The best inspiration is not to outdo others, but to outdo ourselves

This was another new race for me, but one that I was expecting to enjoy as it is run by a group whose races I have enjoyed in the past. This race is another one organised by Freebird Events. I went just hoping to enjoy the race, clearly after what I was saying about last weekend, I hadn't done enough training (seems like the story of my life at the moment), so I just wanted to get out there and enjoy racing.

The event began in a pool swim of 400m. That worried me a bit, not in terms of the distance, but in terms of me being too slow for my wave - lack of training again. I tend to end up swimming with a lot of blokes these days and I don't tend to find being too slow in their lane to be such a good idea. So, I must admit I was rather nervous before the start. As it turned out, I didn't do too badly. I was slower than I should have been for the wave I was in, but it wasn't disastrously so. I think the worst bit was somehow managing to get my foot trapped between the wall and a fast turning man's foot as he pushed off the wall - OW! Otherwise it went okay. After that I got overtaken by a guy who clearly didn't get the idea of the drafting effect, he couldn't pull away from me at all once he was past, so I happily drafted him for the next few lengths until I'd done my stint. I completed the swim with a time of 8:10. I was reasonably happy with that.

There was then a long transition to take me to fetch my bike. We had to come out of the back door of the pool, across the road and along quite some distance of path to get there. I took my time and collected myself and my thoughts as I went. Then it was out onto the bike for the 20k ride around the surrounding area. The cycle route was one lap and easy to follow despite what I was told by some competitors before the start. I didn't have any trouble working out where to go, it was all clearly marked and marshalled. I quite enjoyed being out there, despite knowing that my time wasn't likely to set the world alight any time soon! I recorded 44:11 for the distance, which actually isn't too bad. Probably more luck than judgement, but hey!

The run was 5k, with the initial section of each of the three laps being on grass around the sports centre area, then the rest of it being on the surrounding roads. I felt tired, but otherwise okay. My legs didn't complain as much as I thought they might and I was able to just keep plodding along. It was good to have my cheering committee there waiting for me as I neared the finish. It was also good to see that I had basically beaten the rain, which chose to begin just as I was completing the course. So, pretty good timing there! I managed the 5k in a time of 33:39, slow even for me. Mind you, I was just happy to have done it and to have enjoyed doing it.

My overall time for the race was 1:26:10 which put me 278th out of the 318 who actually completed the course. I enjoyed the race, it was well organised and friendly. Also I'm sure I could beat that time with a little more training, so I hope to go back and have another crack at it. Maybe next year will be a better one for fitting in my training and going to races actually ready to compete in them - now there's a good idea!