May Race Reports

This month has been a busy one for Angus and I (check out Angus’ blog https://angussmithtriathlon.wordpress.com/2017/05/24/may-update/ to see what he’s been up do). We are both currently in our exam periods now so have been busy revising and training when we can. Its been great to train in the sun in between exams and revision, some photos from our training below:

Races this month

•        20^th May – Nottingham Sprint Triathlon
•        27^th May – British Sprint distance Triathlon Championships, Strathclyde Park

Nottingham Sprint triathlon

After a busy 4 weeks since my last triathlon, Nottingham triathlon was my first open water race of the year and the first race of a busy 7-week race block. It was nice to not have to travel far or have such as early start with the race only being a few miles away.

Angus and I had a relaxed morning and left our house at around 9.15, getting to Holme Pierrepont about 9.40. We registered and I sorted out my transition quickly as my swim start was at 11am. Before long I was lining up for the swim start and getting into the freezing cold lake, it was so cold it made jumping into Harvey Hadden pool feel like jumping into a bath. I swam around a bit to try and warm up and then one of the marshals said we still had just under 10 minutes until the start, brrr! It seemed like the longest 10 minutes and my feet and hands started to go numb. I was in a good place for the start of the swim but my body had got so cold I found it hard to get going, it took me 3/4 of the swim to start getting warm and it was a slow swim for me.

I had a fairly quick T1, my Zone3 Vanquish wetsuit came off nice and easily. The bike was 4 laps around the lake – a flat fast circuit. For lap 1 the wind was very strong and this was my slowest lap, then when I got onto the second lap it started to rain but the wind dropped a bit towards the end of the lap so my average speed picked up slowly. On the third lap and half of the fourth lap in chucked it down with rain and my feet had gone as numb as they were in the lake.

After a steady T2 the rain had stopped and I started running with numb feet haha! The first 3km of the 5km run round the lake I ran well and my legs felt okay but then I got a stitch and the last mile or so was much slower and then the first two. However, my run time was faster than I expected and I know that soon I will be able to break 20 minutes on the run! I was happy to finish and excited to watch Angus race, at 1.30pm.

Angus had a stressful start before his race as he found he had a puncture on his disc wheel, he speedily put on a new tub (luckily we brought one) and had to rush around to get ready. Despite the pre-race problems, Angus had a fast swim (1 minute faster than me 😮), a fast bike in the conditions and then had a decent run and just broke the hour. I am proud of Angus for competing after his crash the week before, I admire his determination and attitude when racing.

Although both Angus and I have done better times for the course we were both pleased with our performances on the day as there are other factors to consider such as the weather. Angus won the 20-24 age group and was 4^th overall and I came 2^nd 20-24 and 7^th overall. A great training race for us both at the start of our 7-week racing block and before British Sprint Champs the next week.

British Sprint distance Triathlon Championships

After a busy week of exams, I was really looking forward to going away for a couple of nights and going to Scotland for the first time. Luckily Angus and I didn’t have any exams or lectures on Friday (26^th May) so could get all our kit together and leave for Scotland in the morning. We set off just after 11am and had a VERY warm 5-and-a-half-hour journey to Hamilton where we were staying.

On Saturday we got up at 5am to have breakfast and get ready to leave for Strathclyde park at 6am. When we arrived and got parked, we then walked down to register. I have never seen such a long queue for registration, Angus and I soon got in line, luckily for Angus his queue was much smaller than mine as his surname was after R. There were only two queues, one for surnames above R and one for surnames after R, weird way to split to queue as they were far from even.

After a very long wait to register when I got to the front of the line I could tell why it was taking so long. There was no organisation what so ever! Instead of having all the stuff for each person in envelopes everything was separate and there was only one person trying to find everything so it took a while. I was very glad we had got there early as when I left the queue had got even longer and had snaked all around the car park.

Angus had already done his transition set up and was getting ready when I had joined him after registration. I then went to set up my transition when there was an announcement that there was going to be delays to the start times, but not saying how long the delay was so both Angus and I were unsure when to get ready and get our wetsuits on.

The first wave was delayed 30 minutes so Angus used this to get himself ready but his wave ended up being delayed by 45 minutes which meant he had got very warm standing in his wetsuit as the sun was out and the temperature about 25 degrees.

