I've done my first few races a Sprint and an Olympic distance, here are the details:
Cosmeston Sprint Distance (750m Lake Swim, 20k Bike, 5km Run)
It was an early start for the race at 7am which meant I had to be up at 5am to get to the venue ready for registration and rack my bike. It didn't matter how early it was because of pre-race nerves and excitement I was like a kid at christmas waiting for the alarm to go off so I could get going.
When we got there at about 5.45am, I was surprised that we weren't the 1st there by a long shot, a few of the Cardiff Tri lot were running about organising parts of the race and there was already a queue for registration, so I got in line as soon as we got there.
This was a whole new experience and my guts were twisting up with anticipation and excitement. I got my goody bag and numbers written on by arm and leg. In the goody bag there race numbers, chocolate bar and some nutritional stuff. I couldn't wait to use all the gear that I had bought, it sounds sad but I was chuffed to get a race number to put on my race belt!
Time to get my bike racked. I carefully followed all the advice I'd been given about using a distinctive towel (My Budweiser towel from another lifetime), setting out my helmet and run shoes in the best position to get out quickest. Set up the elastic bands on my bike shoes to keep them upright. Unfortunately for something that shouldn't take that long, it did and before I knew it the race brief was about to start.
As well as my gorgeous girlfriend being with me my sisters, brother in laws and their kids showed up to cheer me on. This also added to the pressure to do well, but I'd be lying if I didn't feel proud to be Uncle Tim doing a triathlon!
The race brief was a blur and it was time to get into the water. I remembered a good tip to stop goggles from misting up was to wash your face with the cold water before putting them on, gratefully the event photographer thought this was a good photo opportunity!
Getting into the water was great, all my nervousness has disappeared as I knew that soon we get
started. I positioned myself towards the back as I thought it would be better to fight my way to the front when I got into my stride than get run over by all the better swimmers at the start. First mistake as this meant I was about 20feet behind the person at the front.
Anyhow the race started with already,
steady, go! (The race organisers forgot to bring a horn). I was off! I started off slowly as I didn't really know what my swim fitness was like after 4 weeks of not swim training due to my shoulder injury. To my surprise I got into a steady stroke and started to catch people, swimming on there toes to make it easier. Quite a few times I lost other swimmers and realised I had gone off course, a few times way off course! This was probably my biggest downfall, the other was choosing Aquasphere seal goggles. They're great for visibility but that doesn't mean a thing if they let water in! I had to stop a few times to refit them but before I knew it I was climbing out of the swim on rubbery legs to transition about 70m away.
On the way to transition I had got my wetsuit down to my waist ready and when I got to my bike, pulled it down twice and kicked it off with two kicks, probably took 10 secs if that. I then looked around a bit, had a drink, put my sunnies on, put my race belt on, put my helmet on, had a bit more of my drink... took too bloody long!!! I think I was in a daze from the swim, I quickly regained my thoughts and rushed to the mount area with my bike. Jumped on, fell into a fence, got back onto the bike and concentrated too much on getting my feet into my shoes to see the kerb that I went into and fell off my bike again! Back on and time to go for it!
A quarter of the way into it I see the experienced or at least well kitted triathletes (You can tell by the carbon bikes and tear drop helmets) already on the way back, they must've had a rocket up their bum! But I managed to catch up a few people on the uphill and after the turnaround that uphill is a downhill and I'm zooming down it over 40mph! It's a great feeling! Also I counted how many people were going past me to the turnaround so I knew how many competitors were behind me, I passed about 12, so I knew wasn't last.
Heading back towards transition, a sharp left turn back into the park, when just before it people are shouting my name, it's my family cheering me on (My girlfriend wasn't there as she had chosen that minute to go to the loo), which although giving me a boost nearly made me go into the back end of a land rover that was just into the park. A near miss but avoided. It didn't leave me much time to get my feet out of my shoes before dismounting and I didn't get one off, so hobbled into transition to quickly get it off and change into my running shoes. Off on the run I go!
My legs felt like lead weights and I had to really put the effort in to not stop and walk it off. About half way through and my legs had started to loosen off and my pace picked up. I started to come up on other competitors and overtake them, I got some sadistic pleasure from seeing them struggle as I ran past. As I was nearing the finish line I could see my girlfriend shouting my name and cheering me on, gave me a massive boost, just coming to the finish line and a guy from Hereford tri club whizzes past me and through to the finish line! Git! I guess that was what you call karma, I finished and that was the main thing! Very happy I'd achieved my first triathlon! My only thought was that I could've tried harder, but doing it for the first time I didn't know how much I had left in the tank. I finished 69/86 not the best but not last either!
