Mallory Park Elite Super Series Triathlon, 10 Aug 2021

The day started off nice and relaxed with breakfast at a normal hour and short hour’s drive to Mallory Park in the morning to recce the bike course and register before the race in the afternoon. 

The race was a mass start and started very quickly out to the first buoy. I got kicked in the chest at the start of the race but managed to fight my way through the swim coming out the water in 38th/50. After a quick transition I jumped on the bike knowing I had a lot of work to do.

The bike course was 6 laps on a technical circuit with one short climb. I enjoyed the climb and used the hill to my advantage gaining places on other athletes. With each lap of the bike I gained confidence on the circuit and was able to take the technical sections of the bike faster. I was also overtaking a lot of athletes which gave me confidence but unfortunately had not found anyone to work with and take turns on the front. On the 4th lap a caught a group of 4 athletes and was able to sit on a couple of the girls for a short time but I ended up doing 90% of the work on the front still to push the pace.

I finished the bike in a much better position and had the 16th fastest bike split. I had confidence in my run and went out hard trying to get past as many as I could. My legs felt great today but I was struggling more with my breathing after getting kicked in the chest in the swim. I finished the run strongly with the 7th fastest run and ended up in 16th place out of 50 overall. I am really proud of my race today - I know my swim is where I need to focus my training over the winter to improve for next season.

Unfortunately as soon as I crossed the line I realised the pain in my chest was worse than I thought and have recently found out I have sprained ligaments in between my ribs meaning I am unable to swim. Hopefully they won’t take too long to heal as I only have a couple of weeks until my next race.

A huge thank you for Tim for coming along to support me today and being the best cheerleader, photographer and video maker!

Mia Hawkins