Bucket List Race

I hadn’t done a Triathlon in the UK before so when I was in the UK in July and heard that the London Triathlon was going to be held the following weekend I decided to give it a shot. It was a great opportunity to race in my home country, in the world’s largest triathlon with 11,000 participants racing Sprint and Olympic distances. It would have us swimming in the Thames, cycling past iconic London landmarks such as Westminster and the Tower of London and running along the Royal Victoria Docklands to finish.

 

It was a deep water start for the swim. After some jostling of positions everyone settled into a rhythm. I felt I was swimming in treacle to be honest, the water just felt heavy and I managed to drink some of the Thames which was strongly advised against but managed to come off unscathed in the end!! I finished the 1.5km loop, exited the water, got the wetsuit off and had to put everything in a bag before we were then allowed to run upstairs into the ExCel centre to the biggest transition area I’ve ever seen.

I gulped down some Coke (a tip I had been given in case I swallowed any of the water!) Grabbed my bike and set off down a steep ramp onto the roads of London for the 40km ride. The course had a lot of tight turns, narrowings, pot holes and traffic lights where hoards of tourists looked like they would launch into the road! However it was great to be cycling through the city surrounded by iconic and beautiful sites and buildings.

 

40km done and back up the ramp into transition for the run. I’m always happy once I get going on the run! We did 4 x 2.5km laps that brought us into then ExCel centre each time so more ramps to deal with! The running course was narrow and busy but the atmosphere was great.

All in all I managed to win my Age Group and be the 13th Female Overall. My overall time was 2:25 (27minutes for the swim, 1:08 for bike and 43 minutes for the run) It’s not my fastest time for Olympic distance but no two races are the same. I was 14 minutes ahead of the woman in 2nd place in my age group and I was really happy with the result, a great race to have done! Well done to Live to Tri Events for an incredibly well organised race.

Next to Nice for the Ironman 70.3 World Champs in September.

London Olympic Triathlon Secret Training Nutrition: