Got there a bit late, walking from the carpark with all my stuff to put in transition, and someone told us that transition closed half an hour ago…. so then it was a mad sprint to transition area in flip flops. At the entry, a woman said “its closed” so Jimmy and I just ran straight past her… erm what are you going to do about it lady… there were a few others in transition too. Jimmy set my bike up and pumped my tires etc, it had been in the rain all night.

After transition it was still an hour or so until my swim wave start. It was torrential rain, and I got laughed at putting my sunscreen on - although the next day people were complaining about sunburn so I am glad I did!!

1.9km Swim

I love deep water starts. My wetsuit plan had worked – not just bunching it around the shoulders, but around the top of the legs too really helped with the movement of my arms. The water was pretty cold. The swim course is good because it is sheltered, and it’s easy to sight which direction to swim in due to the banks of the canals. My legs cramped mid-swim, so had to swim without kicking part of the way – I must have drunk too much water leading up to the race… I came out of the swim mid-pack.

90km Cycle

Wet wet wet!! Didn’t see as many people with flats as I expected, I guess everyone came prepared. I used Jimmy’s advice on some wet weather riding tactics (thanks Jimmy). The bike course is pretty boring, a bit rough in sections, and its undulating. Not a lot else to report. .. unless you wanna talk about sugar cane fields. My bike ran so smoothly, as always… thanks (again) Jimmy!! Average speed on the bike was 32.5kph. Coming off the bike I was now in 8th place.

21km Run

The run is 3 x 7km laps on smooth tarmac. On each lap you run past the supporter’s tents twice, it was great having everyone cheering from both the Vision and Fidlers club tents!! It was a great atmosphere!! I found my running legs surprisingly quickly, set a pace, and stuck to it for the entire 21km. I lost 10 places on the run, but still got a new PB (1 hr 58) and really happy with the time considering the total lack of run training for the last 6 weeks.

I have finally got my race nutrition DIALED – my new plan of endura/ opti/gels worked a treat.

Thanks to everyone for sticking around in the pouring rain and being the best supporters ever!! And thanks to Coach Cath – “the mental thoughts will get you to the finish, the body will do as the mind says”

Vision Tri Club Results