1, Enjoy! My best races are when relaxed; stressing out only causes headaches and tense muscles.
2, Don’t be intimidated. Triathlon is one of the most all-inclusive sports you will find, and you are guaranteed to make friends who will encourage you, whatever your goals.
3, Join a club. Training with others makes it much easier to get to sessions on time, and others with strengths in the different disciplines will encourage you to get the most out of each session.
4, Plan your training. If you have limited time, planning takes some of the stress away from trying to fit everything in to your day.
5, Practice transitions – one of the things I still have a lot to work on!
6, Train hard, race easy. I have found knowing what my race pace feels like in training has really helped in races.
7, Do some sessions with race equipment/race clothes to make sure they are comfortable.
8, When racing, be prepared. Read all the competitor info before the race so you know exactly where to go to register, rack your bike and start the swim and at what time.
9, Get to the race early! Everything always takes longer than you think on race morning, whether it’s walking from the car park to the start or a queue to rack your bike.
10, Ignore what everyone else is saying on race morning. There’s always a lot of ‘nervous chat’ going on which is usually not worth listening to – be confident in your own preparations!