City of Lancaster Triathlon
"The only limits we have are those we set ourselves"
COLT Triathlon Experiences
Race reports from members of COLT, giving a personal insight into what it takes to complete a triathlon.
You may also like to read how COLT athletes felt after racing an Ironman race here
From Sprint to Olympic - Sarah Patterson
The COLT committee are always going on about making sure that COLT doesn’t become a triathlon club focussed solely on long distance & endurance triathlons but that is quite difficult in practice given that only 3 of the committee are not Ironmen and two of the three look likely to become so in the near future.
So that leaves me to fly the flag for the sprinters and wanna be Olympians. I’ve been competing at Sprint distance since 2003, I love it, I don’t do it fast but I do it and I enjoy it. So after 6 seasons of sprints I decided to take on my first Olympic distance triathlon, I signed up for Chester Devas two weeks before the event. I was just back from a week’s holiday in the Lake District, alot of it spent cycling, managed 150 miles in that week (OK so you Ironmen could do that in a day) and most of it seemed to be up hill so my fitness level felt good. My aim was to finish the race in under 3 hours 30 minutes and not to be last.
Anyway, race day dawned, up at 4.30 am – like Captain Mason thought about feigning illness but decided as I had dragged my lovely husband David from his bed at such an unsociable hour on Sunday morning I better get on with it. Got to Chester, first stop, toilet queue , talked to a very nice lady who thought she’d seen me before, she gave me words of encouragement when I said it was my first Olympic distance event. Got bike racked and headed to the river. The swim, the run and some of the bike course were familiar to me because Chester Diva Devas used to be run on the same day as the Chester Olympic distance and I’d been doing that ladies only triathlon since 2004.
Into the water, it was 8.15 am and it was freezing. Very civilized ladies only wave but surrounded by some 40 women who all looked either at least 20 years younger than me with proper wide swimmers shoulders or that type of lady who could run up Coniston Old Man and back before I’d put my trainers. Began to question what on earth I was doing in the River Dee at such a ridiculous time on a Sunday morning. Anyway, usual Mexican wave drill from the organiser and off we went. Well, 38 women went, me and another woman I could see out of the corner of my eye decided this was not good idea and gingerly began to breast stroke forward.
I love swimming, Sam our Masters swim coach at the Uni told me I had a neat stroke, I can swim 60 lengths front crawl in the Uni pool effortlessly but put me in a wetsuit and panic breast stroke ensues! I could see David on the bank, I decided I’d swim over and tell him I couldn’t do it but the thought of telling Captain Mason I’d pulled out after 100 metres made me get a grip. I needed a distraction from thinking about the cold, I decided to count strokes, 12345678, 12345678. It worked, I got to the big red buoy at half way and I knew I could do it. Got passed by the two fastest blokes from the next wave just after the turn round point, decided they would probably be rubbish on the bike and I’d catch them up later (ever the optimist)! Out of the water helped by a 2 very nice men and on to the bike. Saw David he yelled at me 51 minutes, I was devastated, how long! I wanted to be out of the water in under 40 minutes, things weren’t going to plan. (I later learned he got the timing wrong and he should have shouted 41 minutes!) Might be better to take Captain Mason’s advice and buy myself a watch.
Bike course was pretty good, I’d had a bit of a wobble the night before the event, consulted Captain Mason about the bike course because it looked complicated. He gave me the benefit of his infinite wisdom, “You aren’t going to be in front are you, so just follow the bloke in front of you” – thanks Captain. Saw Dave Worthington from COLT and he shouted words of encouragement. I kept following the bloke in front, there were lots of them, they kept passing me! Off bike, David waiting by transition shouting time again, this time he got it right, things looking good, I think I might manage to finish this is under 3 hours 30 minutes.
Next up the run, can’t say I like running that much, I’m not very good at it, if I manage to do a 5k in under half an hour I’m having a very good day. I run a couple of times a week with a mate at work for 5k so 10k is a pretty long way to me.
Anyway, set off at usual pace, plod speed, lots of support and encouragement out on run course from spectators, marshals and other competitors. Had a chat to No157 who was walking, he was muttering about never doing this ever again, should have learned his lesson last year he said and not signed up for it again, anyway encouraged him to get going and he did, saw him on the second lap and he was looking good. Lovely woman on the bridge across the river yelled to me “Looking good girl” – well, it’s along time since I could be thought of as a girl but she put a smile on my face and spring in my step.
Before I knew it lap 2 was done and I was running down the chute to the finish line, “We are the Champions” was playing and I’d done it - my first Olympic distance triathlon in 3 hours and 22 minutes.
I wasn’t last – I was 10th from last and I loved every minute of it apart from the first 10 minutes in the River Dee.
So those of you in COLT who are just starting out on the whole triathlon thing, take heart, if I can do it, 47 year old, mother of 3 with knees that sometimes hurt when I walk upstairs, you can do it and probably do it an awful lot faster. So have a go, believe in yourself and I’m sure you’ll be successful.
For those of you who have made it all the way to Ironman it would be very interesting to hear your stories of your first triathlon it would reassure us lesser mortals that Ironmen are human too…..