Results:
Eastnor Castle Classic Triathlon Olympic Distance (1.5k Swim, 43k Bike, 10k Run) Going for Olympic distance might seem like it was a bit ambitious after only doing a sprint distance once, but my race entry was deferred from the Lydney sprint triathlon that I couldn't do because of my swim injury so instead of losing money I decided to do it!
Camping was free on the Saturday with the triathlon on the Sunday so we took advantage of it. Beforehand I took careful preparation to get all my triathlon stuff in my bag. I got my new goggles that were tried and tested, no leakage and good visibility. I didn't have any elastic bands for my bike shoes but I'd stop and get some on the way.
Eastnor is near Ledbury which is in the middle of nowhere, so Eastnor is even further into nowhere! Very scenic village and so small we nearly didn't find it. When we did we pulled into the field we were to camp in and where transition 2 was. Registration was between 3-5pm and we got there about 4pm with not too many people around. I collected the goodie bag, timing chip and registered, no need to come back in the morning as they weren't painting on any numbers. While we were there a couple from Cardiff Tri were there so I introduced ourselves, it was their 1st Olympic distance triathlon also and a few others from the club were coming down.
We set up camp and did..... nothing! All there was to do was go for a walk, which we did. Got some lovely views of the area.
All that was left to do was go to sleep ready for the morning. All I could think about was the race and found it really hard to get to sleep, it didn't help that I had to get up 3 times during the night to empty my bladder because of trying to get enough fluid in to keep me hydrated for the next day. I must've nodded off but my eyes were wide open at 5am and with the sheep in the next field baa-ing there wasn't any chance of me going back to sleep.
I got out of the tent to do some race preparation on my bike and get my stuff ready. Nightmare! I had forgotten to get some elastic bands! I headed over to the camp of the Cardiff Tri lot, they were already up and having breakfast, something I wasn't daring enough to do, nothing in, nothing out was what I was thinking. I had a gel waiting for my breakfast a little later. One of the guys had some spare elastic bands, seemed a little thick but beggars can't be choosers!
Everything was ready by 7.30am and the race didn't start til 10am. The field was now filling up with other competitors and music had started blaring out of the race organisers speakers to get the blood pumping. I really didn't need any help in that department!
Before we knew it the race brief was over, it was all a blur and I didn't really hear any of it, I was concentrating more on getting my breakfast gel into my system. We made our way over to the swim start of the lake. Once in the water, again I felt all the nerves leave me and if I'm honest a little wetsuit warming liquid! :o)
I learned from the last triathlon and positioned myself at the front but towards the inside edge of the 1st buoy (It was a 2 lap circuit anti clockwise around a square marked out by 4 buoys). The horn started the race and we were off! Not so much a swimming race but as I've heard it called before a water ruck! I was accidentally kicking and hitting people as I swam, I didn't feel too guilty as the same was being done to me.
Got to the first buoy no problem and then halfway to the 2nd and my hand digs into dirt as I stroke and my 2% visibility turns into zero?? I lift my head to see what's happening and people are walking in front of me. The water in this part of the lake is only about 2 feet deep! It caught everyone off guard and we're caught in a kind of human traffic jam walking through silt to get to the 2nd buoy, it's still pretty shallow after that but the traffic seems less congested so it's safe to go back to swimming and then after the 3rd buoy it's deep again. I felt really comfortable in the water and my goggles were working a treat with no problems. I only got kicked hard once in the head, but to be fair the guy he turned round and apologised, all part of the game! Out of the swim and feeling good.
It's a good 150m sprint to transition 1. I should explain that there were 2 transition areas one for the bike and another for the run. I whipped off my wetsuit and the only thing that slowed me down was trying to get it into the bag they provided so they could carry it to transition 2 to pick up after the race.
After a bit of advice from Patrick another member of Cardiff Tri, I decided rather than do a running leap onto the bike and then get my feet into my shoes, to get on my bike and get one foot into a shoe before pedalling off and getting the other into the shoe while moving. Worked very well and I was on my way, 27 miles to go! Except it seemed like very hard work for the gear that I was in? The elastic bands that Patrick had kindly given me were too thick and didn't snap, I used my hand to break them and got some lovely blood blisters on the outside of my hand!
