Lucy Scott: Triathlons, Training and Racing: Wilmslow Triathlon

11-05-14

Waking to the sound of rain hammering the window I just thought "please stop, I've got a triathlon to do." I'm not particularly fussed about wet weather, not that I would want it all year round, but having done my first bike TT a couple of weeks before in wet conditions, I didn't freak out. Also I'm very accustomed to running it pretty much any weather due to training and racing all year round no matter what the weather gods are hurling at us.

I had a late start for this triathlon, around 2pm, so could chill and take my time in the morning. My wave was called 'Elite Women.' How very exciting, never thought my name would be under the title of elite, not that I'm ready to jump into the ITU world series or anything... My club KTC also had 2 more ladies in this wave, so watch out, Knutsford has some elite triathletes.

Arriving at the leisure centre with sort of enough time, yeah I still managed to make myself kind of late, I registered, tattooed, racked in the mud bath that was transition and breathed... The rain had stopped and it was brightening up a little now. 15 minutes before the start I hung about poolside swinging my arms about and adjusting my swim cap so it didn't look like I'd had an extreme eyebrow lift. I felt nervous because I still hadn't regained my swim mojo so my registered swim time, fastest out of the women that day, was looking optimistic. Oh well, time to race. Thinking that I should just try and hold onto the competitor in the lane next to me, so the second fastest swimmer, I should hopefully be one of the first out of the pool. This worked, although it hurt, and we (3 or 4 of us) ran into transition. Without even glancing at who was around me I dumped the swim stuff, fastened on the bike stuff grabbed my bike and ran, very closely followed by the next competitor. Coming out of T1 in first, I jumped on my bike and set off for a hopefully more successful time.

Once on the open road, settling into the aerobars, I glanced down at my Garmin surprised by the speed I was travelling with how much effort I was putting in. TT bikes are fab. Although the rain had ceased there was still another weather god that wasn't happy. Wind. Headwind, sidewind and seemingly no tailwind. This made the going tough in places but if it was affecting me, it was affecting everyone else too. Remain calm and don't push too hard. I was in a position I've never been in before on a bike leg. First. It felt great, 'woah I'm actually leading this.' Previously I've been desperately trying to keep in contact with people as they pedal past and into the distance, but not this time. I was actually creating and holding a gap. My Starley TT felt ace to ride, I could really feel the difference between how much effort I put in and how fast I could go by being more aero and having a stiffer, lighter bike. Particularly when the headwinds struck, I just tucked in smaller and kept my cadence up.

I should say I was holding a gap on all bar one. At around 11km, I was overtaken by a particularly speedy cyclist who rode into the distance rather quickly. Okay, just hold 2nd now.

Returning to the leisure in 2nd, feeling very content with my bike leg, I went into T2, took off the bike stuff, put on the run stuff and set off on a 6.3km run. My mum shouted to me that I was 40 seconds down on first place, easy to make up if she can't run I thought. But I doubt she's a slow runner. After a few minutes with no contact from my wave in front or behind I knew I had to keep the pace up in case there were times to beat from previous waves. It was getting rather warm now and I kept picking off a couple of people from the waves before mine. Soon enough I passed a marshal who said "400 to go" so I picked it up and crossed the line never knowing what expression to pull at the cameraman, so I just ignored him...

I placed 3rd overall in the end, well and truly beaten by first place and roughly a minute down on second. Also securing 1st in age-group and 1st team, I was very chuffed with the results of the day. Our other two elite Knutsford ladies placed 4th and 5th, making us believe we'd scooped the team prize but in fact it was a mixed gender prize so myself, Paul Hawkins and Jon Metcalf claimed that one. I was very pleased with my race here, no major mistakes or problems and good result for my second race this season. I look forward to my next one, Nottingham sprint (World and European qualifier) which will be competitive to say the least, on 31 May.