Nottingham Triathlon - 10 minute PB!

Yesterday I was in Nottingham for the final World Qualifying race of this year.
With everyone vying for the final 4 places in the World Championships, I knew it was going to be a hard and fast race.   The cycle course was a closed, flat road around the lake we swam in with the run course also around the lake, so it was a very localised course and you knew where everyone was at all times.


This was possibly the only Triathlon I have ever been in that had a later start! I had to hang around for 4 hours after my registration time, which just made the whole thing more nerve-racking!    But it gave me the benefit of watching the other races and noticing parts of the course that I have to watch out for.


Perry gave me the task of concentrating on a hard swim and hard bike, and then whatever I have left over for the run.    For me, this was hard as I have this habit of pushing the whole race instead of concentrating on certain aspects of the race, but I managed to beat my swim time by a minute as it was perfect conditions to swim in.


I hadn't been on the bike course before the race because it was closed for the other races, but I knew it was a flat, fast course with a windy straight at the back.   What I didn't know was that we were going to get blocked by ducks walking across the course!  Apart from that, I thought the bike part was going okay, but I felt that it wasn't as good as my previous bike section.   However, when I got onto the run section and was only a few hundred metres from the end, I saw Perry screaming at me that I was doing really well and that I was near the end.   I didn't realise then that I was on course for beating my record by 10 minutes!!   I couldn't believe it!  I ended up beating my previous bike time by about 7 minutes, which I was not expecting at all!!  
 To top it off, I came first in my age group by 3 minutes as well:D


Overall, I loved this race and the course,.   One Step Beyond hosted the event really well, especially with the amount of people there too - everyone cheered and clapped you on and the live commentary was good to hear especially when running into the finish and hearing your name !

I would like to say thankyou to my sponsor Pedal Potential for supporting me and I have now bought myself a new transition bag instead of a second hand, broken bag!   THANKYOU!!    www.pedalpotential.co.uk

Also, with the help of Sovereign Play Equipment, I was able to pay for the quite pricey entry fee  Thankyou to them as well!       www.sovereignplayequipment.co.uk

Perry giving me his normal pep-talk before the race, and making sure my bike is ready before going into transition to prepare all my equipment I need. To be honest, I didn't want to take my Squad Dezire jacket off, it was so warm!!

Coming out of transition 2 onto the 5k run

Just after avoiding the ducks

Getting ready for the race

Going hard with the wind behind me

Just jumping off and running into T2.