From the off I was immediately whipped up in the mass hysteria, zipping off at 6:00/mile pace and failing to heed my friend's pragmatic words of 'bugger this'. The race format was 2-mile run, 10-mile bike, 2-mile run and my strategy was to hit the first leg of the run at about 5km pace (mainly to make up for the last leg, which I knew would be considerably slower!). I made good ground and overtook quite a few folk.
In the fray: can you spot me? ;-)
Transition 1 went pretty well. Shoes changed, helmet on and away. On the bike I looked to average about 20mph, which I thought would stand me in pretty good stead. But not long after I hit the circuit, the more accomplished cyclists were already passing me. I figured I had ended the first leg pretty high up the field, so didn't take it to heart. This was, after all, my first ever competitive bike ride!
The best bit about the bike ride was passing the spectators five times, which gave me a continual boost. In fact, I really enjoyed the cycling -- full stop. I played cat-and-mouse with some of the riders around me and really got into the swing of it, before giving it a bit of welly for the final half a mile and filtering into the dismount area for transition 2.
Prising off my cycling shoes for something a little more comfortable
Having done a few brick runs in training, I had some idea of what lay ahead of me. So while T2 again went pretty smoothly, I didn't run so much as hobble off for the final two miles. It was like wading through treacle, or trudging the wrong way up an escalator. I felt like I was running 10-minute miles but was actually cruising somewhere around 7:00/mile. I was expecting my calves to loosen up but that never really happened. My breath was short and sharp, too. Thank Christ it was only two miles, I thought!
I found a spurt for the final few hundred yards, pulling away from a couple of fellow runners and overtaking another. By the time I reached the finish line I was wearing my trademark grimace, but I was more than pleased with my overall effort. So, did I make it under the hour mark?
That trademark grimace I was talking about
Results
Run 1: 12:09
T1: 01:10
Bike: 28:13
T2: 01:16
Run 2: 13:38
Total: 56:29 (putting me 80th of 251 finishers)
See official results here.
Just to get even more stat-tastic, here are my bike splits:
5:29; 5:33; 5:32; 5:37; 5:37
Would definitely do this again!
