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Jill Cruickshank: Kelso Come and Tri Blog

By CoachKev | Published 16 September 2016 | No Comments

After 2 and a half years as a member of the club I did my “first” ever Triathlon on Sunday 15th August. So…..What took me so long? Well, although I love running and cycling I avoided any swimming as I was pretty rubbish and had a fear of putting my head under water….

I made the decision to do something about my swimming October last year when the club held a social event and Kev did a presentation about “Performance vs Participation”.

I knew I couldn’t face going to the club swimming sessions and being around so many people in the pool so I asked Roy if he would help me. Roy was great and after 4 sessions I could put my head under the water and do a length of crawl with “bubblebubble-breath”!.

My next goal was to attend Saturday swim sessions as I would always sneak off after the gym session. I gave myself the target of attending the first one on Saturday 9th January 2016 I wouldn’t say I loved the sessions I attended but Roy and Andy were very helpful coaching me in the “special needs” lane. So with more confidence and belief in my swimming I decided to sign up for the Kelso Come & Tri since it was late in the season and gave me more practise time.

I did most of my training at the Stewart’s Melville Pool as it was so quiet but even up to the week before the event I still hadn’t mastered 400m front crawl with no stops or resorting to my pathetic breast stroke. On reflection, I think it was because no matter how often I went swimming I just didn’t enjoy it … it was a chore and something that had to be done to enable me to achieve my goal of not being the only person in the family (and the Club!!!) who hadn’t done a Triathlon. However, one of the best things that happened was my friend Alisoun signed up for Kelso Come & Tri as well and I found this really helpful as we shared our training targets and progress online.

So the day arrived and I headed down to Kelso for registration at 8am thinking I would be racing by 9.30 from the info I had been sent. What the race organisers hadn’t mentioned was that the Sprint Tri was first and my Heat of the Come & Tri wouldn’t be until 11.30am… Those were the worst 2 hours, waiting and watching the other swimmers.

I was confident about the cycle and the run as I had been down to Kelso two weeks before and practised both courses and all was fine… I found the nerves building and I kept visualising getting on the bike as that what was I looking forward to.

When Heat 6 was called my nerves eased as I got in the pool…. I was last to go in my lane and felt good on the first length. The second length started off well too but then I felt the first of many taps on my feet over the 400m which I knew would happen but hadn’t anticipated how much it would put me off my stroke…. The next key moment in the swim was when I had just complete 200m and I heard applause. Now….I wasn’t stupid enough to think it was for me completing half the course!!! Someone was up and out.

I plodded on resorting to breast stroke when my “bubble-bubblebreathe” lost its flow… So as you can imagine I was last out of the pool for my Heat but thanks to the lovely supporters I got a fantastic “pity” clap!!!

Out of the water I found I had more energy than I thought so I sprinted to the bike, had a really quick transition and popped some Jelly Babies in my mouth (Top Tip from Adrienne!!!)

As soon as I was on the bike I felt brilliant. The cycle was easy as I knew the course and I think I even caught up on someone from my heat. In hindsight I probably would have pushed myself harder on the bike.

Moving into T2 was quick and easy and armed with some more Jelly Babies I just went for the run.

All was good … the old ski injury and the recent calf strain behaved themselves and it was a fab run. As I turned the final corner I had enough energy to really pick up the pace and got over the finish line in 1 hour 5 mins.!!! So that’s it done and on reflection I would say:

• To achieve anything I need a goal and know why I want to achieve it.

• I still don’t enjoy swimming that much but I am pleased I pushed myself to conquer my fear.

• I need support and encouragement from others.

• Having a buddy with a similar goal motivates me.

• If I can do a Triathlon … Anyone can!!!!

Now on to my second personal Goal of 2016… Start writing my Book…….