I do hope Clare doesn’t mind me saying but this was a late entry to the weekends race updates as Clare was unsure about whether to send one or not given she “only swims Allander” and wasn’t up the pointy end of the field. Personally I’m delighted to get Clare’s report, this is exactly what we want to read.  Everyone’s race experience is important and valued, no-one is more worthy than anyone else in this club and we are all here to help each other out. Well done Clare, keep up the great work and we hope to see you racing again alongside many other club members.  Thank you

Bute Sprint Triathlon May 2017

Bute was my first proper triathlon, apart from a disastrous attempt about 7 years ago when a friend signed me up for a sprint and I didn’t really have a clue what I was doing (I couldn’t swim front crawl, didn’t know what a transition was, got a puncture out on the bike, didn’t know how to fix it, ended up taking a friendly farmer up on his offer of a lift in his mini tractor with my bike flung into the back with his sheep, got captured on film by the official photographer as I chugged happily along….resulting in a DQ and inability to call myself a triathlete). However, being forced away from running and into other activities due to injury I entered Bute sprint purely because I’d never really seen much of the Island before and fancied some nice scenery to look at and Bute certainly delivered on this promise.

The beautiful and windy ferry crossing helped wake me up and got me chatting to many other competitors from lots of different clubs, all of whom were super friendly, gave me lots of advice and assured me the event was a friendly race which helped calm my nerves a bit. Lynne was also a super star and walked me through the transitions which was very helpful.

I had planned on taking the swim nice and slowly to avoid the panic breathing I tend to end up falling victim to when I first enter the pool but throughout the swim I had someone chasing my ankles, although they declined the offer to overtake when I stopped at the end of a length to let them past. Whilst this made me feel less than happy I ended up getting a 750m PB by about ~ 50 seconds so all was good.

I managed to refrain from eating my Snickers in T1 in keeping with the sport to ensure a speedy transition onto the bike. Despite this willpower on my behalf it appears my transition time was still one of the slowest!

All I can say about being out on the bike was how much I loved it. The scenery was stunning, views of Arran on the way out breath-taking and the baby Highland cows and lambs were gorgeous. In hindsight (my bike time was abysmal) I probably should have focussed more on putting some watts in and not admiring the scenery. I should probably have also used my road bike that just sits at home gathering dust rather than my old hybrid that rattles, clunks, has no drop bars and doesn’t like the gears to be moved too much – but I’m a bit attached to it so need to slowly retire it and didn’t want to leave it behind at home to be replaced by its shinier friend for this particular outing.

Coming off the bike and through T2 I was quite looking forward to the run, until I tried to actually start running. My legs went in every direction other than forwards, and running over loose gravel at the start of the lap didn’t help. The legs started to feel a bit more normal for the last 2 laps and I crossed the finish line happy to have completed the race without any major disasters and even happier to be greeted by a fantastic selection of food and hot tea. I was the slowest Fusion racer in the sprint by quite some time but I had a fantastic day, loved the race and was surrounded by a great bunch of supportive Fusion members and other competitors. As far as events go this certainly ranks high in my favourites and will be one for the diary next year.