St Neots Sprint Triathlon, 16 Jul 2023

I was very excited for this race as it was only 15 minutes away from home so I didn’t have to get up extremely early! Getting ready was a bit of a rush as there was a long queue for the portaloos so it was a bit stressful getting my wetsuit on then getting over to the race briefing!

The swim started really well, getting to the turnaround point didn’t feel like too long so I was confident for the way back. What I didn’t realize was on the side of the river we swam back along there were loads of lily pads and reeds on the surface which made sighting more difficult and made me a bit panicked so I was having to breathe more often slowing me down a bit. Anyway I was out of the water in an ok time and after climbing out of the river on a ladder it was into T1.

This was the most disorientated I’ve ever felt in transition, I think it was because I got a bit dizzy in the swim, so I was a bit all over the place but I finally managed to get my wetsuit off and I was onto the bike.

The weather forecast had predicted 30mph winds for the day so I knew the bike would be a bit slower than usual. I felt strong though especially through the worst areas of wind. And finally a nice long section towards the end opened up where there was a bit of a tail wind and I was sheltered by hedges so I managed to pick up some speed there. Overall I was very pleased with my ride as I was still averaging over 30kph with the wind!

T2 was more smooth than T1 and so I was out onto the run pretty quickly.

I enjoyed the run - a lot of people didn’t like it because there were a lot of twists and turns but because we had to do two laps I enjoyed this as it kept things interesting as I always had something to think about. I paced the run very consistently and it was the best I’ve felt running off a bike in a while so I was very happy.

I was even happier when as I was coming into the finish line I heard Tim shout “you’re in 2nd Jess” so overall it was a very good day with my first ever podium finish in a triathlon!

Jess Barratt-Drylie