Well on Sunday I completed my first triathlon! And have the fractured toe to prove it

My mum came along as photographer for the morning. It was nice and sunny from 6am (it rained in the afternoon) which made it nice to do the set up. I got ready and laid out everything i needed in the transition area. I was going into it with the aim of finishing, no matter what the time.

The lake temperature was about 13 degrees Celsius. I got in 5 minutes before my wave to get the initial shock of the cold out the way. I’m glad I did as it was cold and lots of people in the earlier waves had had to do breaststroke.

We started off with feet in the water. I went to the front, but I went off too fast and got to the first buoy and needed to breathe, so had to do breaststroke. I thought I had gotten used to the temperature, but it was a longer enough swim for me to warm my lungs up properly, so as I got out of breathe my lungs couldn’t expand further because of the cold. That’s the only part I was disappointed in, but I knew it was longer enough for my swimming style.

I got out of the lake well, but then fell over (I think this is where I fractured my toe) but got up and ran to transition. It was great having lots of people from my running club there marshalling. This is where I found it hard to breathe and get my breath back and steady. It took me 2 minutes in transition. On the way out of transition my friend Linz was there to cheer me on, which was great. The hardest part was running with the bike and being so cold. I kept going and although lots of people ran past, I kept going.

The bike was the hardest part for me. I got overtaken by lost of people early on and it just felt long. It took me 54 minutes, which is under the hour I thought it would take. On the way round I thought my toe was numb form the cold, or my trainer was too tight, I never imagined I had hurt it quite so bad. But I finally finished the 20km and came back into transition to see my mum waiting.

It was so nice to have lots of friendly faces there who would shout my name as I went past. It spurred me on.

I got back into transition and was out again in 40 seconds to run one 2.5km lap around the lake. This was hard and I was so glad I was only doing the one lap as mentally I don’t think I could have gone round again. There was a water station with2 running club members there and they cheered me on as I went past. I finished to about 10 people from running club there at the end and my mum taking pictures. I was so happy to have finished and have run the whole lap without stopping, which was my aim.

They had run out of medal, but I didn’t mind, I was so happy to have finished! My running club captain is the one who organised it, so I’ll get one to add to my display soon

It wasn’t until the above moment when I stopped and was calming down and realised I’d done it, when my toe started to hurt. I thought I had just bruised it so carried on and packed up my things and drove home. I then went to the cinema to relax and watch Iron Man 3 (excellent) and then came home to find the bruise was coming up. By the evening my tow was swelling up and getting harder to walk on. It wasn’t until the morning when I thought something was wrong, so off to A&E I went and came back with crutches and a fractured toe. It could take 4-6 weeks to heal properly, but I’m hoping sooner rather than later!

Update! Got my medal today