Eager to get the season under way I entered this very early event. It killed two birds with one stone, giving me a chance to race before the main season starts, and and excuse to visit my Mum! As it turned out it nearly put an end to my season.
The morning of the race dawned VERY cold. On arriving at the pool for 6:30am I discovered it was open air!!!!!! The water thankfully was heated. Despite the intense cold the sun was beginning break through as a mist rose into the early morning from the pool.
My wave was to be the first off, Vets and Women!. Six to a lane of the pool, none of this staged start nonsense. Ready, steady....go! We all set off at once. This caught me a bit by surprise but I soon got into the swing of things and climbed out of the water in 7:36. The run to transition was bitterly cold and partly on gravel. Trying to keep in mind that this was only a training race I took time to put on long legs and arms.
This was my first race on my new bike, I'd only finished building it a week earlier!
The course was two laps of a very flat circuit around Hampton and the edge of Kingston
upon Thames. (Past the gates of Hampton Court Palace). A great ride was spoiled by the
number of traffic lights on the course, most of which caught me during my second lap.
Even so I left T2 in a time of 36:05.
Running is not my strong suit. I was feeling cold after the bike section but was, as usual, 'fired up' by this stage and set off hard. 300m into the run my right calf suddenly tighten very alarmingly, foolishly ignoring it I carried on only to have it happen again a few seconds later. Determined to carry on I was suddenly aware of a 'release of pressure' in the calf. No pain though. Apart from that I finished the run in 21:37, to give a total time of 1:08:16.
Hanging around for the results the sun began to burn through and so did my right calf. By the time I had learned that I had finished 49th out of 165, 8th Vet, my leg was getting very sore.
By Wednesday I could hardly stand! Phoning home that evening I got Gilly to book me a visit to the local sports physio. I had a bad feeling about this. Friday morning confirmed my worst fears. I had torn both of the large diagonal muscles in my right calf. No hard training for the foreseeable future.
Two weeks of phsyio later I am 'signed off'. I get slowly back to training, very nervous of a repeat injury.