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

Today saw me take the start line at my second swim run outing of the year (the fifth in fun2tri's series).  I continued my habit of finishing it in a very similar time to my previous ones, but managed to be slightly slower overall.  Argh!  However, I shall tell you my tale and stress from the outset that I enjoyed taking part and at the end of that day that's the most important point anyway.

I must admit that I wasn't entirely sure how things would go.  I knew I wasn't going to make such a mess of my nutrition as I did last time, I consumed too much before the race and felt it weighing on my stomach as I tried to battle onwards - not good.  But I was concerned because my weight has gone up a bit recently instead of down, not helpful this having to lug more of me around!  Also, although my training has been reasonable this week, the week before I did absolutely nothing and ate and drank too much, generally doing myself no favours at all.  So, all of that may explain my slowness, or maybe I've lost the plot where running is concerned, and I never had that much of a plot in the first place!

Anyway, I lined up for the swim feeling a little nervous, but generally okay.  My swim went well, I managed to overtake when I needed to and felt I was swimming my own race.  I think on the whole my swimming is going okay at the moment.  I was fourth out of 12 female competitiors over the meduim distance, I completed the 500m in 9:45, a whole second faster than last time - see what I mean about being consistent!  So yes, I'm quite pleased with that.

Then it was out onto the 5k run.  I found the first of the 2 laps so hard, it seemed to take me that whole lap to get my breathing sorted out and to get into my stride.  I seem to find it really hard to run straight out of the pool, the swim bike transition is easier, and so, to be honest, is the bike run one.  Anyway, I plodded on.  The back parts of the out and back course were hard going, straight into the wind that was gradually blowing black unfriendly skies towards competitors.  I completed the 5k in 31:42, slower than the 31:05 that I came out with in January.  But at least I avoided the rain, the heavens opened as I went down the finish chute, so the people doing the longer distance will have got doubly wet today.

My overall time was 41:28, slower than my most recent attempt of 40:51.  Oh well, lose weight, eat better, be more consistent in my trainig and give it another go in the future.  Still, I was 6th out of 12,  not so bad really!  Also, I had my cheering committee there, complete with excellent sweatshirts and they were still proud of me.  That'll do nicely.