Omara Cycles Tri-it Women's Triathlon 2011

Pre-race: I had everything packed the night before, so I just had to dress and make breakfast (toast and honey) to eat on the long drive there.

As I'd anticipated the swim was canceled due to high e.coli levels and it was converted to a duathlon, with a 1km barefoot beach run to replace the swim. My preference would have been to swim!

Run: 8:14 | 01 kms | 08m 14s min/km. Ugh. Sand running. The beach was pretty chopped up by the time we got to it. I tried to run as close to the inside as possible where the divets weren't quite as big. All in all, hard and slow. I had a couple of sections where I thought I was in a good rhythm but it didn't last long.

T1: 39s. Transition went smoothly, just had to grab the bike. Hands down transition was the best part of my race.

Bike: 32:14 | 16 kms | 29.78 km/hr. I had a lot of time to make up on the bike and I tried. I don't think I could have ridden any harder. I was hoping for an average of 30km/hr and I was almost there.

T2: 52s. Running into transition totally fine, racking bike all good. Putting shoes on I seemed to fumble a bit. One of the shoe tongues got caught.

Run: 25:44 | 04 kms | 06m 26s min/km. Meh. Let's face it I probably went too hard on the bike. This is a pretty slow run for me. I was passed by a whole lot of people. I think I passed two, one was walking!

Total time: 1:07

Event comments: I was there to have fun and maintain a good attitude throughout. I really enjoyed myself, even if I am a little disappointed at my performance at current fitness levels.

If you're looking to try a triathlon in a friendly environment this is it. It's not a massive race but there's plenty of support from fellow competitors and the event staff. Plus there was the added bonus of a great fitting 2XU technical t-shirt and there were plenty of goodies to try.