Tranent Sprint Triathlon 21/03/10
Just in case you thought I was sitting on the sofa eating chocolate and catching up on the Eastenders omnibus whilst you lot where running Alloa, here’s proof to the contrary! My attempt at being a Triathlete! First Tri of the season I thought I would test out how my training had been going with Edinburgh Tri club.
Being a bit nervous I arrived at the Loch Centre in Tranent far too early and then had too much time to get even more nervous! The only other folk to arrive early were Rachel and Alex, Alex being a bit OCD when it comes to checking his gear is in the right place etc (Rachel said that not me!)
After an interesting race briefing where we were warned to only listen to Marshals en route and take no notice of advice from locals (apparently in previous years the local yoof took great delight in sending triathletes in all sorts of wrong directions!) we lined up for our swim heats. As I waited for mine to go I realised how few women were participating. The 4 guys in my lane took off after me and 3 overtook me within a couple of laps, however they exhausted themselves and I managed to easily get to the front again after enjoying drafting them to save energy.. tee hee.
Onto the bike and the slowest transition time, something to work on I think! I hate being cold so pulled on a helly, (difficult when slightly damp!) a jacket and socks…so uncool. I was dreading the cycle as the Winter had put paid to a lot of cycling plans however Hugh’s Thursday spin class (see www.lifescycle.co.uk) Seems to have done the trick and although I was quite slow I felt okay on the hills round Cousland and Ormiston in spite of the wind that had whipped up.
The run is of course my favourite bit and I felt quite good at the start, the run sections at Tri’s tend to be laps which I find trying (sorry!) but the 2nd lap on this one was shorter than the 1st, something I didn’t admit immediately to the ET folk who came out to support and who were impressed by my speedy 2nd lap! I was a bit disappointed by my 1 hr 31 finish time as I wanted to crack 1hr 30 but I reckon the summer tri’s mean less time in transition so there’s a couple of minutes already!!! Still all good in the run up to progressing to Olympic distance Tri in May…..I think. Off on the bike now to get those miles in.
Report Lynn Hanley
Talking of heroes of triathlon James Harrison (below left) (PRC and GBR) appeared on the cover of trinews recently (what do you mean your subscription ran out)
