A trio of triathletes

Triathlon day had been and gone again in an agony of testosterone (not me),adrenaline (definitely me)panic (ditto) and downright fear and trembling! The day dawned drizzly and deceptively still and we got on with the tasks that needed to still be done. We have prepared the night before well so just breakfast to force down into sickly tummies, the animals to feed, bikes to pop on the car and off we go. Now we will re-wind slightly to the animals to feed bit. As I was dashing off to get the bikes in-between mouthfuls of sawdust, sorry, weetabix I heard a shout of "I don't believe it...there are some piglets in the other field". Houdini has done it and produced 7 live piggies of a variety of hues. After the piglet admiration society had done their bit we managed to get everyone rounded up and in the car with all the paraphernalia necessary for a trio of tri-athletes. We duly registered ourselves in the race and the fact that Garret and I were in the next to last heat.....long wait! Toby set off with a fabulous swim in heat three, we saw him set off second out of the pool and confident for the 20k cycle. All too soon we were lined up for our briefing not feeling at all left out amongst the red and black Glasgow tri suits. My swim was good and comfortable with a PB at 8.59 breaking that 9 minute barrier that has so eluded me. Garret did not do quite so well as he struggled with the anti clockwise swimming in his lane. Still, did well enough as he entered transition as I left. There was a great moment when we heard via the commentator that Toby had just set off on his run having returned safely from the cycle and a cat and mouse chase along the course. All went well with Garret overtaking me a mile or so along the way as expected. I had a red and black suit in my sights when I tried too hard with the gears and off fell the chain...only ONE swear word later and I was off and fixing it and back on having lost a couple of minutes maybe and gained some very dirty hands.......the rest of the cycle was okay apart from a nice challenging stiff wind against us on the homeward stretch. The crowds and encouragement back at the pool was fabulous, and so tantalising for a few seconds until off once more on the run. Trying to work the suddenly seized up legs took a mile or so but then things were more or less fine for the rest of the 4 mile run out and back along the canal where I seemed to be consistently overtaken by the fast guys from the last hear and managed only one overtake of a heat 5 or 4 of my own.... and then into the waiting arms of family and friends. Toby did a stunning 1.14 and was first male jr and 12th over all, Garret was in the top 20 in 1.16 and I was NOT in the top 20 or anything like in 1.27 but was first Mid Argyll lady finisher . Garret got a prize for his very fast transition from bike to run so we all came away with a little something!