On the home straight
I rounded off my month of intensive races and events with the London Triathlon. I opted for the sprint distance, anticipating I wouldn’t be sufficiently recovered from the Swiss Alpine marathon to do the Olympic after only a week.
Having recently written a book about triathlon for beginners (see Books page), you’d think I would be well versed in the demands of the sport but I had a transition disaster in T2, when I couldn’t find my running shoes! It wasn’t entirely my fault - the row I was in was also the row for relay participants, so instead of a neat row of shoes I was faced with crowds of runners blocking the row ends, waiting for their cyclists to return. It took 4 agonising minutes to find my running shoes and I seriously considered quitting the race altogether, having lost so much time. But the 5km run sorted me out, and by the time I’d finished the run I was smiling again.The moral of the story? Always get to the event early enough to set your transition area up in an orderly, logical manner, clock a few landmarks as to where your bike/shoes are, and note down the row number and your place on it. (For example, count how many strides it takes to get to the right place on your row from the ’swim in’ and ‘bike in’ entrances). And, ahem, never have a tantrum when things don’t go to plan…