Well I rarely give race reports on here, I rarely give them anywhere really, but this race is special. I learnt a LOT during the 1hr 58 minutes I was swimming, cycling & running. I learnt how my mind set can really improve or hinder my race. I learnt how forgetting nutrition, or having it a little late can impact my race. I learnt how much it hurts when salt water & sand rubs into a fresh wound and I learnt that it doesn’t matter if you can’t see where you are swimming, just keep swimming. I suppose that although this was my first Sprint distance triathlon, it has given me much hope for the 70.3 Ironman in August.

I was happy with my swim time of 20.26- it was very rough, and you couldn’t see your own bubbles let alone your hands – the course is a triangle & I had to do 2 laps, which I well and truly swam as a square, so I have to work on sighting & not getting pushed around by the waves so much. Despite that I felt that I swam well, I didn’t panic even though I got a couple of jelly fish stings, and there was loads of sticks & weed. Looking back – my first tri of the season in October last year I swam 350m in 17mins so obviously 750m in 20mins is an improvement there!

The cycle really let me down yesterday. I was helping a girl who was doing her first race for the first lap – she was sitting around the 20kph mark, so after about 3km I said that I had to keep moving, I was able to increase my speed to 25kph ish and sat around there for the 3 laps. The course as you know is quite flat, the winds were nasty, but that’s normal Yeppoon. On the 3rd lap I was all by myself and to be honest was a little bored, I stopped focusing and it felt like a Sunday morning ride not a race situation, so I need to really focus on keeping my head in the game next time. Also my bike computer displays aren’t set up right, the stupid thing was telling me calories burned & not cadence – not overly useful information really! I will look at this tonight & get it set up properly. I find that I focus better when I can see the cadence in front of me.

My run was great. 32 mins for 5km is just under 3 mins outside my PB so considering I had been going for 80 mins by then I am happy! I took a gel around km2 – I should have probably had this in the cycle leg but I forgot. I had a nasty head set when I set out on the run, I kept on saying to myself ‘you’re allowed to stop if your foot hurts, don’t worry about it just stop’ but after I had my gel I felt better and was able to run most of the rest of the distance, my mind set changed to ‘if you stop you’re going to be disappointed’ and ‘your foot isn’t hurting, no-one will know that, but you will know if you stop’ It actually wasn’t hurting at all – the only pain I had whilst running was in my right arch, where I had stepped on a stick on Friday morning, and then the sea & sand had irritated the sore.

So there it is …. my first ever race report for my first ever sprint distance triathlon.

What did you do this weekend? Please let me know via twitter, Facebook or the comments section