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Yesterday I competed in the 2XU Women's Triathlon, which has grown to be the largest and most successful women’s only triathlon in Australia. This year the event was at Hillary's and was the exact same course as the
Hillarys Triathlon I did last fortnight so I had been really looking forward to doing it again. [Image not found]
[Image not found]Most triathlons have a number of course options for competitors so that based on your fitness/experience you can enter an event most suited to your ability. At this event there were 3 course distances offered - the Mini Tri (150m swim, 5km bike, 1.5km run), or the Short Course (300m swim, 7km bike, 3km run), or the Long Course (750m swim, 21km bike, 5km run) - which are normally called "Sprint" or "Pursuit" distance tri's.
The Mini had 181 finishers, the Short course had 508 finishers and the Long course (which I did) had 276 competitors and in my age category there were 35 of us.[Image not found]
[Image not found]We're in the middle of heat wave here in
Perth and earlier in the week a 42 degree day had been forecast but thankfully it was revised to 33, but unfortunately it was very windy. The ENE winds were strong and gusty and although that made for an offshore breeze we had some rough chop in the swim and a cross-wind on the bike but the breeze was most welcome on the run to keep us a bit cooler as the temps started to climb into the 30s.
[Image not found]My friend Kate, who I met through the North Coast tri club, and another club friend Michelle, and I all finished within seconds of one another in the swim, and only a few minutes separate all 3 of us on the bike but both are better runners than I, so its fun to meet up at the end of the race and compare experiences.
[Image not found]My results were:
Swim: 17:52 min
Cycle: 50:52 min
Run: 30:12 min
Overall time: 1:38:58
(the fastest time in my category was 1:15:12, the slowest time was 2:38, and the average time was 1:40:17, wo I was just above average). I'm not unhappy with that for my 3rd sprint distance tri.
Category Place: 23/35
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Best of all, I feel I improved my race stategy - although only showing 1 minute improvement overall I was pleased to achieve a 6 minute improvement on the run (because I didn't stop to walk any of it and kept going!!). The swim and ride times were a bit slower, but this was as much to do with conditions, as with pacing myself better. [Image not found]Overall, I think it was a better result and I feel I've learned some more through the experience. There is another Hillary's race in about a month so I'll enter that one too and hopefully I can improve a little more.
