Climbing into Adventure

Off road Adventure Racing at its best

My first off-road triathlon began bright and early at 5.30am on a Sunday (who gets up that early on a Sunday!). Big breakfast and big nerves started the day followed by the drive out to Lysterfield.

Arriving early (as I always do), registration on the beach was completed and I wheeled my bike to set up in transition. As a newbie to this type of racing, it’s easy to get psyched out by the competition, especially when you are there on your own! Wetsuits, special triathlon gear, transition boxes, etc made me feel even more out of my league…..but hey, I am in it for the fun and adventure, certainly not to win it. I came into this race, with 2 goals. #1 – to not be the last girl to finish, #2 – to do the race under 2.5 hours.

9am drew closer as did the start of the race. Lining up with the other 110 competitors, I looked around to find I was one of only 10 people that weren’t in a specialised triathlon wetsuit! Yep, this psyched me out even further, but tried to remember why I was here! The gun went off and into Lysterfield Lake we went for the 500m swim. Now, I have no problem swimming 500m in a nice, clean lap swimming pool, but Lysterfield Lake is a little different, hence the panic attack that I endured. 20m into the water and it began…..shortness of breath, frozen limbs, panic! Looking around me there were a hundred pink swimming caps bobbing around and arms and legs splashing everywhere. I looked behind and to my surprise I wasn’t coming last….there were actually people doing worse than me! Determined to keep going, I kept trying to swim, but still couldn’t breathe. The ungraceful breast stroke came out as I tried to regain my breath and composure. I wasn’t going to give up. The buoys seemed so much further away than they looked from the start line, but I eventually got to the turn-around point. More breaststroke, followed by backstroke and I had gained a bit of composure to crank out the desired freestyle. 500m later and I was back to the safety of open air and sand between my toes. Not a fun start to the race.

Transition area was a buzz as I took my time putting my shoes on and jumping on my mountain bike. Up and around the Lysterfield track, I reached the 5km mark and thought something must be wrong – surely I have done more than only 5kms. Single track riding continued as we hit the up and down hills, then part of the Commonwealth Games track (which I did at a snail’s pace having no mountain bike experience). Passing the ‘koalas’ in the trees (well…..actually they are teddy bears that someone has placed in trees along the path), brought a welcomed smile to my face and the end of the 22km bike section was coming to an end.

Pulling into transition, ready to start the 6.5km run, I smiled as I witnessed people crossing the finish line – yep…..this was the part where I reminded myself again I wasn’t in it to win it, just enjoy myself and not come last. Off I went for a run around the lake, chasing down a girl in front of me so I knew there was a guarantee I wouldn’t be last! As I tried to run faster, my legs just wouldn’t move any quicker, so I stuck at a pleasant pace and managed to pass her. The open stretch across the dam wall and I could see the finish line. 100m run on soft squishy sand was the final push and as I ran through the finishing banners, I raised my hands in excited looked around……and was met by no-one (a bit of an anti-climax to the end of my first adventure race). As I patted myself on the back, I turned around and saw a girl run in only 30seconds behind me (then later followed by another 3 girls).

As I sat on the hill, eating my free sausage in bread whilst waiting for the presentation ceremony, I realised that I had achieved all I had set out to do:
Goal 1 – not be the last girl = ACHIEVED
Goal 2 – do the race in under 2.5 hrs = ACHIEVED