Bassetlaw Sprint Triathlon 2013
August 4th 2013
In March 2013 I was sent to Worksop to work at a precast concrete factory there. I was extremely disappointed to find there was no rowing club in the vicinity, and after some brief research into the (limited) sports clubs, I decided to join Bassetlaw Triathlon Club.
This turned out to be a brilliant decision. Not only did they introduce me to triathlon as a social and competitive sport, I also became familiar with a great group of people and the surroundings of Clumber Park. Possibly the oasis that got me through my time in Worksop, Clumber Park is a beautiful mix of lake, forest and open land. It is also a creative mix of the kept and unkept and boasts both surfaced and unsurfaced trails, which are great for road and mountain biking respectively.
Anyway, getting back to the triathlon, Bassetlaw was my first triathlon (as well as being an inaugural triathlon itself). I woke up on the day understandably nervous as although I'd attempted each of the three sections of the course seperately I'd no idea what to expect when putting them together!
The start point, Valley Leisure Centre, was a mere 500 m or so from my flat so I cycled down already in kit to registration. A little bemused by my envelope from registration, I eventually found transition and unloaded all my stuff. I queried the exact routes to and from transition and got three different answers from three different people, so soon gave up on this, taking the 'it'll all be clear' mantra to heart.
The start was a wave start of swimmers. A 25 m pool meant 16 lengths, which you count personally. I'd predicted something along the lines of 11:30 for the swim, based on previous length swims. I did the whole swim at breastroke, thankful that the previous competitor in my lane hadn't turned up so I only had four others to contend with, rather than five!
Getting out of the pool was fairly easy at 1.0 m depth and I was soon sprinting towards my bike in a very short swim-bike transition run. Remembering all pieces of kit necessary, I found my way out of transition and onto the bike route. This soon went right past my flat and out in a northern direction. My pacing was fairly comfortable, with the wind behind and a fairly flat route which I knew well (thankfully, as there were no distance markers at all). A sharp left took me up a gradually incline, at which point I started to notice a) being tired and b) a slight breeze. However, knowing that the next left would lead to a long downhill section I wasn't too worried.
Unfortunately, upon finding this left I realised that it was actually incredibly windy! I'd unintentionally tagged onto (as much as drafting rules would allow) a couple of male competitors and the three of us battled through the wind, pedalling hard on a section that I knew from experience could normally be freewheeled... The left turn at the end of this section gave slight relieve, and getting back into Worksop we entered transition together.
I managed to complete T2 easily before them but unfortunately proceeded to get lost in the tennis court being used for transition. The three of us were soon sprinting around trying to find the exit, which, eventually found, lost me a few seconds. Out on to the run too, the course differed slightly from that advertised which caught me out. I found myself climbing a little more than expected and saddled with a painful stitch in my right side. This meant I struggled through both laps of the run course and pretty well dragged myself over the finish.
A perhaps disappointing end to my first triathlon, but my results weren't too bad for a novice, and stood as follows:
Times
Total time: 1:28:44
Swim: 10:14.9
T1: 0:59.5
Bike: 45:55.8
T2: 0:59.6
Run: 30:34.2
Standings
Age category: 05/13 38%
Gender category: 19/64 30%
Swim: 27/64 42%
T1: 01/64 1%
Bike: 07/64 11%
T2: 24/64 38%
Run: 52/64 81%
In March 2013 I was sent to Worksop to work at a precast concrete factory there. I was extremely disappointed to find there was no rowing club in the vicinity, and after some brief research into the (limited) sports clubs, I decided to join Bassetlaw Triathlon Club.
This turned out to be a brilliant decision. Not only did they introduce me to triathlon as a social and competitive sport, I also became familiar with a great group of people and the surroundings of Clumber Park. Possibly the oasis that got me through my time in Worksop, Clumber Park is a beautiful mix of lake, forest and open land. It is also a creative mix of the kept and unkept and boasts both surfaced and unsurfaced trails, which are great for road and mountain biking respectively.
Anyway, getting back to the triathlon, Bassetlaw was my first triathlon (as well as being an inaugural triathlon itself). I woke up on the day understandably nervous as although I'd attempted each of the three sections of the course seperately I'd no idea what to expect when putting them together!
The start point, Valley Leisure Centre, was a mere 500 m or so from my flat so I cycled down already in kit to registration. A little bemused by my envelope from registration, I eventually found transition and unloaded all my stuff. I queried the exact routes to and from transition and got three different answers from three different people, so soon gave up on this, taking the 'it'll all be clear' mantra to heart.
The start was a wave start of swimmers. A 25 m pool meant 16 lengths, which you count personally. I'd predicted something along the lines of 11:30 for the swim, based on previous length swims. I did the whole swim at breastroke, thankful that the previous competitor in my lane hadn't turned up so I only had four others to contend with, rather than five!
Getting out of the pool was fairly easy at 1.0 m depth and I was soon sprinting towards my bike in a very short swim-bike transition run. Remembering all pieces of kit necessary, I found my way out of transition and onto the bike route. This soon went right past my flat and out in a northern direction. My pacing was fairly comfortable, with the wind behind and a fairly flat route which I knew well (thankfully, as there were no distance markers at all). A sharp left took me up a gradually incline, at which point I started to notice a) being tired and b) a slight breeze. However, knowing that the next left would lead to a long downhill section I wasn't too worried.
Unfortunately, upon finding this left I realised that it was actually incredibly windy! I'd unintentionally tagged onto (as much as drafting rules would allow) a couple of male competitors and the three of us battled through the wind, pedalling hard on a section that I knew from experience could normally be freewheeled... The left turn at the end of this section gave slight relieve, and getting back into Worksop we entered transition together.
I managed to complete T2 easily before them but unfortunately proceeded to get lost in the tennis court being used for transition. The three of us were soon sprinting around trying to find the exit, which, eventually found, lost me a few seconds. Out on to the run too, the course differed slightly from that advertised which caught me out. I found myself climbing a little more than expected and saddled with a painful stitch in my right side. This meant I struggled through both laps of the run course and pretty well dragged myself over the finish.
A perhaps disappointing end to my first triathlon, but my results weren't too bad for a novice, and stood as follows:
Times
Total time: 1:28:44
Swim: 10:14.9
T1: 0:59.5
Bike: 45:55.8
T2: 0:59.6
Run: 30:34.2
Standings
Age category: 05/13 38%
Gender category: 19/64 30%
Swim: 27/64 42%
T1: 01/64 1%
Bike: 07/64 11%
T2: 24/64 38%
Run: 52/64 81%
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