Kelso Triathlon 7th August 2011 Race Report

Having achieved a podium spot at the weekend Nicola is contractually obliged to come up with a race report so here is her report from Kelso Novice Triathlon. As always - never short on words!!

This is my first, and probably last race report if you only get to do them when you make podium or do a PB! So I’m making the most of it and as well as doing a story about Kelso, talk about my first 6 months in the wonderful world of triathlon – just hope ATHelite aren’t getting their editorial red pens out as they read this incase there’s a word count restriction!

I’m a girl of many things, but making it up as I go along def isn’t one of them, I have my routine day before and on race morning – so I serviced the bike, put gas in the car, packed kit as per list, ate my porridge, and most importantly made sure I packed cake the endless consumption of which is the main benefit of triathlon for me!

Awful lot of time to waste post registration to actual race, 4 hours. This very nearly put me in the wrong frame of mind, but thankfully some family came to see me and despite this only being my 3^rd triathlon I recognised a friendly face from a previous race so I narrowly avoided boredom and pre-race demons!

As always I couldn’t wait to get started, no butterflys in tummy, just knowledge that I’d done it before, had trained my best, and would do it again. Ever since my first triathlon where in naivety my race strategy was to go as hard as I could and I died half way through the bike, my race strategy has been the same – slooooow swim (because I’ll still be one of the first out the pool and my bike is weak if I’m even remotely out of breath after the swim), good but not too hard bike, and then whatever I can manage on the run!  Reckon by adding 30 seconds on my swim I save at least 3 or 4 minutes on my bike and run.

Swim felt great, although I did have some 12 year old North East champ on my tail the whole way – not a chance was that kid getting past me! Or so I thought until the wee fecker bombed it the penultimate length and tapped me on the foot 2 seconds before the wall… WTF?!

On the bike I soon hit the not inconsiderably sized hill, but I get a lot confidence from having survived a trauma before, so I just thought of the eaglesham, bonnington and ardochrig climbs at home, imagined I was drafting behind Malcolm on a Saturday morning with Shirley yakking away in the background and just kept spinning as Colin told me to do on my first day! The roads could have taken narrowboats instead of cars what with the size and frequency of the puddles, and I decided it wasn’t worth coming off the bike on the downhill so kept it fast but safe! Pleased to say I burned the North East champ in T1;)

On to my 2^nd nemesis.. the run! All I can say is thank you to the Monday run group for making me feel so welcome. It is entirely down to my 3 weeks there that I managed to put in what was for me a great tri run, and all on a hilly course with 30 uphill steps in the middle! I really felt the benefit of even that little bit of formal training after having done all previous training on my own. But I am looking forward to knocking off serious minutes from my time with continued attendance Genevieve so I know I’m not off the hook;)

I thought it was worthwhile mentioning transition - quite frankly it was chuffing freezing and the rain was binning it down, but as the Saturday bike crew know, I go out in anything. So whilst others were faffing around in T1 and 2 with long sleeves and waterproofs, I went hardcore - tri suit only. In the end I made 3^rd female by just 36 seconds, the girl in 4^th was technically faster but spent well over a minute longer than me in transitions – I think the message there is hypothermia will only kill you after the race so deal with it then;)

So here’s my parting thoughts, it’s pretty daunting for a girl doing baby triathlons with only 6 months training under her belt to be in a world where everyone is much more fit and far more experienced. There’s comfort to be had from ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’!  One of the hardest things for me is the fear of holding better people back, but I can honestly say without attending the club training and everyone’s help and support I wouldn’t have got even this far!  So whilst triathlon is a solo sport, I feel I swim bike and run on the shoulders of others, including my family and friends who listen to me wanging on about the hardships, the aches and pains, the ups the downs, tolerate the being late for things, turning up with hair wet and no make up, or not being able to join in at all because of some training commitment.  And special mention to Gordon and Peter, you’ve not only had to do your own tri training but have lived through every step of mine too. 

Lets hope I never win an Oscar, over and out;)