Soon Angus was off and my family and I went to find a good spot to watch him race. He had a good swim coming out the lake in 8^th in a big field and after one lap of the bike he was in 2^nd place but had a lot of very strong competitors around.

The bike and run courses didn’t have any barriers or tape around and very few marshals and there were a few near misses with people just walking out in front of bikes and people blocking the run course. I was very irritated watching the number of selfish people affecting people races. When Angus and a couple of other runners were going out onto the run they had to stop for a woman in a push chair who blocked the whole run path. It was a narrow path for the run so was easy for people to block and there was no easy way fro runners to get past. I’m quite a shy person so not one to go up and have a go at people but when two guys with 4 dogs without leads on were walking very slowly side by side and not moving out the way for runners and their dogs were running all over the place (one was even on the bike course and very nearly took out a cyclist), so I was soon over to show my angry side as its just not fair on the competitors racing. The organisers should really have put out some barriers and tape in the busier areas as this could have had dangerous consequences.

Back with Angus’ race….

He came off the bike in 2^nd but with many close behind, it was a tough run in the humid conditions and I could see Angus was giving it all his effort. He did brilliantly finishing in 5^th place!

After a frustrating morning I had no idea when my race was going to start and neither did anyone I asked, so I decided to get ready just after 10, I put on my wetsuit half way and was baking but not knowing when I was starting I didn’t want to be rushing around last minute.

After sweating in my wetsuit for 45 minutes I then got into the lake for a 10.50 start. I got a good start in the swim and got to the first buoy in 5^th and moved up to 3^rd just before the second buoy. However, the person behind me then decided to push down on my back and push me under water and swam over me and then the swimmer behind me went over too. I panicked a bit as I honestly felt like I was drowning and when I came up for the air I took some deep breaths and held back the tears and focused back on the race, I breathed every two strokes for the rest of the swim and did my best to get my breath back and calm down as well as catch up for lost time.

I made it out in 8^th and swam faster than I did the weekend before which is good and loved my new 2017 Zone3 Vanquish, the flexibility is amazing. The surface in transition was awful and running on it cut my feet and being the other side I had to run further in bare feet which made them sore, there really should have been some matting down as it was horrible surface for a transition.

I went out onto the bike and pushed as hard as I could on the rolling course, it was much tougher than I was expected and I suffered greatly with my breathing and tried my best to keep it under control and push myself. After having my first Asthma attack not so long ago I now know what it feels like before and how awful a feeling it is so I was trying my best to prevent that.

After the 4 lap bike I coasted the last 500m into transition and got my breath back before T2 and the run. I felt better leaving T2 so decided to push hard on the run, however at 1km it all got too much and my breathing just went, a lot of reasons such as the stress at the start of the day, my panic in the swim and the heat had lead to an Asthma attack.

I slowed my pace down to try and stop my breathing from shortening and my vision going blurred, I was panting badly and really needed my inhaler. Went I was coming back towards the turn around from lap 1, I shouted for Angus with all the breath I had left. I was determined not to stop despite people asking me if I needed to stop and if I needed help at the aid station. I went on for the second lap and thankfully Steve Hunt handed me an inhaler, I just grabbed and did my best to get a puff on it before dropping it. I got going running again but not long after I was panting hard again and was going dizzy and my vision blurred again.

I don’t know how I finished but the last 500m was very painful and all I remember seeing at the finish was the dark blue colour of the finish carpet. At the finish I couldn’t control my breathing and had a horrible Asthma attack, the medics got me an inhaler and helped to get me breathing under control. Not being able to breath is a very scary experience and I hope that I don’t have to go through an attack anytime soon again, especially not in a race.

Thank you to Angus for being straight there at the finish to look after me. Thank you to my parents and brother for coming all the way to Scotland to support both Angus and I and treating us to a nice meal after an eventful day.

I was very happy with how the race went despite my problems and proud of myself for finishing and having the determination to push to the end in horrible situations. I came 7^th 20-24 and got a Q4 for the 2018 European Sprint Championships 2018 so I achieved my main goal.

Thanks to all my sponsors for all your support!

Thanks for reading

Emily