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Having been attending circuits on and off for a couple of years I decided to bite the bullet and take part in the last aquathlon of 2010. The mixture of terrible nerves and adrenaline rush after the event made me keen to take part in the Cerist triathlon in June.

Scrawling the web one day I noticed that there was a fun triathlon in Nantwich in May, 200m swim, 20k bike and 2.5k run – the perfect distance to try my hand at my first triathlon. Also I took comfort in the fact that no one would know me and if I embarrassed myself, no one would know!

Having finished the fun triathlon (and loving it) I signed up for the same event in September. A great way to measure my improvement over the summer. September 2010 saw me improve my time by two minutes and by then I was hooked.

Having competed in all three aquathlon’s in 2011 I wanted to compete in Nantwich again to measure my improvement over the last year. However, a month eating BBQ’s and lazing about on beaches in Australia had not been the best preparation, or had it!!?? I finished in 1 hour 3 minutes and had improved my time from May 2010 by 4 minutes and placed 2^nd in my category and 5^th overall out of 67 competitors.

I wasn’t so sure this year if I was going to sign up for the September race as I considered doing other events for a change. However a week before the entry closing date I decided to register. I had injured my knee a couple of weeks previous and didn’t have much hope of improving my time from May.

This time I wasn’t half as nervous. I felt comfortable and thought regardless of my finishing time I was going to enjoy my last Triathlon of this season.  My swim didn’t quite go to plan, getting stuck behind another competitor and fighting to get out the pool first made me a bit flustered and I struggled to get my trainers on in transition, and almost fell off my bike trying to mount!!

On the bike course I settled in to my ride quite quickly and felt good. Coming off the bike and into the run I worried how my legs would feel, but thanks to Kev’s Tuesday night training sessions I felt good! I was conscious of my watch and knew my bike time had been better than May – I just needed to keep it up! I really wanted to finish within the hour and as I was approaching the last lap of the run I knew it would be tight. I tried to up my pace and on the last half of the lap really pushed it. But it wasn’t quite enough – Finishing time - 1hour 1 minute!! I tried to not be disappointed as I had improved by 4minutes from September 2010.

Staying around for the presentation I was curious to find out the winning time to see how much I would need to improve by for next year. I never expected to hear my name called out as the winner in my category and in second place overall out of 60 competitors!!!

I am so pleased I decided to enter that first aquathlon in 2010 as I have made many new friends and found a sport I love. The support from Kev and Kim and all at Cerist is great.