SA Triathlon Champs - East London

So it's been a while since my last post. A few things happened but the most exciting was being selected for the WP Triathlon Team.

SA Champs was held in East London, my favourite place to race, so I was happy and very excited.
We arrived in a very windy East London Friday afternoon. Saturday was the usual bike route check and race briefing. The bike course was quite hilly, but I liked it.

Sunday morning race day and I was very happy that the wind eased off a lot. Our race only started at 9:30, bit later than usual. Bike checked in, body markings done and ready to race! I headed down to the beach, jumped into my Xterra Wetsuit and waited for the gun to go! I was surprisingly very calm at the start of the race.

The swim was 2 x 750m loops. After the first loop I was in the first bunch and it motivated me to push even harder. Exiting the water and running up to T1 I knew I swam really hard as I was totally out of breath but it was my best swim ever.

The bike course, 3 x 13.3 km loops on a hilly course and the wind picked up. My first thoughts was 'this is going to be hard and it's going to hurt' but I told myself  "I can go harder and pain is temporary"!
I felt really good on the first lap and my plan was to push harder on each lap. It was all or nothing! When I felt I'm dropping the pace, I told myself, 'my dad is watching' and I picked it up again.

Heading into T2 I was really  pleased and felt strong. The run loop was 4 x 2.5 km loops. I started at quite a fast pace but eased off slightly after the first km, running really comfortably but leaving some energy for the last two laps of the run.

I finished the race feeling really good and happy. I finished 6th overall and 2nd in my age group.

Next stop: ITU World Champs London in September! Super Excited!!

Thanks to Xterra Wetsuits, GU, Virgin Active, LineBreak Compression and my family and friend for all the support.