We started quite quickly - we were supposed to have a count down from 10 but the lady ran over saying we ran out of time GO! so we were off and swimming before I knew it. I got a kick in the head first up along with a lung full of water but I was kinda glad I got to experience that so I could tell what it was like. I shook it off quickly and started to pass other swimmers. There were 10 in my wave and coming into the first bouy I was about to overtake the girl in the lead but it only dawned on me at the bouy that I had never navitaged my way AROUND anything before so I lost 2 places - this happened at every bouy!!! My pace was faster than the other girls but stuffing up all 3 bouys had me leaving the water in 3rd place.
It took me 75m to gain focus after the rushed start and begin to feel comfortable - I was feeling pretty happy not to be at the back!

Bouys definitely and also not leave it too late to pick up the pace, I was saving myself a bit I think.

This seemed to take AGES by the time I got my shorts and top on and shoes and socks and my hat and got my bike off the rack. There was also a 250m run from the pool to the bike and that is inlcuded in this time.

I need to think on that, I felt as though I was going as quick as I could without rushing and stuffing it up. Perhaps a tri suit??

I overtook a lot of people on this leg but as they were letting the waves come through all the time. Only 1 person from my wave overtook me.
This course was one big circle so lots of corners; there was only room for one person to overtake so I got held up a few times waiting for slower people to overtake. I would have liked a few longer, straighter stretches.

More bike time, I was hardly on my bike at all in the last 2 months.

I rode in runners so the transition was pretty quick as all I had to do was run to the rack, put my helmet away grab my hat, have a quick drink and start running.

This felt really slow and I was dissapointed to see I was almost 2 minutes off my pace. I had done a brick the week before and had my run under 10 minutes. I think my chest cold making it hard to breath made this harder than it needed to be.

More bricks.

Walked around; grabbed a drink.


I came down with a chest cold a week before the event and was still coughing a lot waiting for the race to start but really I am not sure as this was my first tri. The result may have been the same even without that as I had obviously never done all legs in one go before.


This was a really good start into triathlon; it has definitely opened my eyes to just how fit you need to be to do well at it. The event was a fund rasier for breast cancer and the atmosphere was really lovely (all girl race). I will definitely do it again next year but will do the longer distance next time.