"I did the triathlon yesterday and managed to complete it as I had hoped, YAY!! and PHEW!!! lol. The river swim was what I was looking forward to the most, id never done a triathlon all on my own before (iv done a tandem triathlon twice) and id never swam in open water in a competition before, so it was pretty exciting.

The bike ride was relatively straight forward and was pretty much on a flat surface all the way so that wasn't really a struggle, except all the pros whizzed passed me pretty quickly, but that was ok, I didn't expect to come first at all and I really didn't mind if I came last, I just wanted to do it as quickly as I could and I wanted to ENJOY IT!!!! That's the absolute key.

And when they all flew by me for a second time on the opposite side of the road on their way back, one thing I quickly realised was that because I was raising awareness for CRY by wearing the t-shirt when they saw that I got a really nice smile from every single one of them, and when all the marshalls saw my t-shirt as I was approaching their station and ran by they all made the effort to clap and cheer for me too, and not everyone got that either, I really do think it was because I was doing something for CRY, one guy even shouted out after me "Your a CRY athlete now"!!! (as opposed to a triathlete) which I thought was cool.

The run I was confident about as I've been running since Sept 2009 and I was the runner in the tandem triathlons I had done and I have also completed 2 half marathons non stop (13.1 miles), but I must say that the 3 miles I ran yesterday were tough, I think it was perhaps because I had done the swim and the cycling previously with no rests or anything it was literally bam bam bam, which was ace and I loved it, but boy did it feel more then 3 miles!!!! haha.

Did I enjoy it?

Yep every second!

Would I do it again?

Yep ABSOLUTELY!!!

It was an absolutely awesome experience and I'm still buzzing from it, I just couldn't settle when I got home and I think I eventually got to bed at 11:30pm after doing things around the house and getting the children's school uniforms ready etc, also directly after finishing the triathlon I took my daughter and a loaded car (with my bike included) to her college for her first year, she is 16 and is 'living in' in the accommodation next to her college, I'm so proud of her as a couple of years ago she was having an awful time at high school and I didn't imagine that this day would come at all, so I was smiling from ear to ear for 2 reasons yesterday.

I also had a fantastic support team which included 2 of my best friends Lisa and Emma, their children, Lisa's mum, my mum and my 2 daughters, unfortunately my son wasn't there as he was with his granddad on an outing. Lisa had bought some white t-shirts and my girls and Lisa, Emma and Lisa's daughter and mum all decorated them with 'Team Rosie Lee', my name isn't Rosie Lee its just Rosie (actually its Rosie Emily) and I don't even drink tea that much I'm more of a coffee person, but its a name that has seemed to have stuck a couple of years ago when I first stared running, it makes me laugh though, and one thing that kept me going when I was on the last bit of the run was hearing my 13 year old shout out at the top of her voice GO ON MUM!!! and it really was loud!!! It certainly did the trick though.

I'm very much looking forward to running for CRY in the Birmingham Great Run (formally the Birmingham Half Marathon) in October, and I will be raising money for that one."

Rosie Edwards