Saturday 21 September 2013

Whose idea was it to ride around London in a wet lycra?

…...Well that would be mine! This is what I was saying to myself halfway around the bike course at the weekend whilst trying my dam hardest to keep my bike upright. But in the same breath it was so exciting and inspiring to race in my first ever World series final on home soil with such amazing support.
For the past two years I have watched this race in the grandstands with envy and always thought how cool it would be to race a world series race on home soil. And that it was! The support was amazing, it was great to have so many people cheering us on so thankyou!
16 degrees water temperature in the serpentine and air temperature of 12 degrees on race day, combined with drizzly rain didn't make it the most ideal of conditions for us chicks in the elite women's race.
Being a northerner you would have thought this would be no bother to me, and I have never suffered too badly from the cold before but there is a first for everything!! Having chased the sun around the world for most of the year and being at my leanest race weight, I didn't prepare myself well enough for these conditions by simply not putting enough layers on!
I felt great going into the race and in good shape, but by lap 3 of the bike my legs had stopped working. Everyone was in the same boat, and I only really have myself to blame for getting so cold. I stupidly didn't take any toe covers for my bike shoes and think my feet are only just starting to come back to life now!! I also should have worn a top or some arm warmers under my trisuit to try and add an extra layer, but hey another lesson learnt! My right hand is still a lovely shade of blue from where I was gripping the bike so hard causing a nice big bruise.
To me this is strangely what makes triathlon exciting. Trying to get swimming, biking and running to all peak at the same time, coping with different tactical scenarios, weather conditions, different race courses, staying injury free and healthy just makes it one great big challenge and keeps me going back for more.
Overall my race wasn't all bad, I finished in 29th which considering my body had shut down and legs stopped working after the 2nd lap of the bike it could have been much worse. I was especially pleased with my swim, being only 20seconds down on the leaders after the first lap, so that was a relief to see some progress.
I managed to sneak inside the top 20 in the overall world series rankings, finishing in 19th place, which was a nice bonus. Sunday evening saw the famous end of season after party. The club Tiger Tiger in London had been hired out for us along with a free bar which meant that was a pretty dangerous combination! It was a good laugh and made a nice to change to get dolled up, us Brit girls scrubbed up well!
I'm back home in the Uk training for a few weeks as my season is not over yet, I have one more race to go, this being a World cup in Alicante. I will then be taking a well earned rest to get myself refreshed in preparation for next year, which I am already looking forward too!
Katie