Another month gone. Another 2 weeks of cycling and swimming in Limburg (South of Netherlands). We wanted to ride the Eddy Merckx cyclo, but I got sick unfortunately. Afterwards the dissappointment was a little less after hearing that they had only cycled in the rain. Not that I am afraid of some rain, but I am not a real hero in descending on a slippery road and I have enough problems dealing one injury.

However, mostly I was busy with de last preparations fort the first woman triathlon in the Netherlands at the Betuwestrand in Beesd (www.vrouwentriathlon.nl). After more than a year of preparatons, meetings etc etc last Sunday finally D-day. It was like having a race myself. At 5:15 am my alarm went off, laoding the car with all kinds of stuff and up we went to the triathlon side. Kitty was already very busy when we arrived just before 6. Our men were also very happy  today with our women triathlon things. However they were helping and working hard en before we knew we were beating the schedule. The first participants arrived early, however everything was  ready and registration could start.

The weather was beautiful and we were happy that many campers (at least that was what many of them told us) had ordered this nice weather. At 9:15 we had the briefing and after that the warming-up with Mariska Kramer (2 times Ironman winner). YOu can get an impression of this on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCUCvQTX7To.
 

At 10 am the first wave started. The water temperature was 25 degrees celcius so a non wetsuit swim, however most of these women did not have one anyway. It was a field with great variety of participants. One on a city bike with bags, another one on a mountain bike, one woman with a bike that had hung in the shed for 15 years (she said that the first trip had been to the bike store and all rubber parts had been replaced), even a hand bike but also fancy road and time trial bikes. Although some had done a triathlon before, for over 75% of the women it was the first time they did a triathlon. .

Most ladies confessed that they started with the thoughts of completing the thing and having fun, but slowly they became more and more fanatical. Almost a 100% of the women had underestimate themselves by telling us their expected finish time. This concluded into a longer waiting time for the tomobola (lotery of very nice prices) on start numbers.

Afterwards we received many compliments and for most of the women it was definitely not the last time to do a triathlon. We as the organising team went home tired but satisfied. The succes was ofcourse not only because of us but also a result of the good weather, the sponsors, the volunteers and the participants themselves. We hope to have the second edition next year and maybe have a sprint distance as well. 

Below a link to a local newspaper article (in Dutch but the pictures are universal).

http://www.nieuwsbladgeldermalsen.nl/page/Lokaal/Regionaal-Detail/Vrouwentriatlon-in-Beesd-in-opzet.389128.news