it’s all about, have a laugh at me in my tri suit but also cheer me along.  It was great coming up to the finish line hearing them all shouting and cheering and I’m really really grateful to them all for coming to support me.  The other couple of reasons are that it was a good way for me to get a triathlon in before the UK 70.3 in a couple of weeks time but also, because I did it last year, gave me a chance to see how I’ve improved over the last year.

The race itself went well.  The swim stage was in the leisure centre swimming pool, so no open water to worry about, that will come next week!  I wasn’t overly pleased with how it went but despite that, I still improved on last year’s time so can’t complain too much.  The bike and run routes went well, both being long enough for me to get into some sort of rhythm but not long enough to cause any problems or major tests.

My total time was 1hour 33 minutes and 43 seconds which was around 22 minutes faster than my time last year.  I’m chuffed to bit about that because it shows that I’m made a big improvement in the last year and that the training I’m doing with the tri club is working.  I’m also pleased that I the time was knocked off in all 3 stages (2 minutes on the swim, 10 minutes on the bike and 10 minutes on the run) which shows the all-round improvement that I’ve made.  Obviously there were parts today that I wasn’t completely satisfied with and would chance if I could go back and do the race over but that’s part of it and why we all keep training week in, week out.

The events are coming thick and fast now with the Blenheim Triathlon waiting for me next weekend which will be another good tester before the UK 70.3 especially with the already mentioned open water swim!

Don’t forget you can sponsor me at www.justgiving.com/huw2013 and surely the embarrassing photo of me below in my tri suit is worth £1 at least!