Ribby Hall Triathlon 3rd April 2011

Ribby Hall Triathlon 3^rd April 2011

(400m swim, 10.5mile bike, 5K run)

After 4 months of training, I set off on Sunday to attempt my first triathlon along with Alex Foster who was using Ribby as a very mini warm up to his upcoming Ironman! (Thanks to Colin Rigby who also came along to cheer us both on and watch which bits we messed up before his own tri next month!)

Some lessons to be learnt I think. I set off way too fast in the swim and fell apart after 5 lengths, had to literally stop swimming and get my breath back but managed to pull it back together again and get a PB time for my swim! Loved the bike ride but then got a puncture in my front tyre at 9miles but decided to just carry on with flat tyre for next 1.5miles sliding all over the place! The run was 2 loops, half way round the first loop I was thinking ‘I am NEVER, EVER doing this again’ but within 3minutes of crossing the finish line I was thinking ‘right,  in the next one, I’ll pace myself better and maybe change the pedals on my bike and put talc in my shoes etc etc’.

Meanwhile, Alex put in a fantastic performance looking really strong in every event! We found out later that the event had attracted quite a few British and Welsh pro competitors all of whom Alex was racing against. A 6^th place finish was just awesome going!

The results of the race can be found here: http://ukresults.net/2011/ribbytri.html

Alex Foster finish time 52.54     6^th place out of 196, 3^rd in category

Clare Unsworth finish time 1.23    164 place out of 196, 31st in women’s race

I really enjoyed the whole experience and was so good to see my name on the results table around the middle instead of the bottom! I think I may have found my new direction! J

On a personal note, I’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone in the club who has given me so much advice and support over last few months!