At the end of last year I was looking for a new challenge and that challenge is now only a few days away - I am about to compete in my first triathlon. Several friends have gone on to compete in triathlons after retiring from modern pentathlon and they've done their best to convince me to follow. I'm also friends with some professional triathletes who haven't been quite so encouraging. All I know is: to do the sport seriously you have to have a certain mindset and I'm not so sure I have it any more. Thankfully I will be standing on that start line with one goal - to have fun.
I've had a few of tasters in the last couple of years. My first was a four hundred metre lake swim as part of a sprint relay. I followed that up a year later with a twenty five mile cycle as part of an Olympic distance relay. I've never actually ran a leg of a relay but I think that's the one part that should be the most straightforward for a novice.
Sunday I'll not only be putting all three sports together but I'll be hoping to complete a 70.3 mile course. For some unknown reason I've chosen to enter a half iron man distance triathlon for my inaugural event. I've confidently completed all of those distances in the past but usually with a day or so rest between the swim, bike and run; not a few seconds. Due to my travel schedule over the last three months training for the fifty six mile cycle has gone out of the window however I suspect the real difficulty will come when I get off the bike and try to run the half marathon course. I was after a challenge and now, due to my lack of preparation, I am guaranteed to have one.
