Oakham Sprint Triathlon 2014
June 29th 2014
400m pool swim, 22km bike, 4.5 km run
The end of a run of a few races for me!
Oakham triathlon takes place at Catmose College in Oakham, Leicestershire. The college itself is a collection of lovely new buildings on a great site. Unfortunately the swimming pool itself is an old building, resembling perhaps a greenhouse which has lived out it's design life. Having found no changing facilities at all, I put on my trisuit and headed for the swim. The pool itself wasn't so bad, quite bright due to the window arrangement and only four lanes. The lanes them self were pretty busy and I found myself at points with four others, but somehow managed a fairly decent swim.
Out and down the steps to transition I enjoyed the short swim to bike distance. However, once I had my bike it was a good 100 m run to the mount line! Mounted and going, I completed the sneak extra half kilometre that had been added the day before the race (with no maps!) and set off onto the route. With the threatening weather, I made good initial progress. By about 5k in I felt duly recovered from the swim and with one long climb done settled into the bike. From this point to perhaps 2k from the finish I saw just one other. A little disturbing as the signage wasn't particularly frequent and there didn't seem to be any marshals. I was also coming across hills galore, adding to the worry that I'd gone the wrong way as the course had been described as 'lightly undulating'. Coming back in sight of Oakham I was incredibly relived to find another cyclist and familiar surroundings, albeit disappointed with my apparently slow bike time.
Bank to transition and another sprint from dismount to racking, I ditched my bike, grumbling in my head at my misfortune of being at the very far end of an out-and-back type transition, having further to go than everyone else.
The start of the run course went through the roadworks, making it clearly apparent why the bike route had been diverting. Crossing the road next to the roadworks and temporary lights was hazardous enough on foot! The run course was a fairly dull single out-and-back lap. Saying this, the surface was predictable and it had a right angle bend halfway out meaning I could mentally split the course into four. Miraculously I seemed to recover very quickly from the tough bike course and had a cracking run. I'm assuming from my time (my 5k PB is around 25 mins) that the course was shorter than the advertised 5k too...
Overall a well run event in a nice new complex. The swimming and changing facilities could do with updating. I probably won't do this again as it was a bit of a trek from home, but would certainly recommend it. And if you like non-alcoholic beer (bleurgh) then that was on offer in abundance on the finish line, a nice touch.
Looking at the overall results, it turns out my bike wasn't as dire as I'd initially thought. The undulations and extra length meant that only ten or so women had gone under 55 minutes, so I was pretty pleased with the whole race in the end.
Times
Total time: 1:26:06
Swim: 08:17
T1: 00:42
Bike: 53:46
T2: 00:44
Run: 22:36
Standings
Age category: 04/11 36%
Gender category: 07/39 18%
Swim: 18/39 46%
T1: 03/39 08%
Bike: 06/39 15%
T2: 17/39 44%
Run: 11/39 28%
400m pool swim, 22km bike, 4.5 km run
The end of a run of a few races for me!
Oakham triathlon takes place at Catmose College in Oakham, Leicestershire. The college itself is a collection of lovely new buildings on a great site. Unfortunately the swimming pool itself is an old building, resembling perhaps a greenhouse which has lived out it's design life. Having found no changing facilities at all, I put on my trisuit and headed for the swim. The pool itself wasn't so bad, quite bright due to the window arrangement and only four lanes. The lanes them self were pretty busy and I found myself at points with four others, but somehow managed a fairly decent swim.
Out and down the steps to transition I enjoyed the short swim to bike distance. However, once I had my bike it was a good 100 m run to the mount line! Mounted and going, I completed the sneak extra half kilometre that had been added the day before the race (with no maps!) and set off onto the route. With the threatening weather, I made good initial progress. By about 5k in I felt duly recovered from the swim and with one long climb done settled into the bike. From this point to perhaps 2k from the finish I saw just one other. A little disturbing as the signage wasn't particularly frequent and there didn't seem to be any marshals. I was also coming across hills galore, adding to the worry that I'd gone the wrong way as the course had been described as 'lightly undulating'. Coming back in sight of Oakham I was incredibly relived to find another cyclist and familiar surroundings, albeit disappointed with my apparently slow bike time.
Bank to transition and another sprint from dismount to racking, I ditched my bike, grumbling in my head at my misfortune of being at the very far end of an out-and-back type transition, having further to go than everyone else.
The start of the run course went through the roadworks, making it clearly apparent why the bike route had been diverting. Crossing the road next to the roadworks and temporary lights was hazardous enough on foot! The run course was a fairly dull single out-and-back lap. Saying this, the surface was predictable and it had a right angle bend halfway out meaning I could mentally split the course into four. Miraculously I seemed to recover very quickly from the tough bike course and had a cracking run. I'm assuming from my time (my 5k PB is around 25 mins) that the course was shorter than the advertised 5k too...
Overall a well run event in a nice new complex. The swimming and changing facilities could do with updating. I probably won't do this again as it was a bit of a trek from home, but would certainly recommend it. And if you like non-alcoholic beer (bleurgh) then that was on offer in abundance on the finish line, a nice touch.
Looking at the overall results, it turns out my bike wasn't as dire as I'd initially thought. The undulations and extra length meant that only ten or so women had gone under 55 minutes, so I was pretty pleased with the whole race in the end.
Times
Total time: 1:26:06
Swim: 08:17
T1: 00:42
Bike: 53:46
T2: 00:44
Run: 22:36
Standings
Age category: 04/11 36%
Gender category: 07/39 18%
Swim: 18/39 46%
T1: 03/39 08%
Bike: 06/39 15%
T2: 17/39 44%
Run: 11/39 28%
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