Felixstowe Triathlon, 10 Oct 2021

The morning of the event was slightly chilly but with a lovely rosy sunrise. I felt quite relaxed and confident during the walk to race HQ. Check in was easy, all info had been emailed out so was well prepped for route and general layout of the area.

Swim (pool based): The swimmers were called forward to line up pool side in number order. I felt calm and confident on poolside as my swim training has been going well. It was a deep end start and after a very quick briefing, I got in when it was my turn. The pool was WARM, and I was nice and relaxed, long and smooth freestyle covering lane distance well – my plan was to start steady and up the pace gradually each lane. I actually quite enjoyed the swim and was at the finish end in no time – a few attempts getting out of the pool then onto transition.

Bike: shoes on (no socks), helmet on, number on, grab bike and go – sunglasses misted up so could just about see the mount line. Hopped on/clipped in and off, then took some time to warm up. The first half of bike ride was out/back, averaging around 17 mph quicker on the way back, getting used to riding the TT bike and comfortable on aerobars. Onto the pretty and hilly part of the bike course and tried to keep steady power here - hills aren’t my strong point. After some more sections it was onto the sea road (closed road) and along the finish under the gantry which was still up from Women’s Tour finish yesterday - it felt awesome to cycle along this. Over the line, clean and tidy dismount and into transition.

Run: bike racked, helmet off, trainers on, spin race belt and off, felt pretty good after bike so started off a bit quick then settled into steady pace – the run was flat and simple 2 miles along the promenade, holding a good pace up to first marker round then a long way to second marker. Pace dropped slightly here but somehow managed to pick it up again and felt great running along finish straight. I held good strong running form and a slightly faster finish and slight queasy feeling setting in under gantry, across the line FINISHED!

I got changed walked back to watch last few competitors finishing and collect bike/kit from transition. I decided to stay for awards not really expecting anything, so SHOCK when heard my name announced that I had won my age category. Stepped up onto podium to claim my award, all in all a brilliant positive end of season with a new 300m swim PB, performance on the bike is going great and running is improving, onto winter training and looking ahead to next year! 

Overall result: 17/42 Finish time: 1.07:36 Category: 1 out of 4 Gender: 7/27

Many thanks to Tim (Catenary Coaching) for bike/run training, Swim Smooth Suffolk for swim training!

Sara Brown