6 weeks ago after a 'few' beers i was talked into entering my 2nd triathlon ever. I joined forces with the ever increasing A&T Tri Team to take on the best in the North West in race 2 of the 3 race 'Fylde Trilogy TriathlonSeries", the first being Ribby Hall in which Alex Foster and Clare Unsworth set the standard for everyone else to follow.
Colin Rigby, Helen Minshall, Jon Hyde and Dale Kenyon who i hope will soon join the club joined myself on the entry list.
We met at Atherton Train Station at 7.15am before making the trip along the motorway to St.Annes where we parked up and walked the 15 minute walk to registration to get our numbers before returning back to the transition point to get our much loved bikes racked.
It was clear by this point that the 50mph gusty winds forecast where going to make both the bike and the run very tough, but being A&T it didn't put us off and we all made our way to the swimming pool for the start.
Clare and Colin went off first followed by Dale and John, then Helen, then myself and lastly Alex.
The first transition from swim to bike went very smoothly, shoes clipped into pedals and i was off with Moran shouting "come on Mainwering show them what you are made of". I turned onto the coast road to begin the 12 mile (2 x 6 mile loop) in the blustery conditions. On my 2nd loop i could see Clare fighting the wind and i shouted at her to keep going with the A&T spirit. I then saw Alex on my return to transition and we both shouted 'keep digging in'.
Bike done..shoes off...trainers on and i pushed on for the final leg on the event which was the 5k run. During the run i passed Helen and told her to "dig in" on getting on the course road and Shaun was there again giving his words of encouragement. I tried to relax for the first half of the run knowing i was going to be hitting the wind on the second half, by this point i saw Alex on his final loop of the bike and we shouted "all the way all the way". I pushed on in the strong winds and finally crossed the line to be greeted by Clare, Jon, Dale and Colin who had already finished and we all then waited for Alex who finished very strongly.
I was really happy with my performance but had to wait 48 hours for the official results which showed i finished 10th overall and 4th in my age group just behind Alex who finish 9th, another strong performance mate!
Colin Rigby finished 25th overall which give us the first team place..well done Colin.
Followed by Jon Hyde 45th, Clare 210th and Helen 213th.
I'd like to give a special mention to Jon Hyde, Dale Kenyon and Helen Minshall who completed their first triathlons in such bad conditions and look forward to doing it all again at Fleetwood on September 25th.
I'd also like to give a big thanks personally to Sandra, Shaun, Brenda, Anita, Neil, Mr and Mrs Foster and family for turning up and supporting which was very much appreciated by all the athletes.
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