PB in the rain!

Today was Race 6 of the Raby Bay race which was a 400mtr swim, 15km cycle and a 4km run.

I got there nice and early; I think I was first! I went for a ride on my bike just to make sure that all is OK. Registered, helped out some team members from QR that were giving it a go, got my back into transition and was doing OK.

As we were waiting to start it started raining - not just spitting, but raining. I started freaking out about riding in the rain in a race. It's a 3 loop course and it is quite bendy so there were a number of turns and U turns to be navigated. I was starting to get quite worried. Craig was there after riding out from home and suggested I hammer the swim, just get round on the bike not worrying about my time, etc and then hammer the run. I thought that was a great idea! It kind of took the pressure off me too.

So I headed off to the start after reluctantly removing my warm gear as it was absolutely freezing. I thought that I would get into the water early as it would probably be warmer in there, but it actually wasn't. They measured it at 21 degrees, but it felt much cooler.

The gun went off and we were away. I managed to get mainly clear water the whole way around which was good. I concentrated on having a nice clean long stroke and ended up clocking a time of 6:34 which I was thrilled with even if the course was short!

The cycle we just won't talk about other than to say that it was just awful, it was wet on the roads, it was raining, the ambulance was out attending to 2 people that had fallen off and there was a girl that came off just behind me around a turnaround. So, I didn't worry about trying to chase anyone down, I didn't get on my tri-bars or drops, I just chortled around. I really do need to get more confident riding in the rain... Time (not that we are counting it was 38:02 - not pretty).

The run I struggled with motivation. Normally Jacque is chasing me down however she is in marathon training at the moment and didn't compete. I had to visualise my time on the spreadsheet results afterwards and imagined comparing it to other peoples times that I train with to get some form of motivation going. It must have worked as I broke the 5min/kms again just scraping in with a 19:53. So, I was thrilled with that. (More thrilled when I got off the bike though!!!).

So, I can say that it is a PB for racing in the rain and the fact that I survived it without falling off is a positive that I can draw on next time I'm out on a ride and get caught out in the rain.

Overall time: 01:04:31.