Posted on October 12, 2016 by Jenny Cromack
About 18 months ago I took part in my first triathlon, it was a sprint distance triathlon and I loved it! I was hooked! As someone who always called themselves as a ‘runner’ I couldn’t believe, and still can’t, how much I enjoy the cycling training. In my first triathlon I finished 10th woman, if I had competed in the previous year I would have come 4th (shows how much the sport is growing!) so I was curious as to how good I could get at triathlons.
I started working with a triathlon coach, Dave Bradley, and my ultimate goal was to see if I could compete for GB in my age group. A goal I didn’t share with many…..I’ll be honest it seemed really ambitious and I don’t like not achieving my goals so if people didn’t know about it they wouldn’t know I’d failed (ridiculous eh?!)
At the start of this year, Dave suggested I try a duathlon (run-bike-run). I’m still improving on my swimming (which again is something I have surprised myself that I enjoy so much, I absolutely love open water swimming there is something really serene about it, even if you are swimming in the murky waters at Pugneys). So in March I took part in the Clumberpark Duathlon (5k Run, 20k Bike, 2.5k Run), it was fast and furious and I loved it! I did a few triathlons over the Summer including the standard distance Ripon Triathlon (amazing event) and then in October this year I moved up to the standard distance duathlon at Oulton Park, it was a weird distance….8.6k run, 38.76k bike, 4.3k run.
The Oulton Park Duathlon was a ETU European Championships qualifying race, so I contacted British Triathlon and let them know I wanted to be considered for GB for my age group. I won’t bore you with the details of how you have to qualify but I will say that never have I turned up to a race where 90% of the people there looked in amazing shape – they were buff, lean mean fighting machines with the most amazing bikes in the world….I had complete bike envy! My bike was rubbish compared to theirs, how was I going to compete against any of these people? The only thing going in my favour was probably the fact that I’m a very determined person!
So, the start whistle went and zooooooom, wow I’ve never known a race start so quickly! I set off far too quick and after 1/2 mile had to really force myself to reign it in, it would have been so easy to get caught up with everyone else and die after 1 mile!
I completed the first run strong and jumped on my bike. The bike was 9 laps, I managed to keep the first 7 laps at a consistent pace but then I began to fade, I could feel my legs getting tired. Normally when I do a triathlon I am pretty strong when I get off the bike and hit the run but not on this race, my legs felt like lead! I had to work really hard to get round in the time I wanted to. My target time was 2:15, I did it in 2:15:30 so was pretty pleased! But was it enough to qualify for GB for my age group? Well I’m pleased to say it was…..so next year in April I will be taking part in the ETU Standard Distance Duathlon Championships in Soria, Spain. So not, quite my target of making my age group for GB in triathlon, but duathlon is good enough for me! I’ll keep up with triathlons too as I’m determined to get better at swimming, but for now I’ll be focusing on getting stronger on the bike and at running.
I’ll be posting the odd blog about my training, nutrition, etc so, if you’re interested, you can follow me on my duathlon journey.
