Today's race was the WA Sprint Triathlon Championships. This race is usually one of the bigger ones on the local calendar, with 100s of participants taking part across numerous events. On top of that today's race was the focus on the last couple of months of training for a lot of my athletes and as such it was a fairly big deal among squad.
The race didn't get off to the best start, with some rather extreme weather meaning that the swim was cancelled. Such is the recent spate of cancelled swims in WA that there is a bit of a joke running that we don't do full triathlons in WA anymore. Jokes aside though, whilst this latest cancellation was frustrating, it was once again the right decision for ensuring the safety of all participants.
Other than there being no swim it feels like the day went pretty well for the squad. Everyone got to the finish and everyone I spoke to was really happy with how it went. The cancelled swim meant that the race became a duathlon with a 2.5km run/20km bike/5km run. It was a pity that our Triathlon State Championship had to be decided by a duathlon, but that is better that not racing at all. It was also great to see the squad absorb the news and refocus on the job at hand. Despite the last minute changes to the race everyone remained positive and simply got on with it.
With the extreme wind causing the swim to be cancelled I was also pretty concerned about the safety of the participants on the road. However, it seems like everyone kept their wits about them and rode sensibly. There were certainly some crashes, but the bulk of the field made it to the finish.
With my squad everyone seems to have had a great day. For some folks they wanted to be standing on the podium and others were going to be happy with a good day out and perhaps a PB. For nearly all my athletes those goals were achieved with a couple of podium finishes and a couple of other PB performances. It was a great reminder that success in racing is what you make it. Everyone achieved different goals today, but everyone left the race happy with what they had achieved.
Seeing people attain their goals and experiencing the gratitude that they feel for your help in getting them there was really quite rewarding. I can see why people find coaching fulfilling. I am really looking forward to the next race in the series in mid January and seeing just what this great squad of people can achieve.
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