Charlene's Triathlon pt2
Here is Charlene's report re. her Hearts & Balls Triathlon:-
I am really surprised how much I enjoyed the experience.
My best friend had hoodwinked me into entering the Stirling triathlon. To ensure I trained hard enough for it, I decided to do my 1st triathlon for charity. I started gaining sponsorship for Hearts and Balls (a charity which helps catastrophically injured rugby players) at the turn of the year and had managed to get 6 international players, the CEO of Edinburgh rugby and 2 of the coaches to sponsor me. Unfortunately my best friend did not get round to entering, so I was on my own...
the training was going well, for me at least, who cannot run! But a few weeks ago, my ankles started playing up and I was really struggling. My physio offered free sessions as part of his donation in order to get me through the event, which I was hugely relieved at.
I knew my major weakness was the run, so I started going to the Thursday night sessions and can’t believe how much I enjoyed them (and sad to say, looked forward to them!)
The week before the event I was really starting to panic. It was the unknown of the transitions and last minute emailing of my friends for advice and clarification and stressing out about nothing in the end.
Yesterday went really smoothly, registration took no time at all and was then left to set up my transition. Thankfully there were a few familiar faces, which relaxed me a wee bit and reassured me that I had done everything right and not missed anything.
I felt physically sick before the swim. The swim felt very slow and got stuck behind someone, but not quite going slow enough for me to tap to overtake. My actual swim time was 7 minutes 23, which was 37 seconds faster than my target and 25 seconds faster than my last time trial, so I was really chuffed with that. Although, the overall swim time included the scramble out the pool and a short run to the transition area, so my official time was 8 mins 40. My swim time was 10th fastest (female).
The cycle was really good. I had been training on hills, so I managed the cycle 7 minutes faster than I had been training on a 14km route, so was really happy with that too. My cycle time was 33 mins 39. I even managed to overtake quite a few people and only got overtaken by 3 others. My cycle was 18th fastest female, which I am really chuffed with as I have never really done cycling before 6 months ago!
The run was a disaster though. I had a stitch on both sides and the hill? I had to walk up that one. Annoyingly about 400 metres from the end of the run, I got my second wind and could have done the lap again, so lesson for next time – do the sprint distance! I had aimed to do the event in 1 hour 15 minutes, and managed it in 1 hour 2 minutes 45 seconds. I am really happy with that, and my main aim was to not come last, which I didn’t
I think I had put enough training in too as I had fully recovered within 10 minutes.
I can’t wait to get back training tomorrow, after a lazy day (filling in applications forms and a massage this evening). I have a 5km run at the end of the month with work, so I am hoping to do that in under 30 minutes and work on speed and endurance in the run before the next tri. I managed to enter for the Portobello aquathlon on 26th September, so I can practice the 5km run for sprints next year
The link for her just giving page is http://www.justgiving.co.uk/Charlene-Cantwell