Bala Middle

What a disaster!!

I'm really having no luck so far this year!! 2011 was supposed to be a good one as I know I'm fitter than ever but crap things keep happening at races for me!!

Its supposed to be summer but for some reason on Sunday it was around 5 degrees, raining and blowing a gale.

I got in the water with no dithering (quite a step for me). Race got underway and swimming out was good as we had a current with us. Coming back was a different matter though. It was quite choppy and hard to spot the buoys. One minute I was with a group of other swimmers the next I seemed to have no one around me and had gone quite badly off course! Never mind I just looked up for a few strokes and tried my best to head in a straight line towards the finish.

I seemed to be in the water for ages (apparently I've since found out it was a bit long). With about 400m to go my body started to get really cold.

Finally out of the water and ran to T1. Put a bike top and gloves on and headed out on the bike. I was freezing cold but thought once I go up the little hill past town I should warm up.

Got to the hill and I was a shivering wreck. My legs wouldn't work and I felt disorientated. I then got really upset as I couldn't see myself carrying on like this. A group of guys cycling towards me told me they'd dropped out further up and that loads of people were turning back.

I was very lucky as a couple who I'd never met before (Rob and Sue) came to my rescue! They got me in their car with the heaters on got me into some warm clothes. They then very kindly took me back to the race start/finish area and waited while I got myself sorted out. A very big thank you!

I felt really frustrated after Bala as I had high hopes of doing really well in the race. I've since looked at the results and 383 finished the race but a massive 140 dropped out due to the conditions.