The Honey Stinger Gullane Beach Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

! at one point I swam past a "safety kayak" who was swimming/being swept to shore with his boat (muppet!).

I planned well and was at the head of the queue into the water and then I fluffed it by going to the right hand end of line when the first turn was left! My 1st 30m was also botched by being gubbed in the surf - I'd say by the 1st turn I was 2-3rd from last! (and raging at myself AGAIN!)

I made up some ground, (I was catching people even when I was doing breast-stroke!) but with leaky goggles (again - I must have an odd shaped face!) and I was struggling to get my breathing right, it was not a good result!

I'm going to learn to swim in real life - being fast in the pool is fuck all use when you're racing in a washing machine!

1:04 faster than last month - although I chickened out of having shoes on the bike already (the toes in the spokes incident was just a little sore - not needed on race day!!)

Practice transition over winter and learn to keep the toes out of the spokes so I can go fast!!

A seriously hilly route, but lovely!
The wind was a nightmare tho - a steady blast with gusty top ups - heading east was a joy - regulary saw 30+mph on the flat. Turn in any other direction and you were either blown all over the road or ground to a halt if into the wind! (One guy passed me with the full disc back wheel - I honestly don't know how he stayed on the road!)

I was caught by 2 senior ladies and was able to stay in touch with the 2nd. (turns out they're the Scottish champ and runner-up this year! Pretty chuffed really!)

All drink related: confession time -
1. I made my "isotonic" too strong and it was actually dehydrating me when combined with the gels. The gels and drink consumption was good - it just turned out to be the wrong stuff!! (Doh!)

2. I fumbled and dropped a bottle at one point and was dumb enough to go back for the bloody thing - probably lost 30secs - and I need everyone of them!!

Still slow compared to everyone else - was 55th overall, so maybe not too bad, but...

I must get elastic laces! Fumbling about fastening them is just a faff - although I tend to use it to stretch my hamstrings...
I also paused to grab the juice off my bike and throw it back down - should have just carried it!

The hill straight out of T wasn't as bad as I expected, but I was way dry and crampy - couldn't get moving at all. My plan was to be Z4 on the first lap, then really crank it out on the second, but I was 3/4 finished the second lap before I was able to reliably go for it, without dropping dead before the line!
I had to walk thru the drink stations at T so that I could get some water in me.

It was too hilly for another 42min 10k, but 50mins was dissapointing!
Overall it was a good run, but only considering I started by knobbling myself with nutrition!

Take a bottle of just water on the bike AND invest in a running bottle - which will only have water in it!

I drank lots and did some stretching. About 3-4 hrs later did a hilly half hor bike run to shift some burny lactic.


Stupid nutrition!


A fantastic race - knobled by the wind!