A little late, but I thought I’d share with you my first taste of racing in New Zealand…..Somehow racing the Panasonic triathlon after a 3months absence from riding my bike and after a set of 7night shifts turned out to be quite enjoyable. The race took place at Mission Bay, a 30min drive from our house. It was a lovely calm morning when we arrived at the beach and we were treated to a lovely sunrise while setting up my spot in transition.
I was a bit unsure about whether or not to wear a wetsuit as it didn’t really seem worth it for 500m but I changed my mind once I saw that everyone else was wearing one. I probably should have stuck to my instincts as I struggled to get it off in transition and probably wasted more time peeling myself out of it than I saved by wearing it!
I managed to exit the water as first individual female and then made my way out on the bike course. As mentioned previously, I haven’t ridden my bike for the past 3 months so I was expecting to lose quite a lot of time to the other girls! There was a LOT of drafting going on with some huge packs forming. Determined not to be part of it I would drop back when overtaken by a pack, or sometimes try and overtake the packs (with little success!). It was quite frustrating to see other girls freewheeling behind a pack of guys and going at the exact same pace as me!! It wasn’t until after the race that I learned that it was actually a draft legal race and that I should have just sat in with the packs and use them to my advantage! That will teach me to listen to the briefing next time!! Despite my lack of bike fitness and solo ride, I managed to average 36.1km/hr over the 20km and posted the 5th fastest female bike split.
I definitely paid for the tough ride during the run and really struggled to find my legs. I managed to lose 5minutes on the run to the fastest runner, which was a little frustrating, but not unexpected given my lack of preparation.
I ended up finishing 4th in my age group and 6th overall. According to the results the 3rd place in my age group was only 4 seconds ahead of me – a little strange as there definitely wasn’t anybody right infront of me on the finish line! I was 3minutes behind the overall winner, an encouraging thought as I’m fairly confident that I could knock off 3minutes once I get some fitness back.
It was great to get back in the saddle and get a taste of the sport I love in this beautiful country…..next time though I’ll be much fitter! It is the end of season now so I have plenty of time to get my fitness back over winter.
