Sevenoaks School, 5 May 2008 - Maureen Farish
It was the weather that took us by surprise – hot sun! Helen James, Janice Bailey, Michael Abousselam, Linda Gray and myself competed in this tough triathlon [I thought it was tough anyway]. The 400 metres swim in the indoor pool was easy as can be seen from the results. The 20k bike ride was almost continuous up and down hills, especially the infamous long, steep Hubbards Hill which in the heat was energy sapping as we struggled to the top at the end of the 20k bike ride. Into the 6k run. My daughter Jane shouted I would be ok now because running was my forte! This was an off-road, there and back run in Knole Park and those devious organisers made us run up a steep hill to get to the water station which was at the turning point. Helen was having difficulty and was finding it hard [ so it must be if Helen says that]. I fell over four times and ended up in the ambulance being checked over. The diagnosis was exhaustion and dehydration. Next time I will take on more water. But I did finish at least 25 minutes faster than last year so I got something right. The picnic in the school grounds with my family was a relaxing finish, laying in the grass thinking how lovely it was not to be swimming, cycling and running.
From the following results Janice, Linda and Mike don’t appear to have had any problems having finished in excellent times.
Michael Abousselam 7th vet 50: Swim 7:58, bike 46:04, run 27:50 = 1:21:54
Linda Gray 1st vet 60 : Swim 8:26, bike 48:59, run 24:59 = 1:22:26
Janice Bailey 2nd vet 60: Swim 10:39, bike 59:57, run 35:53 = 1:46:32
Maureen Farish 3rd vet 60: Swim 10:25, bike 1:11:39, run 39:49 = 2:01:55
Helen James 4th vet 60: Swim 10:09, bike 1:17:02, run 51:55 = 2:19:06