Realizing I'll need to get up at 3.00am to get to Lydd for the 5.00am registration was a schock.
Getting there at 5.30am would have been enough. Started at 7.00am in the first swim wave.
Only 200 competitors overall in 3 waves. Thought I started at the very back, still got swum over twice. Not nice.
When I registered for this one last year had to give my 1000m pool time,
I was a better swimmer then but just started out with cycling. They put me into the first wave.
I got slower in the pool since then, because I cycle instead.
Everybody dashed off from the start as expected, there were some under 30 minutes times.
Couldn't stay on good feet, just swum on my own. Hence the slow time, 36.15. It was still a comfortable, pleasant swim.
I need some work on transitions, for sure. This was my first tri, 6.15 and 6.52 still seems very slow.
I felt soooo organised. The only glitch was I forgot to remove the rain coat from my cycling top,
run back when realized it was bouncing too much.
There really wasn't too much distance to cover, it was all me.
Heavy rain was the forecast but it was dry and ideal conditions if a bit windy. I guess it's the location.
Bike was uneventful and pancake flat. There were only signs if the route went off the main road, I felt bad because of it several times but didn't go astray.
3.32 is actually a good time for me, I'm so weak on the bike. Can't even put my bottle back without stopping and putting the feet actually down though I'm practicing this a lot. Fast course, ideal for tri bars, which I've got but can't use, it feels so unsafe for me. It still holds one of my bottle, very useful, see above.
The run was on a nice course, very bad signage here. I think it was a problem even last year, I can't understand how could they not fix this. The event is in it's third year, btw. Actually run through two marshalls busy talking, then realized a minute later I've gone astray, turned back, asked them which way, also why didn't they told me earlier.
They told me they haven't thought I was in the race. Huhhh.
2.29 was what I expected. 6.50.44 overall, not dead last but very close.
I've only had two short runs in the last month, and around 20 runs overall in this year. This included a half, a 20miler and a full, the rest were short runs/bricks. You can't run much better than you've trained for.
Last year I've run much more, this year I've injured my knee several times from cycling with too low cadence. I've sorted this out a little bit late (last month) for my IM in July, let's hope not too late...
Had a good stretch and a dip afterwards in the lake (icebath), I believe this is why I feel so well today. Muscle soreness only in biceps, well, I think I must be a bit outstretched on my 56" bike.
Tried out planned IM nutrition, ate solids and generally more on the bike than would have been needed for the half. Seemed OK.
All in all a reasonable event , very fast course with some bad signage.
Lack of hills is good if you're after a PB, not so if you're in training for a hilly IM.
We hadn't got a number to call in case of mechanical problems.
There were marshalls on mopeds and marshalls at roundabouts.
Registration, transition, start and finish went smoothly.
Kate Walch