Warwickshire Sprint Triathlon 2013
September 29th 2013
To give you an overview of my state of mind going into my third triathlon, I suggest referring to my post from two weeks previously, about the London Bikeathon. After this 100-miler I spent Monday feeling fine, and headed for a relaxing swim in the evening. Unfortunately this was not to be so and after the swim I felt absolutely awful. Cycling to work the next day was a huge struggle and by lunch time I'd been sent home as too ill to work. By the time I'd cycled back, packed, cycled to the train station, caught my train, changed and Sheffield, caught another train, cycled through Derby and then been driven home, I was only good for bed. And so began my first ever four day stint off work.
Two weeks later and I'd not really recovered. I'd been back at work but unable to train or eat sensibly so was decidedly dubious about the triathlon. In fact, had I not already paid for entry and encouraged a close friend, Hannah, to enter as her first event, I certainly wouldn't have been racing!
After finally managing to park, I attempted to rack my bike but discovered I couldn't do this for a fair while. When I eventually managed to do so, finding a space was difficult...
The swim was a unique experience for me. A 33.3 m pool was new, and the course involved swimming four lengths in each of the three huge lanes and ducking lane ropes to switch. I'd been planning on swimming a quarter of the swim with crawl, a stroke I'm learning, but the combination of the different format and being ill meant I stuck with breaststroke yet again. Disappointing in terms of progress but I was pleased to make under nine minutes with the stroke.
Getting out of the pool was via a single ladder, and I had to frustratingly wait for two ladies to very slowly amble their way out of the pool (thinking, this IS a race you know...). I managed to bypass one on the way out of the room and the other on the steps (slightly awkward) and make it to my bike. A fairly smooth transition was followed by the worst bike mount ever.
The bike route began by going up and down the speed bumps on the way out of the car park, dodging cars and pedestrians on the way. It then proceeded along a very narrow road over a bridge - a main route in town and so busy I had to wait a few times. Thankfully two of the traffic lights were green and the other was a perhaps questionable jumping on my part but I didn't get a penalty so I assume I'd just about made it safely. Turning left of this road was a huge relief, and I began along a quieter but still well marked part of the route.
With my swim times improving I'm starting to find more and more people on the bike route. I get great motivation from spotting onto and overtaking people and have yet to be overtaken by another female competitor, so made it my aim to do this as many times as possible on the bike route. I must have made about 50 women and even found some straggling men on the final part, before cycling back into transition, a little traumatised by the dual carriageway section of the ride but otherwise ok.
T2 did not go well. Some idiot had decided that it would be a good idea to put there bike where mine had been (and above all my belongings) so I had to wander around to find a space. I then had to re-find my shoes etc. and prepare for the run. The run route was not particularly clearly marked and was a two lap out and back(ish) route. The surface was good and it wasn't too busy so this should have been a fairly good run for me but I think my illness started to catch up on my, and with laboured breathing and some interesting jumps over various mounts I literally dragged myself around. Demotivated by being overtaken by a few GB competitors who'd started a good 20 minutes after me, I was very glad to finish!
Here I must add a well done to Hannah, who completed her first event with a great time and is looking to compete in next year's season too.
This was my first UKTri event, and my experience of it has put me off entering another, for a variety of reasons:
Given my state of ill health, I was absolutely chuffed with my results. An age category win and great improvement in swim time. Still disgruntled about the lack of transition timing for a race with such a high entry fee and participation:
Times
Total time: 1:27:49
Swim: 08:54
T1: --
Bike: 49:05
T2: --
Run: 29:50
Standings
Age category: 01/06 08% Category win!
Gender category: 30/152 20%
Swim: 67/152 44%
T1: --
Bike: 18/152 12%
T2: --
Run: 63/152 41%
To give you an overview of my state of mind going into my third triathlon, I suggest referring to my post from two weeks previously, about the London Bikeathon. After this 100-miler I spent Monday feeling fine, and headed for a relaxing swim in the evening. Unfortunately this was not to be so and after the swim I felt absolutely awful. Cycling to work the next day was a huge struggle and by lunch time I'd been sent home as too ill to work. By the time I'd cycled back, packed, cycled to the train station, caught my train, changed and Sheffield, caught another train, cycled through Derby and then been driven home, I was only good for bed. And so began my first ever four day stint off work.
