I very nearly ended up there an hour too early - I'm glad I found out the night before as that meant an extra hour in bed. It was very windy, and there was some question over whether or not it would go ahead - another big race had been cancelled. I have to say it didn't look very enticing!
Anyway, had got there, and tempting as it was to stay in the car drinking tea, I had entered, so I had to get on with the job. Into wetsuit and quick chat with my pilates teacher who was doing the 3k event. Safety briefing, and then into the water.
Both the 3k and the 1500m were starting at the same time, and I didn't manage to get a great position on the start. There was lots of jostling and not very much space. It was not surprising then that within about 60 seconds on the start my leg had been grabbed and my timing chip fell off. It was a good job that Janette and I had had that quick chat beforehand as she had told me about how she's lost timing chips in the past, and that meant that I could formulate a plan of what to do.
In the meantime, it was swim two laps round. Fortunately things spaced out a bit after about 1/4 way around. Lots of the people in the 3k were very fast, and got away, and I was just behind a second pack a bit further behind. Which I stayed behind, couldn't quite manage to catch them. On the first lap I managed to swim pretty straight (my Speedo Fastskin elite goggles are AMAZING for racing in and sighting, bizarrely much better than the Super elites I was using last year), but I lost that a bit on the second lap. Settled into a rhythm but the second lap was definitely a bit slower. I lost a bit of time looking for the swim exit which was a bit further than I thought, and had a girl on my right shoulder - I didn't know if she was doing the 1.5k or 3k so had to push on. Scrambled out of the very slippy swim exit and towards the finishing mat, yelling "I've lost my chip", and being followed very quickly by the other girl, so just clinching a second place. Awesome!
My time was 23:26 which really isn't that great. It's possible that some of the good times I was achieving last year were because the course was a bit short, but more likely that my swim times have just dropped off because of training on the bike and the run. Which is a bit disappointing. But at least on this occasion it was good enough for a second place. And, waiting around for the presentation was worth it, as I got a t-shirt, 3 energy gels and some 2XU goggles. Always good to have a spare pair of new goggles, might try them at the lake tomorrow night.
Can't decide whether to enter more of these events. My pilates teacher is doing the 1500m next time and she always beats me and I'm not sure I'd be competitive over the 3k given the field yesterday. I'm turning into a pot-hunter!
Nice job, Verity! Second place is a great accomplishment! I'm always afraid my timing chip will get kicked off during the swim too. Did you have to do anything else besides yelling when you crossed the finish line to let them know?
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