Goals Achieved - Job Done

We're too old for this lark

So there you have it!  Another triathlon completed for the wonderful charity Hope and Homes for Children and as you can see from the pic here on the right, I left nothing out there on the course.

I started out with 4 stated goals this time.

1. raise £500 for the charity (raised £556 so far)
2. do it faster than last year - (1:13:07 this year, vs 1:22:41 last year)
3. Beat martin Branagan (the other bloke in the photo) - it was his first time and he put up a fight, but I scraped home in front
4. finish in the top 50 - I'll let you know when the results are published

It was tough today, I'd trained hard, and was fit and healthy - unlike last year, but no amount of training prepares you for the extra amount of effort you are prepared to put in during a race.  I drove myself so hard.

The swim did not go well.  One length of front crawl, my goggles filling up with water, i switched to breast stroke and almost immediately lost count of my lengths.  What i do know is that of the 3 of us in my lane, 2 of us either did 2 lengths too many, or one of us did 2 lenghts too few - I'll know when i get my official time - but you're finished when the marshalls say so, nothing we can do now.

I was on the cycle start line with Branagan and a rush of blood to the head meant I sprinted the first half mile to get some distance between us. It worked, but by the time I hit the hill, I was done in. I just, somehow made it to the top, recovered a little and hit 38 MPH down the other side.  Passed lots of other cyclists, none passed me - major achievement.  Sadly the GPS on Runkeeper didn't track me properly so once again waiting for the official stats.

Still standing

To the run.  Again, somehow was back on the line with Martin B (in this race, your transition times are deducted) as we set off for the 5.5 km.  After the pain of last year and the humiliation of having to walk, I was looking forward to this.  What I wasn't looking forward to was the pain. I'd worked so hard on the bike, I felt sick in the first couple of kms.  But this time I kept going, winding it up, staring ahead, reeling in other runners, blanking out the pain, breathing away the nausea.  The run I can tell you I finished in the unofficial time of 25:48, compared to 30:51 last year, almost 1 minute per Km faster.  It's not Mo Farrah, but it is running and it is good!  Just like on the bike, I overtook many and was overtaken by none, it felt good!

And now it's done. I need a new challenge.  But first, tomorrow morning at 07:00, I'll be back in the pool.  The swimming bugs me, so weak, so slow, time to get serious!

By the way, thanks again to all who sponsored me!  Great effort raising the money for a great charity, thank you!