Not quite a day at the races...

So here it is - the first entry in our blog. Triathlon will undoubtedly become a bit of a regular feature in this blog, since it is a big part of my life. Today the race was at Leiderdorp, not far south of Amsterdam. An Olympic distance race (1.5km swim, 40km ride, 10km run), the weather was good, and I have fond memories of this race venue - my first triathlon in the Netherlands was here two years ago, and that day I placed fourth in the sprint distance. Unfortunately today was not so sucessful - I got off to a great start in the swim, clear water in front of me, and settling in to third place. The beauty of triathlon swimming in the Netherlands is that the swim is often in canals - a dead straight line, so no problems navigating the open water swim, which is handy for me - I am sure I always swim further than the rest of the competitors :( You can see the photo - a typical scene from a race here.

All sounds good, right? Well, it was until I getting out of the water. As I stood up, my leg caught on something in the water. No idea what it was, but it hurt! Staggered out of the water, hobbled in to transition, grabbed the bike, rode a few kilometres, but today was not my day. Every turn of the pedals brought a wince of pain and a distinct lack of power. Feeling a little dejected, I turned around and limped back to the race headquarters. Straight to First Aid, but I forgot ice is not a big thing here. I was handed a luke warm ice pack - unlikely to do much for my rapidly swelling quadricep!

Plan B - leave the venue, head for the train station, buy something frozen for the leg. At the supermarket, the only frozen stuff are ice creams. Bad mental image - frozen Magnum all over my leg. Probably amusing for the others on the train though. In the end, bought some sought of yoghurt drink, and sat on the train home with it held to my leg. Maybe not frozen, but at least cooling.

This is only the second race in my 15 years of triathlon that I have failed to finish. Then there is the one I failed to start this season - a race at Noordwijkerhout (don't ask me how to pronounce it!). Our friend Kate offered to drive me to the race - how could you knock back an offer like that. Only problem was thar the motorway was closed for maintenance. Not being locals, it took us a while to find the alternate route, arriving just in time to watch the swimmers hit the water!

Anyway, back to the training track, start working on my next race in two weeks time - and hopefully a more fulfilling day...
Shane