Last week I competed in the NSW Triathlon Club Championships. This was held in Anna Bay, about 1 hour north of Newcastle. It was going to be a challenge for me as it was twice as long as anything I’d run before.
The week before the race there’d been some terrible rain, so I was prepared for the worst, but as we were waiting to start the swim the sun came out and it turned into a lovely afternoon.
The swim was 1 km around some buoys in the bay. I really enjoyed it as the water was nice and clear and fairly flat. The I amazed myself by managing to catch a wave and body surf the last 50 metres or so while others were struggling to run through the water.
As I ran up the beach I checked my watch only to realise I had forgotten to start my stopwatch. The nerves must have got to me. I had a good transition (after some training the previous week) and cycled out onto the road.
The cycle ride was 5 kms up to the top of the road then back (3 times). There was a hill at the far end and I managed to get up to 60 kms/h downhill, and still have other people flying past me. I was getting quite tired by the time I came of the bike, but I was still enjoying it.
The 8 km run was partly on footpaths and partly on road. I found this very hard and trundled along quite slowly. Once I got onto the last lap I tried to speed up a little, but there wasn’t anything left in my legs.
As I came across the finish line I estimated my time to be 2 hours and 5 minutes which I was over the moon about. I’d been aiming to beat 2:15. Then when I saw the times on the internet the next day it was 2:03, even better.
I was shattered when I’d finished and arrived in to a very excited Jack and Grace. Then we waited for Dave Brown to finish. Dave is a friend of our who’d come across from Mudgee to compete. Everyone seems to know Dave wherever we go, so he got a huge cheer as he finished.
There was also a big cheer for the last competitor, who was running his first ever triathlon, and was 69 years old!!!! Puts the rest of us to shame.
