My first medal win at triathlon - Left Bank, Perth

Today was my second ever entry into a triathlon - the "Fun" category. 4.50am the alarm clock went off for a 5.15am depature. For the first time ever, both kids were having a sleepover with friends so that David and I were both free to compete.

My event (FUN) was 300m swim (in the Swan River), 14.5km bike, 2km run.
David's event (Sprint) was 400m swim, 20km bike, 4km run.

So first race with my new bike - the preparation last night was mostly on bike check and unfortunatley where I made the biggest stuff up. After having my lesson from Dave about wheel removal, and how to use my new tyre levers, bike tubes etc in case I had a flat etc, I put the back wheel on incorrectly (too loose on the skewer thread tightner) so when I hit the first hill on the bike today I found I couldn't engage the low gears for hill climbing (lots of expletives and sadness was expressed). However, I had no choice but to engage 3 gears higher than I wouldn't like so the hill climb was slow and laborous (did I say painful?). Anyway, I got a medal at the presentation in front of hundreds of people - for 3rd place. The split times will not be made available until tomorrow so I will update this blog then. I would expect my swim and ride to be pretty good, but my run to be rubbish. It is soooo hard to run after the first 2 gruelling efforts. Its so unfair - I love running but I just can't get it together to lift into any kind of competitive effort by the time the run leg comes in. Anyway, after getting a 3rd place today and a 4th in my first triathlon for a similar distance I've realised that I'm ready to step it up a bit and go for the longer distance events so next one will be the Australia Day Triathlon at Point Walter, followed by the Hillary's Tria in February in which I'll go for the Super Sprint distances of 750m swim, 20km bike, 5km ride.

Oh, and David? Well he does the bigger distances of course and the competition is harder and although he is much better than me he doesn't get placings. As he didn't get a medal at presentations today at the race we know he didn't finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd but tomorrow we'll get his placing details and will update this blog too.
PS: RESULTS IN - DAVID WAS PLACED 7TH, CONGRATULATIONS!
He really is amazing - to consider he only started 2 years ago and has lost 25kg to where he is today - a great achievement.

Did I say that it was all over for me just before 8am? I felt I deserved my icecream cone at 11am at the servo on the way home and then the bottle of champage shared with David tonight over dinner. Now I just have to wait until the next race to deserve the next splurge!!

Updates to come tomorrow.
Thanks, Michelle
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Split Time Results: added 4th Dec.

Michelle Martin (3RD PLACE - FUN FEMALE 40-49)
Swim (300m) 7:27 7:27
Cycle (14.5km) 32:41 40:08
Run (2km) 14:59 TOTAL TIME: 55:07

David Martin (7TH PLACE - SPRINT MALE 40-49)
Swim 8:19 8:19
Cycle 32:59 41:18
Run 22:42 TOTAL TIME: 1:04:00