So for 2009 and 2010 I’ve managed to come first in my age group in all Olympic Distance races I’ve done (Worlds excepted!) – but last Sunday, it came to an end, like all good things do at some point!  I managed second, but missed that top spot.

This is no reason for the second placing, but I’d had a bit of a bug the last few weeks which had run me down a little – I’d taken a few days easy leading up to try and shake it off.  I had a great swim coming out of the water 5th over all all men and women and 2nd woman, leaving the water in 22mins 50secs.  I was pretty happy with that, so all was looking good.  The bike course was pretty tough, starting with a stiff climb straight out the swim – about 12ish% for about half a mile I guess – gets the blood pumping for sure!  I felt fine for the first 1/3rdish of the race – then things started going wrong.  I was struggling for breath, I had my inhaler with me so took a couple of puffs of that, but this time it didn’t seem to do the trick.  My back also went into spasm mode, so every time I put any kind of pressure on the pedals the pain was a nightmare!  On top of that (or perhaps because of that!) people passed me, and lots of them too   Funny how the psychology works – I’m sure I felt the pain more because of the people passing!!  It took me right back to last year when I used to get this pain all the time and couldn’t WAIT to get off the bike – as soon as I get upright it disappears!  My sister and brother in law, Lesley and Steve, were there to support and I knew they’d be a bit worried as I was way slower than normal.  1hr and 20mins-ish later I rode into transition – if the time didn’t worry them, I think the blue lips did!  Good job I couldn’t see them, so I ran off out of transition, taking a couple of inhaler puffs on the way – oh, what a healthy girl I am!

But I’m running, and I love to run!  It was a hard run – starting straight off with a hill climb, but a really beautiful run.  I ran right with the same guy for the whole of the 10k.  We didn’t actually speak a word, but it was actually quite nice to have some company

Anyhow, I picked off a few places to finally come in (still with blue lips!!) at:

Overall – 2hrs 30mins – 4th woman overall – 2nd woman in my age group – 18th all men and women

It was great to see Lesley and Steve at the finish line.  My fellow tri buddy from Fernie, Brendan Morgan, also came 5th male and second in his age group – so we both got a tankard to take home

More photos in the gallery

Next up is Calgary 70.3 on the 1st August – I’m REALLY hoping my back doesn’t play up – gonna keep my fingers crossed

Splits:

Swim – out of water 22.50 – 5th overall, 2nd woman

Bike – 1 hr 19min 50th (!!!!) overall, 16th woman

Run – 46mins – 17th overall, 6th woman

Transitions about 2mins