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

Photographs

Setting Up	By the Pool
Swim	1st Transition
Bike	Well Marshalled
2nd Transition	Nearly finished

So, here I was making my sixth assault on the Etwall course. I always look forward to this race and make sure that I am signed up for it each year. Sadly, things didn't go quite as I'd have liked this time around, but the general experience of racing there was still a good one. Previously I'd managed to improve my time with each running of the race, this time that was not to be and I surprised myself with just how disappointed I felt about that. Anyway, enough of the self-pity! Here's my report on how the race went.

We arrived in plenty of time and watched the earlier competitors for quite a while, it's always good at this race to see such a range of shapes, sizes and ages racing - definitely a good race for a first timer. So, while watching their progress Daniel kept commenting on the differing amounts of effort being put into the very long first transition run and saying he wanted to see me really pushing there, it's on grass and pretty flat. The swim itself is 400m in the school pool and didn't turn out to be one of my best efforts. I can't have attached my goggles properly before the start, the result being that they were filling up with water before the end of the first length. My swimming, I think, was fine but I had to stop about six or seven times to let water out and adjust myself before continuing, not the best way to get a fast time! Still, other than that it felt okay and then I followed Daniel's advice and ran for it throught transition, I was puffing like I don't know what by the time I reached my bike - I'm hardly a sprinter! So, after all that, my recorded time from the start of the swim to the end of transition was 11:21. That was marginally faster than last year's 11:35, no doubt due to my transition efforts.

And so out onto the bike. I had a fight with my pedals to get my feet attached then off I went. I felt that I tried really hard, pushing myself and breathing heavily. Maybe I tried too hard. I certainly didn't take time to enjoy what I was doing and as a result didn't have as much fun doing it as I would do usually. However, I felt like I'd put a lot of effort in and that I might just get back quickly enough to have a crack at last year's time. I did the bike course, in windy, but otherwise okay conditiions, in 43:50. Not so great when you realise that last year I did it in 42:14.

Then the run. As you know my running has been letting me down all year and I've always found the start of this run particularly difficult - it's very uphill initially to get you off the school playing fields. I felt quite tight off the bike and ended up walking up and out of the playing fields, so not the best start. But after that I felt that I got into my stride and managed to lengthen my stride and loosen things off a bit as I went along. However, it became clear as I headed back towards the school, that I had no chance of beating my time. It's amazing how demoralising that felt. I kept going but just didn't feel good about it at all. I did the run in 33:20, slower than last year's 32:49.

My overall time was 1:28:31, still my second fastest time over that course, but slower than last year's 1:26:38. I've surprised myself by how down I've felt about the result. I had a slight cold which could have affected things. But I think that really the lesson here is that getting hung up on your time is a bad idea. I lost sight of the joy of racing, despite it being a very well organised and enjoyable race. I need to get a grip. Yes, it's great to improve, but it should be about the wind in your hair and the freedom of the open road - not just about sterile times. I'll give myself a pep talk and get on with the next thing!