My First Triathlon, Barcelona & Training Update

Well well well. I've just done my first triathlon, ever, and a standard distance one no less! That's a 1.5k swim, 42k cycle, and a 10k run. Everyone I spoke to prior to the race chuckled and told me I was very brave. I thought they were referring to the weather (typical Scottish - chucking it down, lots of cloud, wind, no sun), little did I know...


But maybe that's not the right place to start the story. Maybe I should tell you all about why I should NOT have done the triathlon. We went away on a usual junior-flashpacking-type-holiday to Barcelona on the 17th of June, and got back on the 22nd. Whilst on holiday, I did try to train:

This was me posing in my running gear on our balcony before going out to run (you can tell I was taking it very seriously).

Then I thought that a swim in the warm Meditarrenaen sea would kinda be like an "open water swim" (this process engineer failed to recognise that the temperature of the sea must have been at least 10 degrees warmer):

Even did a little run whilst I was at it! How's that for a good effort...

So why didn't I remember the time I'd ventured into a Scottish loch (that means lake in Scotland)? I was bidding the world goodbye as I ventured into the unknown....




Not to mention the fact that we had lots of cava in Barcelona (check out the cool long stemmed glasses):




...and were out late dining in hip (expensive) places:




So it was all doomed to end in tears when I ventured to Knockburn Loch for my first triathlon, in the Scottish rain. It was against my better judgement, but it was also thanks to the encouragement of a stranger (more on that later). See pic of me looking very serious (and wet!) as I did my cycle:

All things considered, I'd decided that I'd be happy if I didn't come last. And I didn't!

It was a "painful" experience to say the least, but at least I can say I've done it! I almost gave up at a couple of points, but didn't. Why so hard you ask? Imagine cycling up a giant hill... THREE times... and then having to RUN UP a STEEP hill for about 5k.. and you'd still have another 5k of running to go.

The good news is I whinged at the "stranger" who encouraged me to go along for the race (one of the organisers of the event) about how he nearly killed me, and got a little mention in his event article:

http://www.fleet-feet.com/FFT/webmodules/pages/ShowArticles.aspx?pageid=1

Appalling time (03:15 plus hrs), and much pain later, I decided all was alright as it'll all add to my preps for the London Triathlon in August - thanks to everyone who has ever encouraged me to go out and do it!

Preps have been going very well by the way. I've done some lovely races in lovely Scottish weather (it IS possible, see below!) and have done considerably well in all with improving times each time.

So here's to the final training till August - may it bring more sun and no wind or rain!

Final thought for the day... "Why learn to walk when you could go out for a run?!"