Race 3 - perfect race setting

Race 3 was another sprint, this time in the beautiful location of Port Eynon in the Gower. It was a beautiful day, even if it was a tad cold at 5am in the morning. We wanted to get there early to get a good parking spot so that my mother didn't have far to walk and had plenty of room to open the car doors. The sea was calm and there was no wind - ideal!

After the mumbles fiasco with the swim i played it uber safe by going far right, at the back, on the swim, to the point marshalls had to usher  some of us left because of how far wide we were before starting. needless to say i lost a lot of time but the swim itself went fine and i felt comfortable. i just need to bit by bit get my confidence in not getting flustered when racing with regular contact. I'm used to it in training, but when the heart is going and you're breathing faster anyway, it just seems that bit more anxiety provoking when you regularly get contact. Anyways, back to the race...

So, the stunning location sees you soon hitting a sharp little hill as you head out from the beach on the bike. This was lined with supporters, and again Rob Govier with his cowbells. I'm happy on hills and stick to a low gear with high cadence and it works for me as i fly past people who are struggling. I always know i can make up plenty of places from the swim with my bike and run but i know it will mean that the better triathletes will have too much of a head start - gotta work on that for next season!

The course is a scenic route with an awesome view after climbing the long drag up over cern bryn, you can see all of swansea before you and also the cliffs of gower to your right - amazing! the descent from this is great and i did my characteristic "weeeeeeeee" as speeding down there full pelt :) There are some technical corners on the course, and before this route i didn't really know what people meant by "technical corners', but it basically means having to get in the ride race line and be wary of entering and exiting the corner because of sharpness, dips in the road, etc. Made it fun though :) there's also a section that is so narrow you can't overtake during it. It was at this time that an older bloke was having issues with being overtaken by a girl as he kept speeding up as soon as i overtook him, but then within minutes i would catch him again just by keeping my pace steady. I have since learnt that some races would see this as "pacing", even though i was keeping the same speed, but apparently regular changing of positions between 2 riders is seen as working together and is penalised. However, this guy obviously didn't like being chicked so i made sure i caught him just before the "no overtaking zone" and then put foot to the peddle and left him for dust :)

The run course is a challenging 5k as you run out over the sand, come inland over some sand dunes, go over some grass to a turn point, and then come back over some large chippings before getting to the start to have to repeat the process. When i'm running in a race it's rare that i get overtaken by others unless there has been a wave start so i was surprised on the first lap when another girl overtook me. I wasn't happy about that, lol, but i knew with another lap to go if i kept tucked behind her that i would get my chance, even if it was a sprint finish. Needless to say, out on lap two, as soon as we hit the sand dunes she struggled a little and off i went, raising the pace and finishing off nicely. saw my dad out on the run course so gave him a nice smile as i went past (in between gasping for air!!). Result was i placed 5th female, so happy with that. The girl who had overtaken me before i retook her came up straight after to chat which was nice and she said she had thought it was only 1 lap which is why she had overtaken me, but then run out of steam. She was also surprised to hear this was only my 3rd race so that was nice to hear :)

the day had brightened up lovely, so it was nice after the race to sit in the sun, watching the kids playing down on the sand, and letting the endorphins flow :) i also got to put a face to a virtual friend i had made through twitter, Amy, had joined the club not long after me and we had chatted often but not met, until this race, so that was cool to finally meet in person. Joe had also come to see me race again, so it was nice to be greeted post race by both my parents and my mate Joe :)

Results so far, 8th, 4th, and 5th. Not bad for my first 3 sprint races. Now a break of about 6 weeks over august before 3 races in september, including my A race, Bala, which would be my first olympic race, followed by the club race and then back to port eynon for an end of season olympic distance...