QTS # 6 Caloundra Triathlon - When Sh#t hits the fan

Caloundra QTS series Race # 6
​Date - 11th February 2018
Race Result - 1st 16-19 Years / 5th Female Overall

​Some days shit happens. Today it did.

​After a hard weekend in Adelaide last week, it was good to relax and just race for fun. There wasn’t even any money up for grabs so I expected a small field. It was stacked. The boys had a few international athletes and I was up against some good Brisbane athletes. I had to psych myself up a bit. 

The swim went really well. I was stoked. Third chick out of the water? I had never done that before. There was a bit of argy-bargy as usual but it was a current assisted swim (Thank God), hence I was able to lengthen and really work on my stroke. I was so happy. 

My mounts are just getting better I tell you. I mounted well and was off on the bike. Despite trudging the bike through sand on the way out of transition, it went smoothly. Compared to the technicality of the Glenelg course, it was mild. Straight out and back with a few round a-bouts. I was able to over gear it into the tail wind and focus on my pedal stroke. Despite the drafting (not that there was any), I was able to put some time into the girls behind me, but the ones in front put another 20 seconds into me. After I dismounted, I set out for the run. 

The run was actually a single lap course for once. Running along the foreshore would’ve been quite nice if I wasn’t trying to push through the pain of racing. None-the-less, I made ground on the third-place female after the first 2.5km and was putting time into the 1st and 2nd places. Despite my collapsing legs and heavy breathing, I just tried to focus on leaning forward, relaxing my upper body, cadence and power through the legs.

Focusing on this helps me to divert my mind away from the feeling of tired legs and refocuses me; keeping me in the present. After the turn around, I was gaining quickly on 2nd place, nearly on her heals, then shit went down.

I had a moment during the run at this point: Nature called. And when nature calls, it commands.

I made a slight deviation off-course. After a quite a stressful pit stop and shower in the public disabled toilets, I ran back into the path as if nothing had happened. 

At this point I was quite self-conscious of what I looked like from behind, but all I wanted to do was finish and shower. Unfortunately during the time I had spent making sure I was presentable for the finish photos, 1st and 2nd got away from me with 3rd place close behind them. I came in fifth overall. I was so close to the heels of 2nd, it really shitted me. 

After the race, I vigorously washed myself and shared my story with Dad: 
“Are you okay? Did you get a stitch?”
“I was right on their heels then I had a moment. 
An accident.
I had to take a dump.”
“Oh. HAhahahah.” 

So, my lesson learned today is trust your guts. But hey, it was an experience. 

The rest of the SCTA crew did awesome as well with many wins in their respective categories. Shout out to Peyton for the fastest enticer time. It was an awesome day at the QTS round 6 and the Event Crew put on another great show.

Thanks to all the sponsors of SCTA for supporting our crew. Only one more QTS round to go. :)))