What did you see on your run today? #473 profiles a shiny new Olympic distance triathlete!!

Before we plunge into this fun guest post by my lovely UK based friend Kathakoli, let me clarify that Katha sent me this post a couple of days before the sad death of HM the Queen.

I just dilly-dallied about posting it, for no particular reason.

Mea culpa.

Just didn’t want you thinking that people are off doing triathlons during these sad times…

Apologia over.

Now onto a fun account of a runner, running around doing her stuff, and watching her hubby complete a triathlon 🙂

“What I saw during my run today…

...the husband doing his first Olympic distance triathlon in Shropshire.

Gotta give it to my husband, Dave.

He decided this year to get out of his comfort zone and challenged himself with doing 2 open water triathlons—one Olympic distance: 1500 m swim, 39 k bike and 10 k run. This when he thrashed about in the pool until recently. He is self motivated and so disciplined about his training.

So this weekend we drive down to Ellesmere, Shropshire where the event was.

I decided to run around the Mere and on parts of those parts of the course where I could give him a wave while he did the race.

The event itself was extremely well organised. They offered various distance triathlons, including half iron man and a relay race. The atmosphere was lively and loads of people were out at the event location to cheer participants.

First up the swim… The weather was—umm British! Rainy and windy which meant that the otherwise placid mere was quite choppy. Because we are new to open water swimming, I knew that would throw Dave and knock his confidence. I saw him struggle at the start of the swim and was a bit worried for him. But he persevered and got his breathing and stroke back. When I ran back up to the second buoy (by which time he would be on lap 2), he looked calm. (I think it was him anyway, you can’t really tell in the water!)

Next, the bike. Hilly course but on wide and not so busy roads.

During this time I did a few more kilometres and went back to to hotel to shower & check out. In my head I had told myself to get back to greet him in about hour and a half. Yep! That was him!

Finally, the run. It was on a trail, around the mere. While Dave was pretty much on his own during swim & bike, the closed run route (2 loops) saw a blending of participants from 3 races, which helped motivation wise. (By this time it got pretty warm & humid.)

I paced up & down the viewing area waiting for him, running all the way back as fast as I could to keep up with him to get the finish line photo! Just about managed!

It’s been amazing to watch Dave’s progress—especially in the water. (He was always a strong runner and fairly decent cycling, those too have improved with training.)

I have been with him to every lake, lido, sea… this summer and watched him get better and better. Super proud of him!

But competitive as we are, it also made me a bit jealous and announce at the fag end of the season—I’ll crack open water swim this year!

I have sort of managed.

So now we are both looking at exciting events for next year. Dave wants to do another Olympic Distance Triathlon. I will enter an open water Sprint. And we both want to do at least one swimming challenge in the Lakes.

Dave’s words:

“So now an Olympic distance triathlete. Certainly wasn’t a pretty swim, but even a few months back doing 1500m open water felt a goal too far. Taking my time to get round the swim meant any idea of speedy transitions was superfluous; deciding even to take a pee break before the run! Lots of positives to take away, and things to work on for next year.”

Congrats, Dave!

And, Katha, my dear friend, this cartoon below is especially for competitive lil’ you 😛