Well, I've done it! I have done a run through of the triathlon distance and... survived! I rewarded myself with 3 bottles of cider and a cooked breakfast (nothing fried though, I've not let myself go that much!). I am on cloud nine and there are several reasons for this.
First of all, the run was the fastest I have ever done it AND I had done the swim and the bike beforehand. It felt like such an achievement. I finally feel like I am getting somewhere and was running round town with a stupid grin on my face. All I was thinking as I ran along was "I can do this. I can actually do this!". My legs are still like jelly after the bike, but I am informed that this will always be the case, and learning to cope with it is part of the training. I am so glad that I have friends and a boyfriend who have done this before and can tell me what to expect from my body. If I was totally alone on this I think I would have given up ages ago. As always, I am incredibly grateful to people for their help and support. Words of wisdom at this stage are worth their weight in gold.
Speaking of weight, that is another reason I am happy. I have been merrily doing all this training and losing no weight at all since March. This was really starting to annoy me. Although weight loss has not been on my list of goals, I had thought that it might be a perk of the training; I was very disappointed when it seemed not to be. Then, all of a sudden, another half stone has disappeared. Brilliant! Another reason to grin all over the place as I run and cycle and swim along!
An obvious reason to be happy is that, with two weeks to go until the 'real thing' my dress rehearsal triathlon has proved to me that I will be able to get round the course and not utterly collapse. This gives me 12 days as of today (not including race day itself) to get even fitter and to try harder. I need to try and take 7 minutes off my time if I am going to reach a mental goal I have set myself for time. I will give you no more clues than this, as there is a sweep stake going at work and I don't want to unfairly advantage those who take the time to read this rubbish... Although those who can be bothered to read this should have some sort of reward for their faithfulness I suppose. However, it is such a weight off my shoulders to know that I won't be letting anyone down.
I now have t-shirts from both of the charities I am supporting - and you are supporting too if you are sponsoring me! - and have to think of some ingenious way of showing support for each charity throughout the cycle and the run. I am thinking of fashioning some sort of Jekyll and Hyde style t-shirt from both of them.
The worst thing of the past two weeks has been the 'Pool Rage' I suffer from whenever those who ought not to be swimming in the medium lane insist and swimming backstroke, slowly, down the middle of the lane, and blocking up the 'flow' of traffic. It seems so selfish to me, and I find it hard to "tut" or "harumph" when I am attempting to front crawl, and so I must content myself with a mild moan on here instead. I hope, dear reader, you share my views and do not think I am some kind of lane snob!
I would mention that I have been made to cycle in to work several mornings by my boyfriend. However, since my last blog, where I apparently made him sound like some kind of evil, monster boyfriend, I had better steer away from that. Rest assured he did not literally throw me in to the North Sea and it wasn't all that cold. We have cycled in to work in a head wind though ( and at a distance 1/3 further than I have to do in the triathlon itself), but as I have improved a massive amount since we began to do this, I must not complain about it too much.
Overall, I think I can now do this thing. I would really, really like to meet my fundraising targets. I must not lose sight of that goal in my excitement about the other.
And so, if you haven't already done so PLEASE SPONSOR ME!
www.justgiving.com/Catherine-Yates (Breakthrough Breast Cancer)
www.justgiving.com/Catherine-Yates0 (Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research)
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