I participated in an Olympic distance triathlon on Sunday (March 9). It consisted of a 1.5km swim, a 40km bike ride and a 10km run. Conditions were pretty horrid. At 9.30am it wasn't yet hot enough to forcibly cancel the event but a couple of hours later it certainly was. The swim was in a canal estate lake that was quite warm (almost too warm - no wet suits allowed). My swim was okay. Then we headed off on the bike ride which was directly into a 20kmph northerly - hot blasting wind. 20kmph into the wind and double that coming back but it was HARD. The run was eased (once my legs allowed me to do move in a runnerly like fashion) by a huge number of water stops and spectators hosing runners down as they went past. A pretty extreme event. I did it in a much slower time than last year. Some training might be a good thing . . .
David took the photos. clicking on the pictures takes you to my Flickr Photosharing page, where you can see these pictures larger.
Waiting to start. Talking to Bridget O'Neil Murphy. She missed her start by a minute or so because of the chat. She still won her age group!
Heading towards transition from the swim.
Off on the ride. 20km into the hot northerly blast furnace and 20km being assisted.
Hosed down on the run.
Finishing. I did it in 3 hours 12 or something. About 25 minutes slower than last year! Oh well, there's always next year.
