City of Rockingham Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

It was a run start and the water is really quite shallow for a good 200m's I was not really prepared to sprint, but took off and ran out with all the girls. it was tough and my heart rate skyrocketed (definitely wasn't healthy) I dolphined a few times and started swimming and realised I could not breath my chest was soo constricted and my heart rate too high and I had a coughing fit! Fabulous start to a swim. I calmed myself down stood up and had a few seconds breathing and then took off again.

finally settled down into a bit of a rythym, cough breathe cough breathe! then controlled the cough and got to the first buoy. rounded it and fought with a fair few people, this was a pretty violent swim. some girls just could not navigate. I htink because I'd stopped I was swimming with people a bit slower so kept catching up people ad having to either swim over or round them. I was a bit cranky so wasn't impressed with all these people getting in my way (ohh cranky princess today)

rounded that first buoy and looked up to spot the other buoy, only to find it halfway out to rottnest, (ok so not that far but it had drifted way off course) Oh well everyone else has to swim out there so I guess I have to as well and head down off I went.

I had settled the breathing down and only had occasional coughs, managed to find two really great people to draft off. I was swimming at hip height in the middle of them, great draft!]

rounded the second buoy and attempted to find the shore line, my goggles were soo fogged up I couldn't see it. Normally i'd just keep going but because we were off cousre I really needed to clear the goggles so I could see where I was going. so stopped cleared the goggles and off I went.

Once we were 200m's from the beach so many people started running, I've always been taught swim as far into the beach as you can, you are faster swimming in waist deep water then running through it. so I swam in alot further then everyone else and the dolphined t he rest of the way in. I think I passed about 20 people doing this!

Not stop in a race, practice some beach starts (never had any in a race before) anti fog on goggles.

NOT do a race when you are clearly unfit/unhealthy. duh

My coach and a friend wereh anging over the fence yelling and asking questions when I went in. I yelled that I felt crap and it was all hard work. my coach said what harder then the Ironman, I said yep harder, but in my head I was thinking come on Mel you've done an Ironman this is a piece of cake stop whingeing and get on with it..

wetsuit off shoes on helmet and race belt on and off I went running otu of transition

not chat to my coach :)

I settled down and just pedalled on the bike. thought I was going relatively ok, it was hard work heading out on to the course into a strong headwind, but I knw I'd be able to turn and fly back with a tailwind. so just sucked it up and got on with it. I tried really hard to get my speed up to over 30ks which I did hold for most of the bike.

unfortunately I had a swig of powerade and that set off another coughing fit. roughly 3k's into the bike course, so coughing an riding are tough to do together, I suddenly had that awful I'm gonna spew sensation and just spewed off the bike. never done that before and I'm so glad there wans't some poor person right behind me. GROSS!

I decided no more powerade for the rest of the bike as it was just going to set me off again.

I just settled down and did the best I could and I surprisingly had a bit more speed in the legs at times then I thought I did. I put in a few fast bursts when I could. Was glad to turn around the second time and head for home.

Drink
ride faster

Struggled with my laces, as I haven't touched my shoes since the Ironman. grabbed my cap and ran off out onto the run course

check my shoes before the race, make sure laces are ready to go.

I headed out onto the course and my body felt quite good, I knew I was running faster then I normally do in a short race, but my lungs were on fire. I sounded like an asthmatic wheezing away. I just had in my head, c'arn Mel you can do this you've done an Ironman this shoudl be easy as.

grabbed a water at the first drink station and struggled to get any down without choking, but I did get a sip and that helped.

I tried to just get into a comfortable pace but that didn't help so I just ran as fast as I could make myself go thinking its only 5k's you can just go fast and then it'll all be over.

I am actually surprised that my body let me push it they way I did. the run just seemed to take forever, I thought I was going faster then normal but it took longer then normal! (found out later that it was 1.2k's longer then it was sposed to be)

with aobut 500m's to go a girl that I was trying too hard to beat passed me, she said keep it up mel, I wheezed out that I oculdn't breathe, she said well slow down. Nuh uh not me I'm not slowing down I thought and just pushed it as hard as I could unfortunately I coudln't push it hard enough to get in front of her but I did pass a couple of people just close to the finish line.

Not run with lungs on fire!
Run faster then I normally do because I don't think I push myself hard enough in races if I can run faster on a day like today.

I crossed the line and immediately doubled over trying to get some air back in my lungs, I felt soo unwell, a few mins later I'd managed to get some water down and was starting to feel a little human again. it was damn cold so headed to get my bags and change into some warm clothes


Ironman 2 weeks ago, Alcohol, and chest infection :) Not being smart enough to know when not to do something andp robably when to pull out of something mid race!


This was still a fun race even though I felt like rubbish.
theres a pretty funny video on this website with some highlights from the race. my good friend is the one that says he was disadvantaged with short legs on the swim :)
http://www.trievents.com.au/media/media-triseries.html#RockinghamVi...