Yesterday I did the Olympic distance triathlon - challenge 1 is complete. I can't believe I'm actually typing that. It was so very hard; not just the distances (which I'd trained for) and not just putting all the disciplines together but also the heat (hottest day of the year so far at 30C) the high pressure and the pollen count which together resulted in a truly debilitating asthma attack.
I wasn't expecting that - I've only ever had problems in very cold weather before, but since I couldn't breathe deeply (painful and brought on coughing) all I could do was plod round, very slowly, wishing for the end.
Surprisingly the swim was my best discpline on this occasion, in that I wasn't the last of my group out of the lake. But on the bike I fell further and further behind. The Olympic distance is two loops and I finished the first loop with a group of people doing the Sprint distance (and was quite tempted to come in with them and have done with it). On the second loop I was quite alone, apart from the marshalls along the way who were, as every, extremely encouraging and supportive.
The same was true of the run; I came into a group of runners which very rapidly thinned out as people finished. It was incredibly hot by now - midday - and most of the water I poured over my head in order to cool down evaporated in minutes. Four gruesome slow plodding laps later, I crossed the finish line, very very last, but I finished. It was never about the time (though of course going faster would have been nice) and finish I actually did.
That was seriously tough. One down, two to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment