If bikes had elbows… By Georgie Baglin

Race Report – Box End (Kempston) Sprint Tri 7th July 2013

If bikes had elbows…

Box End is where I’ve trained for the last couple of seasons but I’ve never actually had an event there. So on Sunday morning I was nervous for two reasons; firstly, my swims have been slow of late – and massively slow compared to last year, which really shows up at Box End because I know it so well… Secondly, the heat! It was going to be my first ‘properly hot one’, and there’s that nasty little 5k stuck right on the end after a late start which I was dreading.

This was to be my fourth sprint and I’ve seen improvement each time, but this was only my second wetsuit transition… Transition area was rammed and if bikes had elbows there’d have been a punch up!

As it turned out I calmed myself right down waiting for kick-off and had a fab swim once I’d clawed my way through the kicky people and the ones that ‘just kept stopping’! Are they the ones that stop in the middle of a pavement too?! I was really pleased with my stroke once I’d got going and I had a really tight and smooth path around the buoys. Nerves settled!

Off on the bike and I’d tested the route beforehand so pretty much knew what was coming up, even if Lloydy had navigated it slightly incorrectly. It was fairly flat, fast and fun. Was feeling strong!

I came out of second transition quite strongly, and for the first time ever I felt like I was running and my legs were picking up instead of shuffling. There was a girl ahead of me walking and I shouted at her to get on with it (in a nice way!)… She didn’t know the run course and said to me “please don’t let me start walking”, so I coached her through it and that helped me no end. MAN it was hot! With 1km to go I started to flag and she returned the favour with a verbal kick up the arse which did the trick and I finished strongly.

Race summary:
hot – fun – happy - new 18mph bike average - new run legs - 5mins off sprint time = happy Georgie