BRAT Kingsbury Triathlon 2014
June 7th 2014
750m open water swim, 20k bike, 5km run
My first open water triathlon!
Stressed is the word of the day.... This being the nearest triathlon to my home, and at my local swim view, I cut it slightly fine with setting off. However, traffic at 7am on a Sunday was pretty much non-existent, and finding myself 10 minutes early I decided to have a quick drive around the bike route, following signs set up the night before. Error! I realised the importance of marshals - I missed a single sign and ended up 20 miles away from the start, with just 40 minutes to go. Some fast and paniced driving later, I arrived with just 20 minutes spare.
Parking (and also it turns out, transition) was on some boggy grass, so I sprinted across this and quickly set up my transition area. As the forecast was for torrential rain (Met weather warning) and thunderstorms I decided to put plastic bags (the only waterproof resource I had with me...) over my helmet and shoes. The guy next to me laughed at me for doing so, but to be honest, I think I had the last laugh here.
Next I sprinted to the changing room to put the wetsuit on - if you think getting a wetsuit off in a hurry is difficult, try getting it on 5 minutes before your start time! This could have normally been done outside as I was wearing my trisuit already, but this was the point at which the thunder came rolling in, and some pretty but slightly worrying lightning bolts could be seen over the far end of the lake. Fork lightening in the Midlands is quite rare, so it was quite a sight to behold!
I finally got the wetsuit on and sprinted off to the start, watching the super-sprinters start in the torrential downpour. It eased off slightly as we started, and soon I was off. The mass start did panic me a little (but not compared to the aquathlon, so that appears to have been a useful exercise) and in any case, the pack moved away very quickly. I had a very steady swim, not really getting any rhythm until after the turn, but surviving what felt like a very long swim nevertheless.
I was appreciative of the hands hoisting me out of the water as I suddenly found myself very dizzy. Clambered up the wet slope to transition (crossing some super-sprinters already on the run!!) and promptly fell over whilst trying to de-wetsuit myself. The thing finally came off and I poured the full bag worth of water off my helmet and shoes (feeling smug), putting them on and running across the bog to the bike mount line.
Cleats now nicely full of mud, I set off on the cycle ride - which was nicely flat compared to the route I'd driven around (!) and thankfully this was quite uneventful apart from a warning about drafting as I ended up with a bunch of 10 or so riders. I think the decent bike course allowed me to relax a little, and my second transition was much calmer.
The run course was familiar, being two laps around the aquathlon run route. I settled in quite well but did feel tired, and the hill up the bund is a killer. Support for the run was good though, and before long I was done!
Overall I actually enjoyed this one, despite the lack of preparation beforehand. I would definitely recommend it, the course was a hundred times more inspiring than BRAT's pool sprint. They also gave us a lovely t-shirt, plenty of freebies and a great timing service. Ok, so I'm bigging up my own club here, but it was a really good, well organised event.
Times
Total time: 1:27:53
Swim: 16:31
T1: 02:09
Bike: 43:29
T2: 00:34
Run: 25:08
Standings
Age category: 03/05 60%
Gender category: 11/22 50%
Swim: 14/22 64%
T1: 08/22 36%
Bike: 09/22 41%
T2: 02/22 09%
Run: 13/22 59%
750m open water swim, 20k bike, 5km run
My first open water triathlon!
Stressed is the word of the day.... This being the nearest triathlon to my home, and at my local swim view, I cut it slightly fine with setting off. However, traffic at 7am on a Sunday was pretty much non-existent, and finding myself 10 minutes early I decided to have a quick drive around the bike route, following signs set up the night before. Error! I realised the importance of marshals - I missed a single sign and ended up 20 miles away from the start, with just 40 minutes to go. Some fast and paniced driving later, I arrived with just 20 minutes spare.
Parking (and also it turns out, transition) was on some boggy grass, so I sprinted across this and quickly set up my transition area. As the forecast was for torrential rain (Met weather warning) and thunderstorms I decided to put plastic bags (the only waterproof resource I had with me...) over my helmet and shoes. The guy next to me laughed at me for doing so, but to be honest, I think I had the last laugh here.
Next I sprinted to the changing room to put the wetsuit on - if you think getting a wetsuit off in a hurry is difficult, try getting it on 5 minutes before your start time! This could have normally been done outside as I was wearing my trisuit already, but this was the point at which the thunder came rolling in, and some pretty but slightly worrying lightning bolts could be seen over the far end of the lake. Fork lightening in the Midlands is quite rare, so it was quite a sight to behold!
I finally got the wetsuit on and sprinted off to the start, watching the super-sprinters start in the torrential downpour. It eased off slightly as we started, and soon I was off. The mass start did panic me a little (but not compared to the aquathlon, so that appears to have been a useful exercise) and in any case, the pack moved away very quickly. I had a very steady swim, not really getting any rhythm until after the turn, but surviving what felt like a very long swim nevertheless.
I was appreciative of the hands hoisting me out of the water as I suddenly found myself very dizzy. Clambered up the wet slope to transition (crossing some super-sprinters already on the run!!) and promptly fell over whilst trying to de-wetsuit myself. The thing finally came off and I poured the full bag worth of water off my helmet and shoes (feeling smug), putting them on and running across the bog to the bike mount line.
Cleats now nicely full of mud, I set off on the cycle ride - which was nicely flat compared to the route I'd driven around (!) and thankfully this was quite uneventful apart from a warning about drafting as I ended up with a bunch of 10 or so riders. I think the decent bike course allowed me to relax a little, and my second transition was much calmer.
The run course was familiar, being two laps around the aquathlon run route. I settled in quite well but did feel tired, and the hill up the bund is a killer. Support for the run was good though, and before long I was done!
Overall I actually enjoyed this one, despite the lack of preparation beforehand. I would definitely recommend it, the course was a hundred times more inspiring than BRAT's pool sprint. They also gave us a lovely t-shirt, plenty of freebies and a great timing service. Ok, so I'm bigging up my own club here, but it was a really good, well organised event.
Times
Total time: 1:27:53
Swim: 16:31
T1: 02:09
Bike: 43:29
T2: 00:34
Run: 25:08
Standings
Age category: 03/05 60%
Gender category: 11/22 50%
Swim: 14/22 64%
T1: 08/22 36%
Bike: 09/22 41%
T2: 02/22 09%
Run: 13/22 59%
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