Well it's not strictly running (or rather, not only running) but I signed up for the Nottingham Tri Relays aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages ago, and they took place today!
The format of the tri relays is totally different to a normal tri or a normal relay. Basically, you have four team members and each swims 500, then each cycles 15km, and finally each runs 5km. My last triathlon was the European Qualifiers on 13 September 2014 in Milton Keynes (a race in which I famously managed to cycle 32km on a 20km course, this is HOW BAD I am at directions. Needless to say, I didn't qualify ...). Since then, I have swum once in the Serpentine, without a wetsuit, and once in a pool for a good 20 minutes. I have also managed to ride my bike once - to work and back during the last tube strike. That's a whole 15K altogether ... Hmm. Luckily the idea was to have fun, rather than be competitive ... which was just as well in the end! First off, our B (each of the four team members is assigned a number A-D) came down with tonsillitis earlier in the week and had to pull out. Fortunately, our D had already been poached to race twice - once with us in the morning and once in the afternoon for another of our club's teams. One of the girls in that team was happy to return the favor and replace our B (which was particularly kind of her because she was also racing Sunday morning!).
We all managed to get up on time, I managed to register us, and we thought all was well, albeit we couldn't quite work out how transition worked etc ... but we figured it would all become clear in due course. I was A, which was terrifying. I am soooo bad at directions (see above) plus I am amazing at getting things hopelessly wrong (remind me to tell you about the time I rode my bike into a 9-metre deep canal some time ...), plus the lack of training made me super-stressed. Luckily I didn't have much time to think because setting up transition took about six times longer than I thought it would, so I was on the swim before I knew it! I could genuinely hardly remember what to do - I'm an absolutely terrible swimmer at the best of times, so it was all slightly bewildering. Muscle memory finally kicked in and the swim wasn't tooooo bad (for me, that is) - I managed not to be last out and everything! I did manage to hand the baton to the wrong team member (I saw C and assumed she was B) but luckily C handed it to B and we straightened ourselves out. B had a cracking swim, as did C and D, and then I was out on the bike. I hate the bike. Really really really hate it - quite apart from the serious risk of going the wrong way, I find it soooooooo boring. I groused myself round the course (which was around a lake; even I couldn't get lost) and managed to hand over to B this time rather than C, D, or a complete random.
I then had a nice hour and a half to enjoy before my next stage. However .... disaster struck! Our B is the fastest ever - she represents GB in her age group (as does our D) and she is speeeeeeeedy! She loves the bike, so she was pelting round at full tilt all the way to the dismount. Unfortunately she (like many many others) mistook the timing mat which was located three metres behind the thin, almost invisible dismount line for the dismount line itself and didn't realise she had to dismount until she was on the line itself. She panicked and slammed on the brakes and ... went headfirst over the handlebars and ended up with a broken arm for her pains. I was out in the holding pen on the run by the time I heard what had happened, but my fabulous team mates sorted it out between them with our C running twice (bless her). Luckily B is super-hench and she was okay, but it was a shame to ruin her day, especially as she has the world championships in three weeks. Poor B.
My run wasn't too bad - it felt horrific, mainly because it was fast and flat, not my normal wander over the hills! I managed 23:52 for 4.89KM (the course was slightly short) which is about a minute slower than my PB for 5K but I was quite pleased with it given that I hadn't trained that distance for ages. So all good really! The official results say 24:07 but that includes D's transition off the bike - my Garmin told me it was 23:52 so I'm gonna go with that natch ;)
Once the relays were over it was straight back to London to get some rest in before a mahoosive walk tomorrow. Sleep is key!
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