Short Fast Durty – Jennifer Perry

The unexpected postponement of another event and the fact that we were on holiday for the week only a few miles away meant I really had to come up with an excuse not to enter this event! And I am so glad I did.

One of the wonderful things I love about triathlon events are the early mornings…. up and out and about to secret sunrises that are gone by the time the rest of the world wakes up… and so it was that I had a beautiful cycle on my borrowed MTB to Loch Morlich to set up for a split transition. Even though I have done a couple of events now involving a split, it still seems a logistical challenge, especially as I had no handy supporters nearby to bag carry spare clothes to wear whilst awaiting the swim start. I realised why other competitor had their wetsuits on ridiculously early – to avoid the midges which were terrible!

As we gathered, I chatted with others, which was a key prep for me, very helpful to find out about the slippery logs crossing the stream at the top of the very steep hill!

Eventually we were off, it was a relief to be in the water which actually felt positively welcoming and warm after waiting so long and getting thoroughly and teeth chatteringly chilly waiting around. The swim seemed over in a flash (no way I did 750m in that time!!! – definitely measured short), and onto the bike, an initial woosh along quite a narrow trail, which required picking the moment to overtake. Crunch crunch gears, realise that short steep hill mentioned before really was waaayyy too steep to cycle, nearly fall on top of a photographer, off the bike across the stream (how on earth could anyone cycle that????) and then another fantastic woosh downhill, to do it all around again for a second lap.

I was glad I had worn proper trail shoes for the run, as this involved 2 small sections of boggy forest and tussock running, which I love. Again, the run seemed to be a bit on the short side. I was properly overtaken by 2 other women and let them go on, but then realised that in fact one of them was on the long course and so I worked hard to catch back up again, but just didn’t quite have it and was 2nd by 2 secs. Ahh maybe if there had been a bit more of the rough running!!

So – all around great fun to do something a bit different in a beautiful location. Maybe next year I would do the Longer more Techy course but I would definitely want to recce it beforehand.
Jennifer Perry

posted by Jennifer Perry on
23/08/2017