Mallorca 70.3 completed!

5 days ago I raced Mallorca 70.3 after having 4 years off of triathlon as wanted to bike race instead. Ok, Mallorca didn't go as well as I had hoped but oh my, I have missed triathlons!!!

We headed out to Mallorca 3 days before the race with Trevor and a group of other fellow triathletes. We stayed in a lovely villa which was a 10 minute walk to where the race in Alcudia was taking place, Mallorca is such a nice place to race, I love riding out there.

The Wednesday we arrived the weather wasn't great but but it was a nice temperature to race in, I think England was actually warmer. Thursday we went to register, and wonder around the expo.

On the friday it was time to rack the bikes, I was so amazed by how many people were racing, I think it was about 5000 people.

There were so many bikes, can you spot my sexy bike???

I had never turned so many heads in my life, I was constantly having people come up to me and say how beautiful my Specailized shiv was, I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to ride this amazing bike.

Once bike ad bags were racked it was time to put our feet up and eat dinner, then early night .

Saturday morning 5.30am it was time to eat breakfast, I had my usual peanut butter and banana on toast, then when walking to the start of race ate one of my OTE energy bars. I am always making sure I eat enough the morning of the race as I used to always struggle to eat before racing then suffer during the race.

I pumped my tyres up in transition and then wondered down to the swim start which was on the beach, it looked like perfect conditions.

It was a staggered start which was quite a relief as mass starts can sometimes be rather scary, although the staggered start I still ended up fighting for space in the water.

Standing at the start my heart began to race, I was super nervous but mega excited. I always look forward to getting the swim done as this is probably my weakest discipline, all I wanted to do is swim comfortably and still have lots of energy for the bike and run.

The countdown started and it was my turn to swim, I ran into the water and launched myself into the sea, the swim was marked out really well so easy to sight.

Once I was swimming I was trying to keep calm and not get too excited as I can kick way too much and then tire myself out.

1.9km swim completed!

I got out the swim, ran to transition and quite quickly put my helmet and number belt on and wetsuit off.

I ran to my bike feeling pretty relaxed, grabbed my bike and headed off to start the 56 miles on the bike.

It was fairly flat the first 10km, then it went up, up and up, oh then down.

When the 7km climb started I decided to spin up it as didn't want to burn my legs for the run, I was so great full that I listened to everyone on the Vitfor team when I asked about what cassette to use on the bike. Thanks guys, I was defiantly happy I choose to have a 28 on the back.

The descent after the climb was nicer than i thought it would be, I am not very good at descending but still managed to pass people going down.

The second half of the bike was pretty flat, some places were windy but felt really good on the bike, yet again I had to hold myself back as was worried about not saving enough for the run.

Coming into 2nd transition I was feeling really confident that I was going to be in the top 20 off the bike, so when trevor shouted I was in 2nd place when I ran out onto run course I was so happy. I thought to myself I could really get a podium, keep focused you I can do this.

After that thought it then went downhill from there..........

I got 4km into the run feeling comfortable, but then suddenly my right foot started to have a strange burning feeling top and bottom of my foot. I thought perhaps my elastic laces were too tight, so decided to stop and loosen them. I then started running again, and it was still burning, I began to get very frustrated as all I could think of was my foot was hurting and couldn't get into a rhythm. I then realised that a blistered must have appeared under my foot, I ended up stopping quite a lot and had a mixture of over heating and running oddly due to the blister.

I was absolutly gutted about not getting up on the podium for my age group, but races don't always go the way you want. I came 8th in my age group so should be still happy to get a top 10.

It was an great experience and so nice to be with like minded people, I will defiantly be back racing it next year.

On to the next challenge, Ultra X triathlon...............