This was my first race in the open category and I was pretty nervous. I had not tapper leading into the race as it was purely a race to get under the belt. I did my normal Saturday morning ride with Eclipse Fitness and we worked pretty hard all day into some strong winds.
I opted to ride to the race venue for a bit of a warm up and to test out my bike (I have my position on it by lowering the bars and shortening the stem). My legs felt pretty heavy on the way which wasn’t a good sign.
The swim was 400m and going with the current. I decided to wear my orca swim skin as it is easy to get off and being such a short swim I didn’t feel I would get an advantage from the wetsuit. I went out hard from the start and felt strong. I came out the water in 3rd place and made the long run to transition. I had my swim skin basically of before I got to my bike. A quick transition with my helmet and race number on and I was off.
This is where my problem for the day started. I had a clear run for the mount onto my bike. I did it smoothly and then as I sat on my seat it angled down to 45 degrees. I didn’t know what to do so I continued riding and got my feet in my shoes and tried to force the seat back into position. It was budging do I made the decision to forget about it and push on. I was in 3rd place behind Troy Main and Paul Mackay. I was pretty uncomfortable on the bike due to the seat failure but I rode as well as I could considering. Leigh Willison and the Paul Gardner putting me back into 5th passed me.
I had a good T2 and passed Paul Gardner in transition. I left transition fast while expressing my anger towards my seat to Lisa and Ben. I maintained a good speed up until the hill where I slowed a bit. At the turn around I assessed where I was in the field and pushed hard down hill to turn around to bring me back to lap 2. My pace slowed a little on the 2nd lap although I maintained the same distance to Troy Main which was a good sign. At the turn around I push hard to the end and finished 4th. No one passed my on the run which I am really happy with.
I was really happy with the result for the race, being my first open race. It was a club point race so I think I will get a few points towards the club series. Next race in the interclub race in Mandurah then State Sprint Champs in Rockingham which I will race age group.
