The day started at 3.30am this morning, I had gotten to bed at 9pm the night before, so I felt like I had received a good nights sleep. My kit bag was all ready. Got dressed and awaited for my chariot to arrive. My dear friend and fellow Turbo Triathlete Brendan @LeddyBrendan was also competing today, so he arrived at 4am and we were off.
Took us about an hour to get there, Vachery Triathlon was held in Cranleigh, Surrey, on a beautiful private estate. Brendan and I did what all triathletes do, registered, set up all our gear in transition and made our way to eat some breakfast in preparation for our race. During breakfast I mentioned to Brendan that I had no inner tubes and that I needed to get some. Unfortunately by the time I had to race the guys had not set up their stall for me to purchase kit. So I going out on the road with no inner tube.
The distance I was doing was Olympic - 1500m swim/40km bike/10km run.
Race briefing was quick and then it was time to get into the water. The lake was lovely and warm, I could hardly see where the buoys were as they were very large (mistake number 1 for Vachery Tri, in my opinion, especially if you are making it and out and back swim for this distance). The blower went off and then we were off.
The swim was much much longer than 1500m, there were weeds everywhere and you couldn't clearly see the buoys. Then once out of the water we were faced with a 250m run to transition. It wasn't until you entered the transition that the T1 time started. I wasn't impressed by this but hey what can you do.
My swim time was terrible, so terrible I'm not writing it in this post.......................................oh okay it was 43mins. SHIT. I have never swum that slow but I don't think that I was slow, I really do believe the course was long and add the 250m run to transition.
Anyway, got my shit together and got out of transition and onto the bike. My god that was another 250m to the mounting line and by the time I got to the line my shoes were filled with grass making it it difficult to get the cleats into the pedals. (Nightmare).
Onto the road and off I went. The course was quite undulating and the scenery was lovely. I was getting passed by lots of guys, which normally doesn't bother me but I knew something wasn't right. I kept going, the hills were not doing me any favours and at this point I knew definitely that my strength on the bike was fading. I continued on. Got to around the 22km mark and thought something is definitely not right with my back wheel and I was bloody right! My tyre was suffering a slow puncture, so I stopped and thought okay......I don't have an inner tube what the hell am I going to do.
So first I checked my tyre, couldn't see or feel anything. I then proceed to try and pump the tyre up with my pump on the bike and it just wouldn't work. Unfortunately I was done. My first DNF - did not finish.
I basically walked my bike for about 4kms before I was rescued by the marshall in a car and was taken back to the base. Internally I was gutted that I broke the cardinal rule for a second time in two weeks whilst out on my bike, by not having spare inner tubes. I definitely have learnt my lesson. I will now be looking to learn to change the inner tube on my bike and quickly.
By the time I returned, my friend Brendan had completed his 4th ever triathlon. Personally I think he did a great time and I was very proud of him. He hadn't trained for 6 weeks bless him.
Now for the silver lining to the whole day, as I am the queen of social media, I had made some greats mates over Twitter who are also triathletes. Two of them were competing as well. So I got to meet @leekyboy7 and @kevaston23 after months of chatting on Twitter. Lads if you are reading this, it was fab to meet you both and you both had great races. Well done.
I also met a lot of new triathletes who were most friendly and even asked me how did I go as they had seen me walking my bike. Some had even offered to help, but I didn't want to take their inner tubes, as they would need them in the event they had a puncture. Today there were a total of 9 of us that DNF due to punctures.
So my lovely readers, this was my last triathlon for the UK season. Not the result I was after but oh well. I am now taking the next 6 weeks off from full on training and racing. I am going to enjoy life, spending time with my family who are arriving from Australia next Monday, travelling to Paris and Amalfi coast, seeing my friends and enjoying some light training.
Thanks for reading.
My next lot of posts will no doubt be about my time with my sister and mummy.
Till next time
Smooches
xx