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Triathlon Blog

Phisiotherapists Dublin, Physiotherapists Dublin

With much anticipation and intrepidation I skulked down to Bray seafront last Wednesday to partake in the first of the Bray Aquathon Series.

There was a flurry of activity at registration where I felt a little bit of a fake - a lot of serious athletes were there, those who have been training religiously all year.

To be honest I really did just want to be a spectator at that stage. My worst fear was the jelly fish and after that- would I collapse midway through the swim and have to be fished out by a rescue boat. Natural fears, probably the adrenalin buzzing in my tummy required to get the motor going but difficult to deal with all the same.

After poring myself into my wetsuit I followed the sea of yellow swim caps down to the sea front to the starting point of the 750m swim. And I just urged myself to be calm. Don’t panic, any issues and I could just lie onto my back and pop my hand in the air for rescue.

And then we were off, a big breath in and a frantic dive into the cool water, thrashing of arms, avoiding feet in the face and fingers in the eyes. I managed to get a little space for myself off to the side, but to say I was disorientated was an understatement. The sun was glaring to my right at the shore so I had nothing to follow on that side, and the horizon to the left which just became a blur was not something to follow either unless I wanted to end up in England!

Despite feeling half way through that I would never finish, I built some sort of rhythm, and gradually battled to the end. I emerged at the shore rather rattled, a man put out his hand for me to high five him. I promptly missed it as my body attempted to adjust to level ground and gain some sort of energy to pull the wetsuit open. Not graceful in the slightest, but managed to frustratingly pull it off and kind of fall onto the running course.

When you are out of the triathlon game for a while the “transition” can really slow you down. Transition would indicate smooth and continous. Mine was more of a clumsy fumble to change and a tumble out onto the running course. Running - I love. Although the legs felt like jelly I was actually able to enjoy the scenery coming back down the nasty hill they had for set out for us. And the second time it was even better as I could feel the finish line within my grasp.

Ah yes. What a nice thing to do on a Wednesday evening. A cool beer in the sun at a barbeque I hear you say? Watching the Lions Tour on the Big Screen? Exciting. But not exhilarating like this one. A sure way to make you feel alive. And become a little bit of an athlete, for a least an hour or so anyway.

Elaine Barry
MISCP MSc BSc

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