Dorney Sprint Triathlon, 12 Jun 2022

It's been a while since I've done a Sprint Tri (my last one was in September 2020), so I thought it would be a fun season opener! On the day it was gloriously sunny, which was perfect for a 7am start, and meant we wouldn't be freezing on the bike. I was surprisingly chilled, only a few nerves settling in, which I was very content with. I think I was less nervous knowing I hadn't done as much run training as for other races, so it would be more of a test to see how I'm doing, rather than a push for any particular results.

For the swim, I managed to get in a really good position to start, I lined myself up with the buoy line and somehow managed to get quite near the front. After my last Dorney experience of having my head dunked, I was a little apprehensive that this would happen again, but most people were congregating in the middle rather than where I was, so thought I would be safe! 7am came and we were off, not too much splashing or frenzy of a usual mass start so I was able to set into a good rhythm. My arms were a little sore, as they usually are at the start of any swim, but I kept pushing hoping that it would disappear. It didn't, but I still managed to hold on for 6th out the water! In hindsight, the swim was a little bit harder than normal due to it being fairly windy, so maybe that's why my arms hurt a bit more than usual.

Into transition and despite not having my shoes attached to my bike for a nice fast start (I'm a wimp), I was still able to make up a position (and I think maybe 2) before getting on the bike. The bike course is usually nice and fast, but today we struggled with a big headwind on the first half of the course, and didn't benefit from a tailwind on the second half, however, I was still able to overtake one lady and didn't get overtaken by anyone either! (Well until the standard distance triathlon men came flying past, but not the same race, so they don't count!) Due to the ladies' sprint also being the first race of the day, the bike course was empty which meant I was able to execute my most confident race to date, using my tri bars and taking corners comfortably, big win! Not quite the speed I was hoping for, but I blame that nasty head wind!

Finally into T2 and onto the run and it was called out to me that I was 3rd lady, absolute madness! Now I knew the struggle would really begin, legs feeling like they were barely moving, I checked my speed and I was going way quicker than I thought, so I stepped off the gas a little bit just to make sure I would last the whole 5k without blowing up. I kept checking behind me and saw the 4th lady fast approaching. Knowing I didn't have much run training behind me, I just kept to my plan and going steadily along. She quickly approached at the 2.5km (ish) mark and was soon long gone (she ran the fastest run split of the sprint tri, so absolutely nothing I could have salvaged within me to make that up). My new goal was to hold on to 4th. After 3km I knew my body was surviving so I stepped up a little bit and managed to hold on to 4th as I crossed the line! With a 5km run time only a minute slower than my PB, I was over the moon! And flabbergasted to have come 4th.

What a great day!

Lottie Lindsley