So near. Yet so far away.

When setting yourself challenges, it is always good to have attempted them and if not quite beat them, at least made a good effort at attaining them. But 3 minutes 17 seconds were to ruin my first triathlon of the season.

Last Sunday evening when results we're published for the fingal sprint, my confirmed time was 1hr 17 minutes exactly. I was absolutely  delighted. My target window was 1:20-1:25, so beating that by three minutes had me thrilled.

Sunday was a very hot day, and as I had to register on the morning I had a lot, probably too much, time to hang around.  About a dozen from Piranha's new to tri group were doing it, so as people arrived there was a good buzz building, fuelled by nervous energy. Everyone was just egging to get started.

The 750 metre swim was pool based and could only be described as chaotic at best. Despite a minor miscount on my lengths I got through it well enough in about 14 minutes. Not brilliant but not way off either.

A hectic T1 and out onto an out-and-back bike route. The new bike was pushed as hard as possible. Into the wind on the way out I looked forward to upping the ante on the way back. No such luck. The wind turned with us and offered little or no respite.  So the legs were that bit heavier heading into T2.

The run took place at the height of the midday heat and with a steady slight uphill straight out of transition, I thumped rather than glided way through at least the first kilometre. Things didn't get too much easier until the turnaround. Finally a bit of a downhill to the finish line, which couldn't come quickly enough.

The wait for results is always annoying. So the relief and delight on seeing them was great. However this delight was swiftly ended on Thursday morning on receipt of an email from the race organisers.

The swim times were out by 3 minutes and 17 seconds. So my revised time was 1:20:17. When facing this against my target I should still be very pleased. And in one sense I am. If I received this time immediately after the race I would have been thrilled.  But to have my better time taken away is gutting. I must simply use it as resolve to better my times later in the year.

Quite when the next race will be is uncertain. An arrival in the household, a new baby daughter, Eve, will determine the answer to that. So the only race at the moment I have to worry about is the human race (it's bad I know, but give the new dad a break).

So while 3 minutes 17 seconds brought me disappointment yesterday, a bundle of 6lbs 10ozs has brought me nothing but total joy and pride.