When the thunderous storms and lightning awoke me in the early hours of Sunday 24 September – the day of my very first half iron-man, all of a sudden that last minute entry into New Forest seemed like a VERY bad idea. I was cursing the fact that

1. Tracey and many of you had bought me a bike for my birthday earlier this year..And if it weren’t for that I would not be lying in bed in a cold sweat.
2. Many of you have been witnesses over the past few months to my many scars and bruises from my inability to ride a bike. (After my mtn bike near fatal crash yesterday… I have many more ‘roasties’ to show)

If learning to ride a road bike was not hard enough, I know had to swim 1.9km – cycle over 90km and then run 21.1km off road! What the hell was I thinking??!

The storms were not letting up and I was seriously contemplating pulling out. 4h30 am my alarm went off and it was time to get up. Much to the amusement of Jules, Paddy and Steve, my tales of thunder and lightening were laughed at. That is until they opened up the front door of our B&B to load the bikes up. Now look who’s laughing…

Nerves had been running high for all of the past week, and now more so than ever. All I wanted to do was to get down to Ellingham Lake and get in the water and get this race on the go. The adrenalin was pumping.

We arrived at T1 (T2 was a mile or so up the road so had to drop off our run gear first). It was a mud bath. Generators lighting up the transition area where a mass of competitors were trying to set up their bikes and gear and get wetsuits on. Our SAUK support crew was there in full force: Kerry, Ali, Paddy and Steve. Steve even had to pull a Schumacher back to the B&B as Jules realized she had left her wetsuit behind!

With all the commotion going on around me – I needed to find some ‘quiet space’ to calm down as I was in the first wave of swimmers going off at 7am. I got body marked and got Paddy to help me into my wetsuit. I snuck off down to the shore of the lake. By this time dawn was breaking and we could see the lake stretched out before us. Luckily the rain had subsided and cleared the mist so we could see our swim route. 1.9km around the tree lined perimeter of the lake. It looked beautiful.

I dived in. The water temp was not bad and quite refreshing. Soon I was joined by another 2 purple turtles (purple cap swimmers for our wave). We swam out about 200m and surveyed the course. It seemed OK. Now I just needed to calm myself down. I swam back to shore and found the rest of the SAUK crew all suited and banter flowing… as we waited for the start.

Before I could even get into position at the front of the swim or set my watch the final countdown began and we were off. After some pushing, kicking and smacking I just gave up and let the boys who were going to potentially drown me go ahead. It was going to be a long day…

As I rounded the last buoy the sun was rising and I felt good I had taken the swim easy and felt strong. 33min 45sec’s I was out the water and running up to the mud bath that was T2. Tor and I exited T2 together and as Paddy said the night before, something was bound to go wrong. My aero bottle between my tri bars we had fitted that night popped out on the run out. So I went from having 2.5l of liquid on the bike to 1.750 before I’d even mounted!

As I mounted I heard a supporter screaming C’mon lady you’re one of the top girls don’t let the men beat you! I laughed and was off. We were sent on a detour out of Ringwood due to the floods. I soon got into a comfortable pace and was just enjoying the scenery and the banter from the now men who were soon passing me… “Nice calves No 52 I shouted”, "Nice ass" he shouted back. The game was to continue for the rest of the race as we played tag right till the end.

Having done a recce of the course a month back, I knew how to pace myself, and used the aero bars at every opportunity and ate like a pig. Expert advice from the Iron Men of SAUK eat, eat and eat. So I did. Chocolate covered banana bars, cashew nuts and I drank. I loved the bike. It has now become my favorite discipline. The 90km and hills flew by, the horses and wildlife kept us on our toes, and the screaming from Kerry, Ali and Steve kept me smiling.

3hr17 I dismounted and ran into T2. Still smiling from ear to ear I headed out to run. I was on target 3hr55 to do just under 6hours. But soon realized 45min into the run it was not going to happen. River sand hills, and rough terrain: I was walking a lot more and my legs were dead. At times I would be running for over 30min without seeing a soul. At about the 3 mile mark I was apparently, according to a marshal, lying in the top 10 of the ladies. This soon ended when I heard the panting out of nowhere and this girl came flying past on super legs. Then another 2,3.. hard core Iron Man Diva’s came past. One of them with a GB tri-suit. By this stage I didn’t care a flying hoot… a few close emotional blubberings like a child whose toy's been stolen.. I just pushed on.. Soon things started feeling better and could feel the end in sight.

The last 5 miles were on tarmac and it was here I saw grown men cry, sit down heads in hands and cry. I was on such a ‘high’ by now knowing I was a mere 8km or so from the finish.. and soon had a crew with me singing along to my theme tune ‘keep pushing on things will only get better, you can’t stop now keep on moving to the top.’ and pulling them along. Alas 216, 52 and another guy just couldn’t and I carried on with still enough juice in the tank to sprint the last km or so whipping their asses.

I couldn’t believe the day had gone by so quickly, that all those weeks of fun & training were now over and that this huge mountain had now been climbed and conquered! I was almost an official Half-Iron Woman!

6hr18 I crossed the finish line to huge roar and cheer from Kerry, Ali, Steve and Tor… WOW! You guy’s ROCK!

11 weeks of training, 3653min of cycling, a good 15hours of swimming, and not nearly enough running. 3hour training sessions before work, cycling at 510am out to Hampton Court Palace to do interval training with Jules and Keeto where giving birth to a watermelon would be easier.. as we called it ‘pushing out porcupines’! Hill training till you could light a match on your ass, and where buckets of porridge, spaghetti & ice cream were the norm.

One Sprint – One Olympic – One Half Iron man under my belt in my first season of tri, and next year I’ll be back for more! I am over the MOON with my race, time and result. 8th in my age category and 24th woman home. Switzerland Iron Man 70.3 is already on the cards, and maybe Monaco. Although some of the boys are trying their hand at convincing us to do the full. I think I may leave the Full Iron man to the Iron men.

For now I am happy been a Half-Iron Babe and chuffed as I have now found my Distance. 70.3.

Don’t worry about failure, worry about missing the chance. You only lose if you don’t Tri.