This was the first triathlon I booked when I decided to give them a go last year. Although I ended up doing others first, I was still looking forward to this one. It was a bit of a strange one, as it kind of snuck up on me. I had a lot on at work the week before, and was working until late on Saturday night, and I was leaving to go away for work early morning on Monday, so I felt really badly prepared for it compared to others.
Aims:
- Come close to hitting my predicted swim time of 7:30.
- Negative splits on the run, and put some of the Thursday night coaching into practice.
Got there with plenty of time, but couldn’t rack my back until 30 minutes before my start time of 12:12, so I just watched people coming in and out of transition, getting to know the entrances, exits etc. Lost track of time, so I ended up rushing the setting up of my transition area, but I knew everything was there, so I was good to go. Goggle and swim cap, and off to the swim start.
Swim
The swim was a 400m pool swim. While queuing up to start, the guy was going through the briefing for the swim. The pool was split into 4 large lanes, you had to do 100m in each lane, ducking under the ropes into the next lane after each 100m. Bit of a pain, and figured I probably wouldn’t hit my swim time now with the added fuss.
The person ahead of me didn’t turn up, so I had a good amount of time to get in the water and get ready to go. Didn’t realise I was at the deep end, so when I jumped in expecting the floor, I ended up inhaling a load of water as I didn’t hit the floor until there was also a foot of water above my head, so I came up spluttering, looking like an amateur, lol.
The shout came for me to go, and off I went. As practised, relaxed, steady, no manic windmilling of the arms. Worked pretty well, ended up catching the guy ahead and overtaking. The ducking under the ropes wasn’t too bad in the end, but definitely added time.
Got into my last 100m and learned that the guy behind me could do with cutting his nails, as it felt like he sliced the bottom of my foot open. There was loads of space in the lane, so he started to overtake down the middle. I let him ahead at the next wall, and just drafted behind him for the last 50m. Calmed my breathing ready to run out to T2 and onto the bike
Bike
Didn’t leave my socks bunched up ready to put on, and I didn’t undo the velcro on my bike shoes ready to put on, the result of rushing when setting up transition. Socks and shoes on, helmet and sunglasses on, gel down, number belt on and off I went.
I had some higher hopes for the bike on this one. I was apparently flat, and I had been putting some more time in on the bike than usual. I opted to use my new road bike for this triathlon, with some clip on aero bars. The course was quite technical, lots of corners, turns etc. and thought it would do better than my older tri bike.
Same story as always though, I got passed by a lot of people on the bike. One guy decided to make the fast car noise you typically do as a child when he went past me (nnnyyyyuuummmmm), actually annoyed me quite a bit at the time lol, although I still don’t think I see the funny side even now lol. The course was a little wet, with big puddles in areas, and the first lap was good to pick them out to avoid on future ones. Skidded after braking going around a roundabout, very nearly came off. Made a note to take that one a little slower next time.
There was a lot of drafting going on, and people overtaking on whichever side they fancied without shouting (nearly had a wipeout going around a corner and some guy sneaking through a gap on my left).
6 laps in total, and was a little shorter than the advertised 18km. I was at 16.7km when I had finished the 6, so I asked the guy before I went into transition if there was an extra bit as I was a bit short. He was about to send me on another lap before another marshal said it was running around 17km. Bit of a delay, but into T2.
Run
T2 went smoothly. Bike racked, helmet off, running shoes slipped on with ease, number turned to the front and off I went.
The run was 4 laps of the course, which was mostly on the bike track, but also went around onto the grass, which was quite muddy and boggy now, which reduced me to a slow jog so as to not slip over.
Felt pretty good on the run, just didn’t feel like I gave it my all for some reason, and it was difficult keeping any decent speed up on the wet/muddy bank with my road shoes.
The run seemed to run short as well. I had planned to go all out from about 500m, but the run was about 200m short of 5km, so my sprint finish was cut short.
Then over the line and done. The event that I booked to get me started with triathlon completed.
Official Results
Swim: 7:49
T1: 1:34
Bike: 38:15
T2: 0:56
Run: 23:54
Overall: 1:11:27
10th in Age Group
69/197 Overall (Male)
My takeaway from this event is pretty much the same as the others, spend more time on the bike and get better/faster!
I was looking for around 1:10, so not too far off. Slowed down a little by rushing my transition setup, and having to check the bike route with the marshal to make sure I did it all. Both my fault for not checking the route fully before and losing track of time. Still, another event down, and looking forward to the Big Lime, and preparing for it better.
