Oulton park standard distance duathlon

This was my 'A' race for the end of season.
I wanted to qualify for the European standard distance duathlon championships in 2015.
The race was a late start ... 1pm.
Late start Plus points: 1)spend the night before at home and go to bed at normal time. 2)Get up on race morning at a reasonable time.
Late start Negative points: 1)How much do I eat and when do I eat it? 2)Waiting.

We left home at 8am and I had consumed 2 pieces of toasty malt loaf and a very strong cup of coffee. The only food I had packed in my bag was 3 vooma gels and a cliff bar. I can't believe I had overlooked real food. We stopped at the motorway services and picked up a sandwich!
We arrived in good time, bike set up, number tattoos in place, bike and run warm up, transition set up...smooth.
After briefing we were on the track for a few minutes warm up before the start.
This distance was 2 laps of the track first run, 9 laps of the track for the bike, 1 final lap run.
My biggest and only fear for the day was counting the laps.
Nine.
9.
One more than 8
One less than 10.
I hate numbers. In my other life as a group exercise/exercise to music instructor I only need to count in multiples of 8!
Numbers....munbers. Not for me! #panic

After racing sprint du's and tri's, this distance gave me new issues. When I race a sprint I basically go out all guns blazing and just do everything as dirty fast as I can. This distance required some planning.
I held back on the first run, just a bit. Not wanting to burn out too soon. I used my garmin and kept to my own planned pace.
The bike was great....no braking and pretty much tri bars all the way. A dream come true. Oulton park is not a flat track....banked hairpins, a  couple of rises, some flat outs...great fun. Ride your bike like you're ten years old type of riding!
So how did I cope with counting? I didn't. I went with one of the suggestions on the race notes....use letters of the alphabet instead of numbers ! Bingo! I can do that. Think of words beginning with A, B,C etc all the way to I. It worked a treat. I tried to thing of positive words...'Amazing, Boom, Catch, Drive, Energy, Fly, Gain, Hooray!, Inspiration. I coupled this with the idea of thinking of swear/rude words to match the letters too ! I will spare you the details, but It worked.
Whilst cycling round the track a chap came surging past me and called out to me 'Nice bike'....I suppose he thought this was a compliment, however I couldn't help thinking that clearly gone are the days of me hearing 'nice bum' whilst racing!
I came into T2 feeling strong.  I ran the final run comfortably, and crossed the finish line in good form.

Smiling at the finish :-)

I finished 5th female. Happy with that. Then realised a little bonus when I picked up my splits from the timing tent. I was first in age category (45-49) however, really I was second, as Louella O'Herlihy is in my age group but she finished first female overall. StuWeb timing take the first 3 finishers (male and female) out of the age group rankings! Cool, a podium picture and an 'Extra mile events' mug to take home. But best result for me today, qualification for the Europeans.

They put the male 45/49 first prize winner on the lower step of the podium so we looked more attractive on camera  :-) #cheers

Great event, great organisation, best of all great track to ride your bike around....However, don't go for the scenery, go for the feel!