Mixed feelings ... 

Last Sunday, 24th May 2009, I participated in the 3Quarter Olympic triathlon in Dorney, same distance as last years Bananaman Triathlon, which was my first triathlon of the year in preparation for the Nokia Windsor Triathlon.

The sun woke up nice and bright and we could not have wished for better weather, temperatures were around 24C degrees.

At 11:30am I made my way to the transition and was confident to have plenty of time. I started preparing my towel, shoes on the bike, running shoes, gels, sweats, drinking bottles, and ... I forgot my race number belt. Thankfully Shereen was near and was able to run to the onsite shop and get me a new race number belt (£6 !).  In meantime I saw the clock ticking and it was only until 11:55 that I was able to put my wetsuit on. My golden rule is to get ready in time and get into the water as soon as possible in order to relax and to get used to the water and water temperatures. This time I came to the water with only two minutes spare before the race horn went off!

I started swimming and felt I was doing well, until I started sighting and noticed that a whole lot of people were already far beyond me. I was totally surprised and could not comprehend this. How did they get there? This combined with the late preparation took me out of my comfort zone. For some bizarre reason I found time to wave to my wife and son who were watching me, apparently they could tell I was really upset with my position. I was able to calm down and swim more relaxed during the second lap. I came out of the water with the last ten people in my wave. My total time was 19 minutes which still faster in comparison with last years time of 21 minutes.

Transition from the swim to the bike went smoothly, got my wetsuit out fast and was able to jump on the bike with my shoes already on the bike mounted without problems. The transition lasted only 1:09 seconds which turned out to be the fourth fastest in my age group.

On the bike my race came together, I started passing other people straight from the start, which was positive, my average speed was around 21 mph / 33 kph, which I knew was good enough to improve on time. I concentrated on my nutrition and ensured I had taken my gels and enough drinks. I finished the bike in 56 minutes. 

Transition from the bike to swim was smooth'ish, was out of my bike shoes before I came into transition and only had to put on my socks, yes indeed socks and running shoes. I had chosen for socks becuase during training I felt friction on my feet and didn't want to risk getting blisters during the race. Putting the socks on caused me most problems, nevertheless I was happy with a transition time of 1:09 (same as T1). 

I started my run slow in order to give my legs time to recover from the bike and as such I was hoping to push it a bit harder after some time. This unfortunately didn't happen and had to be satisfied with a pace which felt slow. I was unable to push my legs harder and was out of breath very easily. Very weird feeling when mind wants to go faster but there is no way on earth those legs will move faster ahead. At the same time the sun started to burn as well. A few times I felt like walking, but now I'm glad I didn't. I finished with a time of 40 minutes, which is only a few minutes slower in comparison with training. 

I would be satisfied with any time below two hours, and as such improve my time from last year (2:08) which I did and therefore I'm really happy. However my swim was disappointing and my general ranking didn't improve much either. They must have got all faster earlier in the season

Oh yes, the sun has nicely printed a healthy red area around the borders of my tri-suit. It was heaven to pass the finishing line and find a hose pipe to drench myself completely. Just heaven! 

This race has left me with mixed feelings, having improved with ten minutes on my result from last year is fantastic, but what went wrong with my swimming and how can I improve this?