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ABERFELDY MIDDLE DISTANCE TRIATHALON 2009

First up: Rachel the Swimmer

The amount of stress I endured up to this race was immense, all generated
by myself and centred on me being able to get out of my wetsuit on the day!
I have for a few months upped my swim training with Hearts swimming club to
twice a week, although the concept of open water swimming was totally alien
to me. I duly bought a wetsuit and incurred the embarrassment of being man
handled into it in front of customers in the Tri shop. I had three practice
open water sessions in Loch Ore, the sea at Portobello (wouldn't recommend
as I looked like something from the deep when I came out of the water due
to the oil and god knows what from the manky North Sea!) and Threipmuir,
which I managed ok, the only problem being getting out of my wetsuit.

After about 10mins rolling about on the floor trying to get of the bloody thing
Alex had to assist, so as such I found myself on the Wednesday night, after
running club last week, running about my garden covered in baby oil and
vaseline practising getting into and out of my wetsuit with Alex timing me
and laughing his head off, although secretly enjoying every minute of it! (The bounder! Ed)

The race briefing and registration was on the friday night. As this is where
I learnt that all swimmers would be starting all at once, i.e. no staggered
start, and I would have to get out my wetsuit completely before Lynn could
set off. More panic. I have been having dreams for weeks of being battered in
the scrum to get to the first buoy, and unable to get out of the wetsuit
with Lynn shouting at me to hurry up! A girl last year took 19mins to get
through transition, which I swear that was going to be me this year!
So on saturday morning we all headed down to Loch Tay and after half a
bottle of baby oil, a tub of Vaseline, two tesco bags and much amusement
from Jacqui, Lynn, Joe and Alex I got into my wetsuit and made my way along
with the other swimmers into the water where upon I generated a small oil
slick from all the grease!

The water was 15 degrees, which is pretty warm
for Loch Tay although a wee bit choppy. The swim was 2 laps round the buoys
and then back to the shore into transition T1. The gun sounded before I
made it to the start and it caught a few people by surprise. The first lap
I took wide to avoid the other swimmers. The north side of the route was
tough as you were going against the waves but the rest was fine, and by the
second lap I was trying to build up my speed and overtake the others.

I had no idea where I was in the field throughout the whole swim and to be honest
my only thoughts went from enjoyment, admiring all the fish scales in the
water, through to panic as to how was I going to get out of the wetsuit?! I
reached the shore and ran out of the water and somehow managed to get the
wetsuit off down to my waist no bother, in fact it almost fell off.

I have never been so happy, EVER! I then ran up into the T1 transition area where
Lynn had to shout to me as to where she was as I was heading towards the
wrong stand. Managed to get the rest of the wetsuit off and pass the timing
chip to Lynn and then she was off. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole swim and
managed a time of 36.08 mins which I was pretty pleased with considering
this is the first time I've done anything like this. The whole event was
great to watch and we were all inspired by the people who did the whole
thing. Both Lynn and Jacqui were fantastic and did great times over a
tough cycle and run course in far from ideal weather conditions. Well done
to James Harrison who came 14th overall and 9th in his category. Next year
it will be the whole thing for all of us.

Next: Lynn the Cyclist

I wanted to enter a team into the Aberfeldy middle distance triathlon and I didn’t want to do the swim leg (1.9km open water). I managed to persuade Rachel to do this instead. In fact she jumped at the chance, was positively excited about it (odd girl). So getting Jacqui to do the half marathon required no effort. All I had to do was the bike leg.
I cycled to the start from the B&B. This gave me time to get my head together and see how my legs felt (as I knew I was coming down with a cold). Well my quads and hamstrings felt heavy, and this was when I was going downhill – oh dear. Also, its wet – this could be interesting. Once the bike was racked we (me, Jacqui, Alex and Joe) wandered down to Croft-na-caber to watch Rachel get into her wetsuit – and quite a spectacle it was too. I’m not going to attempt to describe the chaos of the swim – I’ll leave that to Rachel.

As I saw Rachel heading into transition I noticed the wetsuit round her waist. Good, she had managed to get her arms out (this apparently was a real worry). She is also fairly high up the field. I put the timing chip on and head off. I manage to pass two people on the road out of transition, but there is a long way to go. Far too quickly you hit the first major climb up towards the Schiehallion road. I drop down the gears and keep a fairly good tempo going. I don’t really mind climbing and I am able to concentrate reasonably well as I pick off people in front. A few guys pass me on the climb though and I know I was faster going up here last year.

