The Ripon Triathlon: my local and the best yet.

Last weekend was my ‘training race’ a local event for me as it was just down the road from wense I came!  We were blessed with some lovely sunshine and a perfect day for racing. It was an afternoon start at a very civilised 2 pm! I also had a fantastic ‘Cervelo S2′ bike to play with. Thanks to the boys from ‘Bike and Run’- my lovely sponsors.

I was looking forward to the race as I had no expectations on it and my mum and dog Toby were there to support me. I met up with  some Xterra chums and a few  others who came for the triathlon world and we were soon in Transition and putting our westuit on for the 1500m swim.

The swim was a little rough in places including some various pond weed  fighting and some dunking and grabbing with the 300 fellow swimmers I was in no mood to sit back and be bullied around so for the first time I fought back and pushed  them back!

I came out of the warm and balmy 19 degree water in a good time  of 24mins and onto my gorgeous Steed , I love the Yorkshire roads so was quite at home on the undulating route to Dishforth. After a few miles I looked down to see how I was doing on my bike comp and it read “0″ so I just had to stop and adjust it. Hey it was only a training race anyway!

Some friendly man asked if I was ok and  as he whizzed past. I made some minor adjustments and carried on. I caught him up and told him it was my bike comp that wasnt working and he just laughted and said ‘u should have left it’ I explained  I just spend £24 on the sensor before the race so I was damned if I was going to leave it! So after a long 44km ride and lots of drafting going on (Not helped by the amount of bikes on the road.)

The run was again really nice and scenic, I soon found my running legs after a disasterous run at the Windsor race where I got cramp in my stomach. I soon picked people off and caught the girl who passed me earlier on the bike.

As the run went on I picked up the pace at 9 km when I heard someone breathing down my neck, it was the girl I passed earlier. As I went round the bend to the finish shoot she tried to pass me , I responded by switching  on the turbo  and made a dash for the finish. I got a few seconds on her and took third place. 

AND I actually made a profit on the race! Prize money….great.

I loved the race and will def be there next the year!!