Mission: Accomplished!!!
Yen and I had been training for the last few months, preparing ourselves for our first triathlon... and the countdown ended on March 4! I got up at an obscene 4 am with the moon still blaring away in the pitch black sky. The race wasn't until 7 am but you gotta give yourself time to prepare before the race and also digest your breakfast!
It was so cold that morning arriving at the meeting point in front of UWA on Hackett Drive. We had to set ourselves up in the "transition" area, which is where you keep your bike, towel, sports drink and shoes. The first event is swimming, so when you come out of the water you have to go through the transition area to where you stuff is, wipe yourself down, chuck your heltmet on, wheel your bike out and off you go again. It seems like a simple process but if you think about it a long enough you realise you gotta position your stuff well and plan your transition too! Yen said early on you have to make note of WHERE you put your bike. There a bazillion bikes about and it's easy to run past your bike (which I did!!).
Swimming in the river was quite bad. Me and Yen hung in the back of the group at the start so we wouldn't get kicked in the gut by other girls swimming in front! I swam slow and intermittently, looking up every few strokes to see if I was swimming straight. You just can't see anything further than 20 cm in front of you! It's also unavoidable to swallow quite a bit of river water, which is much groser than I imagined and kind of disorientates you. I made it in the end but I think swimming in the river will always be the most challenging out of all three.
The cycle was really good because Yen and I had gone for a practice cycle of the route before and I was looking forward to the downhill streets for a bit of a break. I usually get a snuffly nose when I ride when the cold air whips my faces so with that and after having swallowed lots of I was rather snotty during the ride and no where to wipe my nose!! hee hee
It was so cold that morning arriving at the meeting point in front of UWA on Hackett Drive. We had to set ourselves up in the "transition" area, which is where you keep your bike, towel, sports drink and shoes. The first event is swimming, so when you come out of the water you have to go through the transition area to where you stuff is, wipe yourself down, chuck your heltmet on, wheel your bike out and off you go again. It seems like a simple process but if you think about it a long enough you realise you gotta position your stuff well and plan your transition too! Yen said early on you have to make note of WHERE you put your bike. There a bazillion bikes about and it's easy to run past your bike (which I did!!).
Swimming in the river was quite bad. Me and Yen hung in the back of the group at the start so we wouldn't get kicked in the gut by other girls swimming in front! I swam slow and intermittently, looking up every few strokes to see if I was swimming straight. You just can't see anything further than 20 cm in front of you! It's also unavoidable to swallow quite a bit of river water, which is much groser than I imagined and kind of disorientates you. I made it in the end but I think swimming in the river will always be the most challenging out of all three.
The cycle was really good because Yen and I had gone for a practice cycle of the route before and I was looking forward to the downhill streets for a bit of a break. I usually get a snuffly nose when I ride when the cold air whips my faces so with that and after having swallowed lots of I was rather snotty during the ride and no where to wipe my nose!! hee hee
The final leg! The run! Yay the last bit! But when I got off the bike my legs were so stiff! In my head I'm thinking "oh my gosh want to stop now how'm I gonna run! eek!". I seriously thought I would have to stop halfway through the run but after seeing so many other girls stop to walk the 3 km leg I just didn't want to do it too.
We made it in the end without stopping! Woohoo! It was such a fun experience and I'm definitely down for doing it again next year.
posted by sy at 10:53 AM
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