I have always been a music geek. Always. Sports activities clashed with rehearsal and I certainly didn't feel inclined to spend any extra time with the PE teachers either. I did discover the gym and running when on study leave for my GCSE's. The only problem was this led to me needing surgery on both knees at the age of 18 and the surgeon told me running, cycling and high heels were now a thing of the past.
Swimming was all I could during recovery and it has always been something I actually enjoy and have some aptitude for. I didn't actually listen to the surgeon as much as I should and did start running and cycling. The idea of me doing triathlon came from my husband back when we had just started dating as he is an Ironman and very dedicated triathlete. I did race and it was ok. I wasn't in love with it as I am a diabolical runner and at the time I was riding the wrong type of bike.
Living in NZ I did continue until I got too scared on the roads, my husband was injured and I had no one to train with and I was forced into proper bike shoes that just freaked me out. China was no better as the roads were even scarier. Phuket roads scare me too, but there are country roads so I should have got back a lot sooner. What pushed me back in? Free entrance to a race that was being hosted in Trang for the first time.
The race was 1 month after returning from our Summer holiday in the UK and Russia. Essentially this meant I had to get race ready in 1 month. I did a few sessions before we went on holiday and knew the swim would be easy. Managed the bike distance prior to the holiday, but it was slow and pushed the running. Thankfully my husband was willing to slow down and train with me at my pace to make sure I was ready.
When it came to the actual race the swim was an issue as there wasn't enough water to actually swim in. Most people waded round and others did dolphin dives to save their legs. The course didn't have proper buoys and there were ropes across where you needed to go. Thankfully the bike course was great. Some hills, none too big, and the absolute luxury of not having speed bumps everywhere as we do here in Phuket. I loved the bike. I took 30 minutes of my training time too. The run was fine, but something I'll always struggle with and the sand in my shoes was not helpful.
One of the best things for me was finishing and not feeling achey and as exhausted as I had in the past. Even better was knowing so many people in the race so when we saw each other we could cheer each other on. Everyone I knew looked so happy to see me and I know I surprised quite a few people as they knew how little training I'd done and how petrified I normally am of cycling.
There were a coupe of downsides to the race. Although it was free there was prize money for age groups and overall. I wasn't expecting to win anything at all until I saw that I was the only person in the female overall and foreigner category. It turned out that there were 2 of us in this category on the day which was fine by me. What wasn't so nice was that no foreigners were allowed to race in their age group and that everyone else racing was eligible for our foreign category despite being registered in age group. The rules kept changing and the foreigners were constantly being made to feel like we shouldn't be there by the officials. All foreign males were told they had to start with the pro field regardless of age and swim time. Foreign females were changed from wave 1 to 3 at the last minute and we were even segregated in transition, although this didn't stop someone racking their bike in my spot and getting sand all over my towel that was to help clean my feet for the run. It was a shame when everyone you raced with was lovely and many of the foreigners racing have lived in Thailand for a long time.
Despite everything I really did have a great race and now I want to be back racing.
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