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

Be warned, some self-congratulation is unavoidable here today!  Right, that's my stall set out, now I can get on with telling you about the race.  This swim run was the last in the winter season run by fun2tri, so I'd decided to give the longer distance a go as a good pre-season race.  When I applied for the race I was hoping for a positive result from it to send me towards my first tri of the year in a good frame of mind.  Bearing in mind the fact that my training has been going pretty well, I was hoping that I might realise this when it came to race day.  On the other hand, it seems ages since I managed what I'd set out to do in a race, so I was quietly hopeful, but that's about as far as it went.

The distances for this race were a 750m swim followed by a 7.5k run.  This meant that the swim took place over 5 lanes and comprised 6 lengths in each lane.  This always sounds a lot more complicated than it is in reality.  There were some no-shows which meant we probably had a little more space to swim than we might otherwise have had.  Always a welcome state of affairs.  My swim went well, I felt good and in control of my breathing, thank goodness.  Mostly I could just concentrate on swimming my own race.  I overtook someone right near the beginning, she was just starting her swim as I completed one of my lengths so I put a spurt on to get past so I could continue at my own pace.  Then, right near the end, I caught up with one of the men who'd started before us, again I put on a burst of speed to get past, I didn't want to be held up all along my last length in the pool.  Also, I didn't want a hold-up trying to get out of the water.  I exited the water in 14:41, a good time for me for that distance, I was very pleased with that.

I'd been hoping that I'd be able to do the race in an hour, working on the assumption that I could do the swim in 15 minutes and that I'd be able to complete the run in 45 minutes if it went really well.  So, realistically, I was expecting just over an hour to allow time for transition as well.  Anyway, I headed out onto the run course.  This was pleasant today, it's always a pretty good course alongside the river, but the weather was lovely today.  Beautiful, bright, sunny conditions, blue skies, the lot.  And I felt good.  For the first time in ages in a race I felt able to run.  I felt light on my feet and like things were working as they should.  I could run properly rather than dragging myself around and finding it all to be a great effort.  Fabulous.  At the end of the first of three laps I looked at my watch to see that 30 minutes had elapsed from the start of the race.  That included the swim, transition and the first lap.  I was really startring to think I could do it.  So I pushed on.  It was great, right the way through the run I continued to feel good and able to maintain a good pace.  My run time was 44:10, really good for me over that distance - mind you, it's a PB whatever, as I've never raced over that distance before!  But, more importantly, it's better than I'd expected.

My time for the whole race wwas 58:51, so a good bit under what I'd been aiming for.  So, not only did I finally manage to meet my own expectations, but I actually exceeded them.  I am well chuffed.  So, I was pleased anyway with my performance, it was really good for me.  However, there was icing for the cake too.  My name was mentioned in the results at the end during the prize giving.  I was third girl on the long course, so they called out my name and I got a clap!  What a nice treat to end a successful outing.  Admittedly there were only 6 women in the race, but nonetheless, I was third.  The only other time I was third in a race, I was also last.  So this certainly beats that.  So, all round, a very successful day and I'm really pleased with how things went.  I'll head towards Skipton in a suitably positive frame of mind.  Yippee!