Graham grabbed another GB vest.

I qualified for this event 12 August 2012 & have been looking forward to this for a long time.  Not to belittle a GB jersey, it was going to be more of a warm weather training camp & a holiday for myself & Nikki.

 

We finally arrived at the Team GB hotel after a 3hr flight delay due to French air traffic control strike, followed by a 2hr coach transfer from the airport to the hotel, then encountered a further delay with checking into the hotel as there was only one person on the desk trying to check in approx 150 very tired people, so it was around 3-30am by the time we got to our room.  We had a quick shower then hit the sack only to be woken up at 4am by the call to prayer.  Welcome to Turkey.

 

When we finally woke up, this day (Thursday) involved a bike reccie & a short run.  Registration was also due later on in the afternoon.  On Friday, we went down to watch the Standard Distance race. 

 

Saturday was my race day which was due to start at 7am. 

 

The swim started in lovely clear blue sea.  This of course was a non-wetsuit swim.  I started off by hanging off of the pontoon.  The swim was a one lap course with no untoward problems.  Into T1, which was described by one of my coaches as “needing some work“, then out onto the two lap bike course, which was as flat as a pancake, but the road condition was crap because they used bricks for the road – this was very jarring on the arms & legs.  Into T2 for a two lap run.  It was now in the low 30s so it was pleasantly warm for a 5K run.  I enjoyed the run even though it was painful.

 

Overall time was 1:05:43

 

Swim – 13:59

 

Bike – 30:31

 

Run – 20:15

 

17th in my age group out of 27

 

12th Brit out of 19

 

So overall, it was lovely warm conditions, a good race & a nice break for us both, so I now moving onto my next race which is in a week’s time.