Walked out as much as I could. Because of my frozen shoulder, I did one arm breast stroke from beginning to end. And since I don't have the strength to put on and take off a wetsuit and I needed to do breast stroke, I had purchased a long sleeve swimsuit and swim shirt for the event. It worked very well. The first few strokes felt cold, but no worse than when you first jumped in the water in the pool. But within 50m, I was warm and not having a wetsuit was not a problem. Even when I didn't have a frozen shoulder, I was a slow swimmer. Today, with one good arm and one frozen shoulder doing the "turtle stroke", I think I was 2nd last in my wave, beating only one very old guy who must be 70 years old doing his first tri.

Given that I have one good arm and one frozen shoulder, I think I did the best I could to complete the swim.

No wetsuit to take off made things much easier. But lack of shoulder range of motion meant everything took longer.

Race organizer made a mistake and bike course ended up 15k instead of 10k. It worked to my advantage as that gave me more time to make up for my slow swim. Passed a bunch of people. However, I could have been much faster if I hadn't been held up following a slow car hauling a boat making a left turn, all this on an uphill. A lot of people caught up to me while I slowed down and waited for the car to complete the turn.

A little bit of a problem unclipping on the wrong side and the bike ended up on the side of my frozen shoulder. Had to go around the bike so bike is on the side of the left shoulder. Then went to the wrong rack. Again, shoulder's lack of range of motion meant everything took longer.

Nobody passed me but I passed more people.

Collected my medal and had my podium picture taken. Met up with Anne and her group and celebrate the last race of the season.


Frozen shoulder, obviously.


This is a very satisfying race for me, and not just because I won. The last few months have been tough, getting injured so seriously and not knowing when, or even if, I'll recover. I was in denial at first, then angry, then sad. What's the point of training, I had kept asking myself. Somehow I convinced myself to shoot for one little tri before the end of the season, not win, just to complete, even though this is a hugh step down from competing at the Worlds just 3 mth ago. When I got back in the pool last month, I couldn't even lift my arm out of the water. So I was ecstatic to complete the swim today, even though this was easily the slowest swim ever in my life. And to come through with a first place finish - a small race, but a hugh victory as I finally stopped feeling sorry for myself. Perhaps this win will keep me motivated through the winter into next season as I continue on this long road to recovery.

Race album is here http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/photos/photo-thumbnail...

NB - Overall rankings include men, which I always find to be a little meaningless. Excluding men, I was 19/64 overall