This story began in October 2018 when I entered the Bowood House Duathlon & got half a medal which showed the left hand side of the house & was told that if I wanted to get the other half then I would have to enter the triathlon the following year
(PS: did I mention that I was an Age Group South West Regional Champion 😊).
So that is what I did, but only to get the same half of the medal as the previous year. I queried this with the Race Director & was told that if I wanted to get the other half then I would have to compete in both races in the same year. So that is why I entered this race (oh what we have to go through to get a bit of bling!!!!!)
Saturday was an awful day weather-wise so it was lucky that I wasn’t racing on that day. Sunday wasn’t too great either but as this was another mid-day race start we had a leisurely get up & go start to the day. I decided to take the time trial bike for this race because they had taken out all of the speed bumps on the bike course. I set up transition, which was a bit damp to say the least.
The first run was two laps of the grounds & it was not the quickest run, but that is what I wanted it to be, although I did try to hold my own with the group I had settled in with.
T1 was a soggy affair but then once I was on the bike for the seven laps around the Bowood House grounds & passing Coach 2 on each lap, she was signalling my laps as I passed her because with triathletes, once they get past five, they can’t count anymore!!! I did quite well because I had a signal that I was on the last well, which worked well because we both did it at the same time. This sign is top secret so I can’t let anyone know. I also got a bit wet as it decided to rain quite heavily on lap 5.
Now back into a very soggy T2 for a quick transition & then head off again on another two lap run of the grounds. It was a little bit lonely on second run but I just put my head down & got on with it.
My splits are as follows: Run 1 – 11:21 (lap 1), 11:50 (lap 2) = 23:11 ; T1 – 0:48; Bike – 6:37, 5:52, 5:50, 5:52, 6:00, 5:57, 6:07 – 42:12; T2 – 0:41; Run – 11:54 (lap 1), 12:07 (lap 2) = 24:01; Total time – 1:30:50
Overall position – 17 & 3rd in my age group
AT LAST – I now have the second half to complete the set
