Photo by: SuperLeague Triathlon
Event
27/10/18
1.15 pm start Championship Elite Women
Start number
22
SLT Super Sprint distance-
ELIMINATOR
1 lap 300m Marina saltwater swim, 4 x 1km HILLY & technical bike laps, 1.5 x 1km lap HILLY run- ouch.
Weather
Warm & sunny!! Quite humid here in Island Malta, Mediterranean 24 degree water, beautiful.
Result
11th
SUPERLEAGUE TRIATHLON ROUND 2 in Malta was not one to be missed! With a city filled in fascinating history dating back to the dawn of time & similar stellar movie sets including; Troy, Gladiator & Game of thrones it was such an amazing country to visit & explore with Superleague before the wicked long weekend of racing began.
My favourite activities had to be our day trip exploring the capital of Malta, Valletta roaming the old streets & taking in the views over this ancient city from the Parliamentary gardens. As well as our day trip to neighbouring island Gozo, where we swam through a cave, roamed the ancient citadel & returned to Malta via a private boat,s topping at the famous Camino Blue Lagoon water hole for a swim on the way back!
It wasn’t all fun & adventure though i promise we earned every minute of it over the 3 days of racing. Saturday was the Eliminator format, swim, bike, run. bottom 5 eliminated, 10 minute break. Then repeat again to eliminate another 5 competitors before reaching the final race to decide the Champion of this day’s stage!
In Malta this weekend of racing i was lucky enough to wear the blue jersey, given to the fastest overall swimmers from “Jersey.” Quite the honour and i was super excited, plus blue is my favourite colour!! From Friday’s slot draw i was allocated slot number 17, on the far right side beside Katie Zaferes & i was quite happy about that! Getting a very quick start & leading the first swim around to show the crowd exactly why i was in the blue swimmers Jersey!
A quick transition saw we lead out the bike to get a taste of this tough stinger of a course, with one steep hill climb and fast decent each bike & run lap! The race didn’t really separate much in race one as the front bunch rode together, with the pace still hot, running to conserve something for the next race but also ensuring I’m safely through!
The 10 minute break seemed to fly by!! Before we knew it we were back on the start line for race 2! And gosh did this race hurt after already going round 10 minutes earlier. Having another strong swim to put myself in a good position onto the bike early, another rep up the hill on the run saw me just start to loose contact with the leading ladies & by the time we had mastered the final lap of the run with cruel 200m uphill sprint finish i was sitting just in the cut off zone, hurting & had been eliminated for the day, 1 race short of the final for day 1. Finishing in 11th but hoping to have conserved some extra energy today to step it up tomorrow in Sunday’s Equalizer race format!
As always, Superleague provided fast, furious, entertaining, fun, exciting and world wide broadcast racing! A step ahead!
Leading out
Photo by: Superleague Triathlon