Onto the Schiehallion road. A little bit twisty, but I like this road. Four or five more guys pass me, but I’m expecting this on the flatter sections. There is a very steep, twisty descent section into Kinloch Rannoch. I grab for the brakes and drop to a granny’s pace. “OK that’s the worst bit over”. As I head along the north shore of Loch Rannoch I pick up a gel from the feed station, expertly handed out by the marshals and that’s all I remember about this section. Quite a few guys pass me, some very quickly and others only a bit faster than me. My brain has clearly disengaged because when I get to the end of the Loch and turn to come back along the south side I see a guy in a tri suit at the side of the road with a sign saying CO2. I just look at him and think “What is he doing?”. I pedal for another 2-3 minutes before I realise he had a puncture.
The wind is sort of behind me on the way back, which makes the going much easier. Back up the steep bit on the Schiehallion road. I begin to look forward to the long descent, which I reach more quickly than expected. It has helped having two cyclists in front that aren’t getting away from me.

What? This is so unfair. A headwind on the descent. I have to pedal hard just to keep up a respectable speed. Normally I’m overtaken on descents, but this time I pass two guys and stay ahead of them. Over the bridge in Aberfeldy, nearly there. But there is a sting in the tail – a very short, sharp climb into transition 2. Eeeek! – my legs hurt. I unclip my feet and stagger off my bike. I can hear Rachel shouting at me. I have to run into a room, which is transition 2. There are only men in the room. Where the hell is Jacqui? How can she not be here? I’m going to have to do the run…..in my socks. “You have to go out through the other door”, someone is saying to me. I just do as I’m told. There is Jacqui, fidgeting, ready to go. I pass on the timing chip but have to exit transition first, which is a bit odd. I hope I shouted some encouragement to Jacqui as she headed off – but I really can’t remember. 3.08 (and 25 secs). Slower than last year but reasonably happy with the time.
The route was really well marshalled and there is a really friendly buzz about this race. It helps having two good team mates as well. 1st all female team too I think.

Finally: Jacqui the Runner

After the constant rainfall overnight and for most of the morning (Lynn certainly had the most difficult leg of the race), the sun came out just as I was standing in transition nervously waiting for Lynn to come in. I had a few worried thoughts that this race might be Haddington take 2! Lynn’s effort on the bike was fantastic and despite being laden with the cold, she came into transition looking strong. All the competitors had to jump off their bike, run up a wooden ramp – not an easy task in cycling shoes, through a portakabin and down another ramp - a little cruel and a real test for the legs! After getting the timing chip from Lynn, I was off, ALONE. It was not an elbow bashing, heel scuffing, eyeballs-out start. There was no-one heavy breathing down your neck or tripping you up to get past, just a very peaceful and steep downhill start – bliss! When the word ‘undulating’ is used to describe a course, it is usually used very loosely and can mean anything from the torturous to the tame. This course, which took us out from the centre of Aberfeldy, across the beautiful Wades bridge and up the river Tay towards Strathtay, is in my opinion, a true representation of the word ‘undulating’. This was not a bad thing. The course was fantastic, very picturesque, and any uphill section was closely followed by a downhill. As this was a half Ironman, the supplies on the route were amazing; water, energy drinks AND gels. Needless to say I felt guilty for taking anything more than water as I was racing fresh, unlike the majority of the 350 competitors that took on the full challenge.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t resist taking what was on offer and with hindsight I wish I had been more restrained. I also felt very unworthy for overtaking a few of the Ironmen but this was always met with encouragement and kind words despite their gruelling efforts. It certainly gave me the boost I needed. Thankfully, the tree-lined roads were cooling so Haddington was a distant memory. It was an out and back course which I quite like, and I felt I was keeping a good steady pace and confident that I would break 1:30 until I hit what WAS a lovely steep downhill going out, now an energy-sapping uphill scrabble. MUSTdo more hills. I came in at 1:30:22 - upset not to have gone a few minutes under, but as a team, as the only all girl team (we think!), we did great. I would highly recommend being part of triathlon relay, especially this race. From the very start you could feel the buzz and genuine camaraderie from everyone that took part. We’ve certainly all got the bug and were so in awe of Rachel’s swim that we are contemplating doing the whole thing next year! Swimming lessons anyone??...
Overall position 50th out of 220

Results: here