Singapore Aquathlon

I swallowed a lot of sea water during this race. I thought I might see it again at some point in the run, but it never came back up.

It was hard to get into a rhythm and relax during the swim – there were a lot of men from the tail end of the earlier waves to fight through, the sea was a little bit choppy and there was quite a strong current. Someone grabbed hold of my timing chip ankle strap very soon after the start, a little while later I kicked something hard with my heel (so hard it hurt my foot) it felt like I’d caught someone on the jawbone – I hope they were OK. During the second lap I was swimming close to two other women and smacked one of them across the head by accident. I tried to gently push her along to pass me but just as I was doing so we ended up behind a wall of slow swimming men… didn’t quite work out. I saw her at the end and we had a little chat and a good laugh about that.

Transition was good. I was playing it over in my mind for the last part of the swim, got out, did exactly what I had planned and was the fastest woman in and out of transition by quite a way. Thanks Coach Ben.

A few days ago I strained a muscle in my groin playing netball. Every day I had been icing it and hadn’t run at all – even my swimming had all been done with a pull buoy between my legs. My friend Flora had given me some very strong smelling Chinese herbal patches to try to speed up the healing too. The combination of all of this meant I had been able to play the netball match on the Friday evening and my leg was still feeling OK on the day of the aquathlon.

The run was just about OK. I felt like I was tired already. At about 1km I was passed by a woman but for the rest of the run I was doing nearly all of the overtaking. I drank at every aid station and just kept running. 

There were a few of my friends out on the course – I shouted to Glen, Martin, Allan, Aylwin, Celine, Mitch, Derek but I couldn’t see Ben. He was participating in one of the few races that he’s done since retiring from professional triathlon and on my first lap I was expecting him to pass me on his second at any moment. I think though, he was already well into his second lap when I started running. I only saw him at the end. When we had about 1km to go I saw Derek just in front of me – I shouted some encouragement and told him “I’m coming” when I was about 50 metres behind him. I think he did run a bit faster for that bit…

Yosh was near the finish line when I came in supporting his kids sho were racing. He told me that Ben had won! He hadn’t… Yosh must have just arrived at the finish line in time to see a gap and then Ben’s finish. He was 9^th overall though – not bad for a retiree who barely trains!

Whilst waiting for the prize presentation there were plenty of people to chat to. My Arrivo Primo Singapura team mates, Glen and Martin had the top two spots in their age group, but everyone else from the club was out cycling.

For my second place I won a voucher for my favourite shop!