Congratulations to Catherine Kelly who raced and won her age group at the Stratford Triathlon. Her race report is below.
‘On a sunny day in May 2009 I stood terrified at the side of the pool as I was about to take part in my first triathlon. My friend wanted to do one and asked me to join her. At the time she couldn’t put her head under water and hadn’t been on a bike in 10 years so I thought I may at least give it a go as I was unlikely to come last. The race was the Stratford sprint triathlon held twice a year at Stratford Leisure and Visitor centre and consisted of a 400 m swim, 23 km cycle and 5 km run. That day I came 202nd out of 221 in a time of 1:35:28. It wasn’t a great result but I was hooked.
This event has always remained special to me as it was my first race and the great thing about it being ran twice a year means that I can use it to track my progress. Over the last 6 years I have been slowly creeping up the results table helped mainly by joining Worcester tri 2 years ago.
6.5 years from that first race I find myself stood by the same pool again but this time with the aim of doing well rather than just survival. The swim felt tough as I went out too hard on the first length yet again but I managed to settle down and get a PB. Being a relatively fast swimmer I was one of the last in so knew I was racing those around me for position. Next was the slightly undulating bike leg through the Warwickshire countryside. I felt strong and managed to push hard to achieve another PB. Then came my worst disciple, the run. The course was two laps on grass out and back along the river. It took all my strength to keep going but I was determined to finish strong.
The results were displayed shortly after the race. My main aim of the day was to get a course PB and although I got the same time as last September the transition area was further away leading to longer transitions times than previously. The main shock came when I discovered that not only did I come 26 female out of 184 but I also won my age category.’