Two weeks later and I'd not really recovered. I'd been back at work but unable to train or eat sensibly so was decidedly dubious about the triathlon. In fact, had I not already paid for entry and encouraged a close friend, Hannah, to enter as her first event, I certainly wouldn't have been racing!
After finally managing to park, I attempted to rack my bike but discovered I couldn't do this for a fair while. When I eventually managed to do so, finding a space was difficult...
The swim was a unique experience for me. A 33.3 m pool was new, and the course involved swimming four lengths in each of the three huge lanes and ducking lane ropes to switch. I'd been planning on swimming a quarter of the swim with crawl, a stroke I'm learning, but the combination of the different format and being ill meant I stuck with breaststroke yet again. Disappointing in terms of progress but I was pleased to make under nine minutes with the stroke.
Getting out of the pool was via a single ladder, and I had to frustratingly wait for two ladies to very slowly amble their way out of the pool (thinking, this IS a race you know...). I managed to bypass one on the way out of the room and the other on the steps (slightly awkward) and make it to my bike. A fairly smooth transition was followed by the worst bike mount ever.
The bike route began by going up and down the speed bumps on the way out of the car park, dodging cars and pedestrians on the way. It then proceeded along a very narrow road over a bridge - a main route in town and so busy I had to wait a few times. Thankfully two of the traffic lights were green and the other was a perhaps questionable jumping on my part but I didn't get a penalty so I assume I'd just about made it safely. Turning left of this road was a huge relief, and I began along a quieter but still well marked part of the route.
With my swim times improving I'm starting to find more and more people on the bike route. I get great motivation from spotting onto and overtaking people and have yet to be overtaken by another female competitor, so made it my aim to do this as many times as possible on the bike route. I must have made about 50 women and even found some straggling men on the final part, before cycling back into transition, a little traumatised by the dual carriageway section of the ride but otherwise ok.
T2 did not go well. Some idiot had decided that it would be a good idea to put there bike where mine had been (and above all my belongings) so I had to wander around to find a space. I then had to re-find my shoes etc. and prepare for the run. The run route was not particularly clearly marked and was a two lap out and back(ish) route. The surface was good and it wasn't too busy so this should have been a fairly good run for me but I think my illness started to catch up on my, and with laboured breathing and some interesting jumps over various mounts I literally dragged myself around. Demotivated by being overtaken by a few GB competitors who'd started a good 20 minutes after me, I was very glad to finish!
Here I must add a well done to Hannah, who completed her first event with a great time and is looking to compete in next year's season too.
This was my first UKTri event, and my experience of it has put me off entering another, for a variety of reasons:
- The start was very late - from 11:00. Given Stratford is a busy tourist town this meant battling through traffic to get there, limited parking and battling through more traffic on the bike.
- The bike route was extremely busy. The long uphill section on a 70 mph dual carriage way was, in my opinion, very dangerous.
- The entry fee was quite high (£50+)
- There was no chip timing and no transition times were given
- No free t-shirt (minor, but I've gotten more at other, cheaper triathlons)
- Transition wasn't numbered and you weren't allowed to rack bikes until too close to your start time, I was nearly late because of it
- Transition was mayhem!
- Swim was mayhem! Three huge lanes with single starters every 15 secs. No clear means of overtaking and time spent traversing sideways and ducking lane ropes.
- I experienced some discomfort on the run from having to wear two race numbers. Is this really necessary?
- Finding your time was tricky - a rolling screen that went incredibly slowly through a huge number of pages sorted alphabetically.
- Pricey parking
Given my state of ill health, I was absolutely chuffed with my results. An age category win and great improvement in swim time. Still disgruntled about the lack of transition timing for a race with such a high entry fee and participation:
Times
Total time: 1:27:49
Swim: 08:54
T1: --
Bike: 49:05
T2: --
Run: 29:50
Standings
Age category: 01/06 08% Category win!
Gender category: 30/152 20%
Swim: 67/152 44%
T1: --
Bike: 18/152 12%
T2: --
Run: 63/152 41%
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