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

This race seemed like a good way to round off the season, with races for children as well as for adults.  April was feeling brave enough to venture into another race involving swimming and I fancied something short and sweet to complete my year's multisport activity.  This race took place at a school in Loughborough, fine for us as we have family there.  We were able to go down the day before and be handily on the doorstep in the morning.  There was no rushing to get there as it took less than ten minutes from Daniel's Mum's house - great.

The day began in a rather confused fashion as there had been a few emails sent out about the race in advance with race day details and then altering them, but things were different still when we arrived and nobody seemed to be entirely sure what was going on.  We'd been told there would be race numbers, then that there wouldn't be and that numbers would simply be written on legs, then there were race numbers after all - thankfully I'd put in the number belts anyway, just in case.  There was also confusion about when each race would be starting.  This wasn't too much of a problem for April as Tristart were first, so we simply went straight there after she'd listened to her briefing.  Mine was rather more of a problem with no-one seeming to know when the briefing would be and the start time changing so that I nearly missed it and had to be called for because I'd thought I had plenty of time for a last trip to the toilet - not such a good start.

Anyway, April first seeing as her race was the first one of the day.  She had to swim 50m in the schoool pool and then run 600m around the playing fields.  She was very chuffed to be wearing her new trisuit, we found it for her at Decathlon in Sheffield.  She'd been working hard on her swimming with Nuala, her instructor, and was hoping to do better.  She looked an awful lot better in the water, smoother and more confident.  She clearly remembered what she'd been told and what she'd been practising.  She looked much more like a swimmer with reasonable front crawl and she wasn't dead last this time.  There were still children who were clearly a cut above the rest and who flew through the swim, but April was holding her own in a group of 3 and was definitely not the last one to complete the swim.  In fact, if she hadn't struggled to climb out at the end when she'd finished then she would have been fifth out of 8.  As it was she managed a very good 6th, coming out a mere 2 seconds behind the person in front of her.  All of the Tristart girls swam together, with 2 to a lane, so it was easy to see who was where.  She did the 50m in 1:40.

April managed transition reasonably well, she didn't bother with putting on extra clothing as 600m is not exactly a long way.  She struggled to get her trainers onto her wet feet, pulled her cap onto her head and ran off as she tried to attach the number belt around her waist.  By this time she was quite a long way behind the next girl, but she set out looking very determined.  She is a good runner and looked confident and comfortable as she ran around the field.  It was clear that she was running quite a lot faster than the girl in front of her and her face had a set determined expression, she was clearly trying to catch up with her.  As it turned out, this was not to be, she finished 2 seconds behind the other girl, posting the 5th fastest run of the day in the process.  She completed the run in 4:23 and the whole race in 6:03, coming in 6th out of the 8 girls taking part.  She really enjoyed it and was really pleased with how it had gone.  I was especially pleased that she wasn't upset about not having quite caught the other girl, she was just chuffed that she had been clearly faster and had nearly done it.  Certainly if the race had been any longer, April would have overhauled the other girl.  Well done, April, you did a brilliant job.  I am well impressed with you!

When my race came along, it consisted of a 400m swim, followed by a 5K run.  The kids had said that the pool was lovely because it was warm, that wasn't my opinion of the matter.  It was far too warm, it was like trying to swim in a bath.  I didn't find it at all pleasant and I'm sure it slowed me down.  It felt like swimming through treacle, I'd far rather swim in colder water and get warmed up though the activity.  I found it quite unpleasant and was very glad to get back out of the water.  I completed my swim in 7:52, not a bad time, but hardly one of my best ones either.  Then it was out onto the run.

I knew my run wasn't likely to be good as I haven't been doing any running.  The 5K was 5 laps around the school playing fields and I found it hard work.  The terrain was fine, fairly flat, I just found it harder and harder as the run progressed.  However, I didn't give in, I didn't walk at all and I kept pushing myself right to the end.  I lapped one lady and quite a few of the others simply didn't catch me because I'd swum a lot faster than they did - quite a few were running substantially faster than me but my swim actually stood me in pretty good stead.  Obviously some people did go past me though as there was only one or two in front of me out of the water and I finished up 6th out of 14 competitiors!  I did the run in a pretty poor 33:25, but it was the best I could manage on the day.  My overall race time was 41:17.

I thought it was a good race for April to do and I would take her for it again.  I wouldn't do it again because of the amount of waiting around for everybody in between the two races and because I just didn't enjoy swimming in that poool at all.