Yesterday I raced in the Gold Coast Triathlon, Luke Harrop
Memorial race. I hadn’t done too much training for this event so this meant I
didn't have any pressure on myself to perform, although I knew that I would
still race as hard as I could. We had to check our bikes in the night before
and this is quite different to our races back home. I came into transition the
next morning and set everything up like I normally would.
I wandered down to the swim start early to make sure that I
had enough time to warm up. It took me some time to get into the water because the
water was a little bit chillier than I expected. I was able to get a small warm
up in before I was called to the start line to get underway with everyone that
was racing in an under 20’s age group. I knew that coming into this race with
no swim training I was going to struggle through the swim but I didn't want to
admit that to anyone. I worked as hard as I could throughout the first leg of
the triathlon but I did struggle and I felt like that was the longest swim I’ve
ever done.
I emerged from the water and was eager to get onto the bike.
This was the easiest of the three legs and I felt like I hardly had to try to
keep a good average speed. I remember that some guy had past me and I didn't
particularly like that, so I clicked down a couple of gears and picked up my
speed and rode straight back past him. I never saw him again. I felt like I was
in my zone on the bike and I had the most fun here and for the first time I
somewhat enjoyed myself. My mum always says to have fun before I start my races
and I always tell her that I can’t have fun because I have to be serious, but
yesterday when I was out on the bike, I had fun.
As I came off the bike and came across the dismount line my
legs didn't want to run. I remember thinking to myself sarcastically, wow what
a great way to end a good bike ride, with a run. I got my shoes on and saved
the activity on my Garmin so I could later upload it to Strava later and then I
started to run. I felt heavy, but I soon found my running legs, I got into a
good rhythm and had a good pace, but as I came into the second lap I started to
feel a blister on my toe and I could feel some chafing starting to set in. I
stopped during the run to try and adjust my shoe to make it more comfortable
but that didn't help. I knew that there wasn't far to go so I thought I would
just push through. I started running fast, really fast, too fast, but now I
couldn't feel the pain and I got into a zone. As I ran into the finish chute I
tried to enjoy myself, I knew that I was nowhere near a good time so the next
best thing was to have a good time and enjoy the moment.
On an overall it was a really great event and one that I
recommend to anyone. It was really well organised and the course was very easy
to understand. Although it was nowhere near my best performance I came in 4th
in my age group, which was 16-19 years. I personally think that anyone out
there looking for a good race, than the Gold Coast Triathlon Luke Harrop
Memorial is a very good race to go and compete in. I am already planning on
returning next year and I am hoping to bring some more people down with me.
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