Last Saturday was a cold morning, it dropped as low as -5 on the drive to Portlaoise. I was setting up in transition and I notice jackets hanging on a lot of bikes because of the cold. I don't have one so I decided to leave the top half of my tri suit on the bike so at least it would be dry (warmer) after the swim.
Swim- The swim was in the Portlaoise leisure center. The pool and facilities were very good. I was in wave 7 so it meant I had time to catch up with club mates and get some hydration in. When my wave came, there were 7 swimmers in my lane, we put ourselves in speed order, fastest first, I started third. The swim pace was faster than I normally swim but I drafted well on the feet of the swimmer in front of me so I kept up without over straining.
Cycle- When I finished the swim and ran outside the sun was out so it wasn't too cold. My idea to leave my dry tri suit top on the bike didn't pay off as it stuck to me because I was wet. I ran from transition with what looked like a boob tube on, luckily a helpful official was nice enough to pull my top down before I set off. I felt good and pushed as hard as I could on the bike. I managed to keep up a decent average in spite of some rolling terrain and a rough road surface in parts. The cycle was a little long, my bike computer read 22.08 km from bike rack to bike rack. Only one person overtook me on the bike so I was happy with that.
Run- The run was lovely as the sun had come out to play, It was all on footpaths, with some road crossovers which slowed us up a little bit. My legs weren't as good off the bike as I would have liked but I managed to finish strong enough so I was happy overall.
All in all the race was good fun and challenging. There's nothing like a proper race to blow the rust off the legs and get the blood pumping. It has also given me some areas to work on for my next triathlon on Saturday 11th May in Valentia.
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