1st Tri of the Season ...

Nottingham isn't really the best place to do my first triathlon of the season as it was over 3 hours away, but as Nottingham is the University that I want to attend, it was important that we travel that far!

The University itself is SO nice! Definitely made the right choice of which one I want to go to!  
We even got invited to an evening meal with the whole Tri team the night before the race.  They made us extremely welcome and chatted to me and my parents like they had known us for some time.  There are a staggering 100 members of the Tri Club, with around 16 of those in the Performance Squad.   They were very happy that I had chosen Nottingham Uni and was looking forward to me joining the University's Performance Squad.

The triathlon was actually the University's Varsity triathlon and considering it  was organised and run by the University students, I would say that it was far better than a lot of triathlons that are run by the Regions or Tri Clubs!  
The timings and intervals of all the swimmers was exactly right as there wasn't too many people on the bike course at the same time.   There was chip timing and the course was marked and marshalled extremely well - even roping in the University's Security team.
The volunteers that gave up their Sunday and stood to marshal were also fantastic --constantly cheering on and answering any question that people had.  Every single one competed too - so were standing up from early morning and then competing early afternoon. 
I was in the last wave and had to share a lane with 3 others (including a Doctor - although he had definately put the wrong swim time down!) .  My swim went well and I came out for the long run to transition, which went even better - infact the quickest Ive done for some time.    
My new bike is great.  Extremely light and responsive but I definately need another bike fit as it ended up reigniting a previous hamstring injury.  It was a very hilly bike course x 5 on the bike and an even more hilly run - but made more interesting as part of it includes a run around the lake.  The University is set in amazing grounds - such a lovely place to train and compete.  

I achieved 1st Youth and 3rd female overall - including the Performance athletes - although it is only the start of the season so I am hoping to improve on each section by the Europeans.
However it was a good start.    But now to get my bike fit arranged and a couple of physio sessions to get rid of this hamstring niggle.