I made a very hand wavingly vague estimate of three hours or so to finish this
Steady on Tim! It was only my first attempt! But I IZ TRIATHLETE
I crossed the finish line at around 10.03 so given the 6.30 start gives just a smidge over 3hrs 30min, and I think we started late as well. I am super pleased with this as I had visions of it taking around 4.5 hours but was secretly hoping for closer to 4 hours.
It was all a bit of a rush this morning. They tell you to turn up 90 mins before your start time. So there I was, at 5am
but there was nothing open. Couldn't get timing chips, couldn't rack our bikes. Nadda. It all opened at 5.30
So then it was a rush to rack, lay out the gear for transitions, get wetsuit on etc and then I heard over the tannoy that any 6.30 starters needed to run (run??? wasn't I going to be doing enough of that later anyway?) to the swim assembly (the ExCel centre is massive so to get from one end to the other takes some time). I entered the water one of the last (which was about 6.27) and then discovered we had to swim to the start as well
The swim was mostly uneventful - a few kicks in the face but then I found open water. My goggles leaked
I wasn't fast. Not too slow either. I think I was probably in the last 25% coming out of the water in about 41-42 mins.
Then I got on my bike. I wasn't overtaken by a single female (some men in very pointy hats though) and overtook about 20'ish females from my wave, probably moving me up to the middle of the pack
London is NOT flat. I managed to pull a glute (I think) towards the end
Took less than 1hr 30 on this.
Then the run. EVERY SINGLE STEP WAS AGONY. I managed to run to about 6km and then I had to walk/hobble/run. I think the running must have taken at least 1hr 15mins.
So I figure if I work on my running, then I'll be able to reduce my time for the next one!
I'm off to the pub now for a well earned drink.