Nepean Triathlon - my first Tri

The alarm went off at 4:30 this morning and it was really hard to get up. Caty was acting as chief supporter today as Anita was away on a conference. We made it out there a bit after 6am, I collected my race pack and was disappointed to learn that there would be no wetsuits - bugger!

Off to transition and I got a nice spot next to Gnome and started to unpack. I had a list so I wouldn't forget anything and I spent some time checking out other set ups to get a few tips. I decided to swim in my tri pants and leave the top in transition. After the race briefing, I strolled down the swim start with Paul which was 1k away. They let the girls go first before waiting 12 mins to the 1st wave of guys. It was good to chat to Paul, Gnome, Will, Christian and Tiger Angel as we waited. It was a shame Miners couldn't have been there as he had injury and car problems. I was a little nervous but not as bad as I thought I would have been.


Then it was time for the green caps. I jumped in the water and waited for the start where I could stand. The swim course was quite wide and not congested at all and I didn't experience the dishwasher effect as expected. I did however take a big breath of water a few hundred metres into the swim which caused me to cough and splutter for about 20secs.


Being my first open water swim my awareness of my surroundings is poor and I don't think I was swimming in a straight line at all. Sometimes I would try and get behind another competitor to draft but soon they would disappear with me left wondering where they went. I had to keep reminding myself to concentrate on my stroke as I was daydreaming and just rolling the arms over. Then the wave behind came through and I got a few wacks before they realised I was there.

Around the buoy and back to transition. I got out of the water and my arms were really heavy. I didn't know it at the time but my swim split was 21:53 and 63rd/80 in my age group. I racked my bike, put my bike shoes on, followed by my GPS and HRM. I then put my tri top on and it got caught around my chest as I was wet. I struggled with it for a while before it finally came down. I grabbed my helmet and off I went.

Down the first side of the regatta centre, I was really surprised to see the speed at apx. 33-34km/hr. I thought I would never be able to keep that up, but it didn't feel too bad so I kept it going. There was lots of people out on the course. Fast guys zooming past and slower ones being overtaken. We went out of the regatta centre and through lots of twists and turns in the industrial area backstreets. It was heaps of fun flying around the corners with the other cyclists on the hot mix - woo hoo! I came around the first lap in a surprising 26:40 with an average speed of 33.9k.

The second lap was a little less busy as many of the earlier waves were now running. I overtook Wildthing in the industrial area and said hello. I was finding it hard to keep up the speed of the first lap and the legs were really screaming, so I was glad to get off the bike in 53:35 at an average speed of 33.6 (average HR of 167).

I zoomed in to transition and there was Gnome right next to me. It was a quicker transition this time. I took off my helmet and changed my shoes and I was off. My official cycle split was 57:59 which includes T1 & T2. Therefore I must have spent a total of 4:24 in transition which seems much higher than I would have guessed. The cycle split was 6oth/80 in my age group.

Now the fun was about to start, I was finally on my feet. I felt great and soon started to overtake people. In the first km I passed Paul, Aunty K and PLU. My HR was in the mid 170's and my speed about 4:15 pace - just where I wanted it, all I had to do was keep it up. It was fun picking up one competitor after another - it really is good being a runner in a tri. In fact only two people passed me on the run. I passed Maddy just before she finished and she was looking good.


A quick wave to the cheer squad before heading off for the second lap. Things now started to get tough and it felt like the last 10k of a marathon. It was hot and it was hard work. I tried to lift the HR and pace, but my body wasn't going to have any off it. Just as I was closing on home I passed Wildthing again who had another lap to do. She was doing it tough but was hanging in there. I was glad to peel off and run through the finish line for a 10k split of 43:31 (173) and a total time of 2:03:24. The run split was 22nd/80 and the total time was 46th/80.

I caught up with Caty afterwards and tried to eat/drink something. I also caught up with Jen, Mango, Paul Every, Muzman, Plu, Will, Christian and Paul. I needed to get back to look after cheesburger so I collected my bike and headed off. Just as we were going Wildthing came around the corner to finish.

A thoroughly enjoyable day and more than I could have hoped for. Now the focus is squarely on Canberra in 4 weeks. On one hand I got heaps of confidence from today, but on the other hand, the extra distance of the HIM is really going to hurt.