The Mallory park ird day was the first opportunity for me too race with other people since the start of the lockdown. It wasn’t run as a highly competitive competition but more as a event to get us used to racing again. It was run as a time trail kind of event due to social distancing still being in place.

The first race started at 11 so it was an early start due to us living 2.5 hours away, I slept the full way there only being woken up by my dad’s terrible music. When we got there we were allowed to register and put our bikes straight into transition, I had some time to burn so I went on a steady jog to loosen of the legs. When we were called up to the swim start I felt excited but surprisingly not nervous, I think this was due to fact there was no pressure to perform because everyone was going to be on a different level depending on how much they were able to do during quarantine.

We would be set of at 20 second intervals, the water was nice and warm which was a relief for everyone, the swim was only 250 meters which was surprisingly easy after hardly swimming for four months. I had a fast 1^st transition and flew out onto the bike. Again the bike was very short at 1 lap of the Mallory race circuit (3k). the bike leg flew by and before I knew it I was of on the run after a speedy T2, the legs felt really rusty on the run but I was still able to run quite a fast time.

After the first race we had a few little transition challenges which didn’t go to plan due to me forgetting to put my helmet on. After that we had lunch which was needed after the first few races.

Next was the relay, this was the race I was looking forward too the most. We were put into teams based on the first race results to make it as fair as possible. Me and a friend who were placed on different teams both put ourselves in 2^nd so we could have a little race. Conveniently both our 1^st leg teammates finished at the same time, we entered the water together and stayed together for the whole swim, we both had a quick transition and flew out onto the bike. The rules say no drafting but Kieron stuck me on the front and drafted me for the whole bike. After another quick transition I flew onto the run on got my revenge on him by running my fastest run time of the day.

Altogether it was a really fun day and I loved getting back to racing.