It was a very fast course to begin with probably because I was still feeling fresh from the swim and got into a good rhythm. I downed a well earned Gel to help me on the way. I found I was catching up to quite a few people and getting past them. With one guy called Roger we were taking it in turns to overtake each other, trying not to draft each other and when there was no traffic we rode alongside and chatted briefly about the race. I asked him if he was looking forward to the run and he said he'd see how he felt after the bike. Anyhow I was going a bit faster than him so I bid farewell and tried to make up a few more places.
Everything was going well and I knew what was coming from seeing an elevation chart before the race for the bike ride, an ascent of 200m over 4km!
It began ok and it started to slowly wear me down, when I thought I was getting to the plateau I'd turn a corner and another uphill would face me. I came to an abrupt stop after one such moment and got off my bike to stretch my back that had got more and more painful. Determined not to let it beat me I got on the bike after about 30 seconds. It was amazing the pedal power I got from resting just that little amount! Sods law that I had stopped on the last uphill before getting to the top, but I'd got there and the downhill was as long as the uphill so was very fast. One thought going through my head as the beautiful scenery whizzed past me was that it was 2 laps of this course and I'd have to get over that mountain again! If it was a sprint I'd be nearing the end and onto the run, oh well I told myself to HTFU and get on with it.
I went past transition, spectators cheering me on, I'd forgotten to tell my girlfriend there were 2 laps so she was in a nice warm car watching her tv show on the ipod, how I envied her at that moment. On to the 2nd lap and I'd pretty much had my mind focused on finishing no matter what, doubts had crept in on that 1st lap, I hadn't trained enough, my bike wasn't good enough etc. You find some crap excuse to stop the pain, but pain goes and quitting is there forever so onwards and upwards. That is after I'd had a pee, I'd either drunk too much water or the gels I was having were going through me. So I nipped behind a tree to let it out. I hadn't seen anyone for at least half an hour, but while I was behind that tree 5 or 6 people went by!! including Roger! I quickly got back onto my bike and tried to catch up and before we knew it we were at the bottom of the mountain again. This time there was going to be no stopping! And there wasn't, I hacked away at it until I got to the top. My only worry was these extremely fit looking blokes overtaking me and I realised I was being lapped by the guys doing the middle distance. They did the same length swim as us but had to do 4 laps of the bike course and 2 laps on the run. I wasn't too bothered as it was mostly downhill to transition, hats off to the mad buggers I couldn't wait to get off the bike, I couldn't imagine doing another 2 laps! Transition was about 3km away and I had Roger in my sight again, I was determined to overtake him before getting into the run. It didn't take too much effort, the only advantage being heavier than other competitors is that you're quicker on the down hill, I flew past him so quickly I didn't even get a chance to say hello.
Nearing transition 2 I get my feet out of my bike shoes ready for a fast dismount, turn into transition and I'm off the bike! I was so grateful! A quick change into my trainers and onto the run. This seems like absolute bliss! I'm comfortably running. Not far from the start and I see a couple of the Cardiff Tri heading to the finish. I realise I've had a slow bike leg, but I decide finishing is the immediate goal to worry about. I wish there was more to say about the run but it just flew by I didn't overtake anyone and 2 people overtook me, I was long past caring.
When the finish line was in sight I could've cried! Although after crossing the line I didn't feel
elated or proud, just really knackered!! I think this was due to me knowing I could've done better, but it was my first Olympic distance and I didn't know how much to keep in the tank so to speak. I will chalk this race up to experience and focus on the next races to increase my finishing position which was 66 out of 72. To see the results
click here.Just a small note, after we had something to eat and drink and packed up the tent and were just pulling out of the field a very knackered Roger was begining his 4th lap of the bike course. He was obviously doing the middle distance! Poor fella and I thought he was slower than me but he was obviously pacing himself, he finished the race in 6hr 9mins. It's unthinkable to me how he managed it, I was fancying Ironman, but I think this race might've changed my mind... for now anyway ;oP
On the way home Monday the sensor for my bike computer on the front fork of my bike was slightly tapping against the spokes of the front wheel. Did I stop and adjust it? No! I stupidly tried to adjust it while still riding. My hand got caught in the front spokes badly bashed my thumb and took a couple of layers of skin off it, a few other fingers got scuffed. It's left me with swollen thumb with an open wound (I'm trying to dry it out). But it's a nightmare as I can't cycle or swim until it's healed up enough to not let infection in and not hurt. It's really spoilt my training for my next triathlon in 10 days time!!
