Race 3 AJTS Glenelg 2017

In the early hours of Thursday morning my journey to Glenelg, SA began for race three of the Australian Junior Triathlon Series. After the two and a half hour flight, Brooke, her mum and myself landed late morning in Adelaide. We spent most of the day settling in, setting up our bikes, going for a short ride and run and visiting harbour town. 

The following day started at 5.30am where a bike familiarisation course was organised for all the athletes. During the cycle in the morning I discovered that I had a flat tyre. This was not the first time that this had happened while I was away at a national event (the third time actually). So I changed my tube and checked it all out to make sure that I wouldn't get another flat, pumped it up and put it back on my bike. Shortly after I went on a run with Brooke and Abby to do a pre activation set the day before the race. I arrive back at the motel after the run to only discover that I had yet another flat tyre. I started to get really worried that I wouldn't be able to race the next day, so I made a quick phone call to my dad and we decided that I would go to the closest bike shop and get a new tube and tyre. I took my back wheel down to the shop and got the bike mechanics there to replace my tube and tyre. Not long after the tube and tyre change, I discovered yet my third flat tyre within the space of 5 hours. I was stressing out to the max. So I took my bike back to the bike shop where the boys there were kind enough to help me out again and replace my rim tape. While that was being done, Brooke, Abby and myself went down to the beach to do a quick swim as the swim familiarisation course had been cancelled. Once we had finished the swim, I raced over to the bike shop to retrieve Alan (my bike). Fingers crossed that I wouldn't get another flat tyre after a stressful day.

Later that evening was registration and briefing at the local surf club. During the briefing the race organisers announced that there was going to be a course change due to the flowing lake that we were originally supposed to swim in was unsuitable to swim in, therefore changing the swim location to the beach, meaning a 500m run into transition which did not suit me at all. Once again I was stressing out to the max as I'm not as strong of a runner as the other girls and knew that I would lose a lot of time. But you know these things happen and you can't do anything about it. Following the rego and briefing we went out for dinner at the Strand restaurant and then we went back to our motel and went to bed. 

Brooke and I woke up a little before 7am to go for quick and super duper easy ride before the race that began at 12.20pm. I was extremely happy to wake up and find that my tyre was still up and not flat. After the bike ride we were back at our motel where we had a quick sleep as we went to bed late the night before the race and then got ready to head down to the race venue to watch our teammate Abby race in the youth race, then went back to the motel and packed our race gear. About a bit over an hour before the race we arrived at the race venue where we watched the male youths compete and then went on to complete our run warm up. 30 minutes before the race, transition opened up, so I headed over to set up my transition and then started preparing for the race. Unfortunately I had walked into the race with a bit of a negative mindset which set me up for a poor race, but I tried to put that behind me and focus on the time ahead and not the past. 

About 15 minutes before the race I headed over to the swim start where I completed a quick swim warm up and practiced running into the water as it was a beach start. I was positioned in a pretty good spot as I was lined up with the buoy straight ahead of me. The horn sounded and we were off. I sprinted into the water and was one of the first in, however I was quickly pushed to the back of the pack and was stuck there until the first buoy. I knew that I had to make up the time that I had lost and it was about a 650m swim along the straight. I made up quite a few placings and got myself into fourth position not too far behind the leaders. As I took a left hand turn around the final buoy and headed into the beach I started to focus on the long run into transition. I came out of the water fourth and ran up the beach but ended up getting the 9th fastest swim time as my run to the timing mat wasn't as fast. I lost probably over 10 placings running into transition and I knew that it was pretty much all over red rover for me and my negative mind set was not helping at all but I kept on going because I'm a Wesley and Wesleys aren't quitters :) 

I ran into transition to where Alan was and put on my helmet and ran out of transition with two other girls which made up the chase pack. Not long after the group behind us caught up and we all began to work together to chase the front pack on the 6 lap bike course. The course was a little technical and due to my lack of technical abilities and lacking bike fitness I was spat out of the bike group on the fourth lap and time trailed for the remaining two laps of the course. Finally after finishing the last lap of the bike I headed into transition, racked Alan and headed out onto the 5.2km run. Once again I was upset with my performance and wasn't feeling great on the run but I gave it what I had and ended up finishing 22nd out of 24 girls which I was extremely disappointed with. There wasn't anything that I could have done about it, so I let it go and set goals for the final race of the Australian Junior Triathlon Series at Champion Lakes in a months time. 

On Sunday morning it was the teams race however a few of the WA girls had pulled out of the relays which meant that my mixed team relay with Brooke and William from Tasmania was canned and I didn't end up competing in a relay. So I packed up my bike in the morning and headed back down to the race venue to watch the others compete in the relays. Later on in the day I went to the airport to check in my bike early and then went back to Glenelg and tagged along with Break Your Limits to the airport ready for our flight a little after 8pm. 

So here I am sitting at the airport that I have been sitting at for the past four hours reflecting on my performance here in Glenelg. I have come so far since my last race from the AJTS series in Devonport, as over the past year I have just completed my final year of schooling and have over come my physical challenges and are still overcoming my mental challenges. I may not have had the best race but I am proud of myself for not ever giving up and I am so very grateful for the people who have stuck there by my side since day one, and particularly the past year. I would like to thank my parents, my friends, the Running Centre and Eclipse Performance Centre for their ongoing support, helping me improve as an athlete. It's only onwards and upwards from here and I hope to only keep on improving and I am looking forward for the great opportunities to come in the future.

Until next time,

Aleisha (Wezla the vegan ✌🏼️)