Box End Standard Triathlon, 5 Sep 2020
My first ever Standard Distance Triathlon, and the first race of the year!
I've been struggling with finding motivation during lock down and was glad this event went ahead as it gave me something to aim for. It was a great day out particularly because a couple of the other Catenary girls were taking part, and Tim also came along for support and to take pictures!
The swim went excellently – the water at Box End was fantastically clear, and compared to the river I normally swim in, also lovely and warm! My result was also great - 3rd woman overall, which was a brilliant way to start the race. The TT format meant that we could only do one lap of the lake instead of two, so the swim was only 750m. Although I am sure lots of other competitors were very pleased about this, I thought it was a shame because swimming is probably my strongest leg in a triathlon!
The bike course was 2 laps of a fairly technical course, which had a long straight section on the end of each lap. I found the course ok, although traffic meant I had to stop at a couple of roundabouts and cars pulled out in front of me a few times. This definitely lost me a few seconds! In terms of my performance I was very pleased to bag 9th woman for the bike leg – and most of the top 10 women were within a few seconds of each other! This was particularly pleasing for me because I was not on a TT bike, and I don’t have a power meter so was cycling blind!
Then onto the run! By this point I thought my legs were going to fall off! I hadn’t managed to open any gels on my bike (something else to practice), so I was running on empty by this point. The run was also the hardest 10k I have ever raced because it was all off road on quite long grass, and there were some steep little lumps that sucked all my remaining energy.
It was by far the slowest competitive 10k I’ve ever done and annoyingly if I’d managed to go just 50 seconds faster, I would have been on the AG podium. However, it isn’t helpful to think that way – I don’t think I could have given any more on the run, and considering this was my first standard distance event I’ve learnt plenty of very useful lessons for next time! Also, considering I was in a sling with a broken collar bone a month ago, and I still came 6th overall, there is a lot to celebrate!
Overall a fantastic event; it was really well run by Active Training World, and it was also fantastic to properly meet Helen and Megan (who are now friends, and also my nemeses!). They both performed brilliantly and it was a really great day out for Team Catenary!
Emily Varley
