Sundowner Middle Distance Triathlon 2014
September 6th 2014
1900 m open-water swim, 90 km bike, 21 km run
My first half-iron event!
I entered Sundowner Middle Distance triathlon very late in the season - mainly because the half iron I was supposed to do in August got written-off by my cycling accident and this was one of the few left with available entries. However, it looked like a good course for a beginner and I was excited about it whilst packing the day before.
I was much less excited when I awoke to drizzly conditions, which looked like they'd set in for the day. Driving over I encountered the sprint triathletes who were, at the time, getting soaked in a torrential downpour whilst cycling into T2. "Poor them" I thought, feeling more than dubious about later...
The rain calmed a little though, enabling me to set up transition in mere spitting rain. This took me a lot longer than usual. I decided that given the threatening weather I'd put my run kit in a plastic box. Based on my predictions it would be at least six hours until I'd be seeing that again so I'd rather it was dry. I laid out my bright red towel as normal and ditto with my bike helmet, number and shoes. I also laid out a cycling top as I planned to swim with my trishorts and sports bra underneath my wetsuit.
Soon into the wetsuit, I attended the useless (late) briefing, where they informed us about the deep water start and went over the bike route. Keeping an eye on the time I skipped the run section of the briefing to head to (one of just two) loos before the swim warm up. I entered the water about 10 minutes before the advertised start. I was pleased I did as by September the water temperatures are getting to the stage where putting my face in is still a big shock to the system so it took at least 5 minutes to acclimatise.
Just before the start, everyone retreated back up towards the bank, so I followed suit. A lane rope was slung across the water and then pulled back in. The point of this I still do not know. Then as I was happily milling about, a horn suddenly went off - the start! Along with everyone else I dashed through the water and began swimming as soon as it was deep enough. This didn't seem to be the majority tactic in this 'dash and splash' (and NOT deep water as indicated in the briefing) start and I found myself swimming along amongst a forest of legs, which was a little weird. However, I carried on as I was making good distance on everyone for little effort. Once I'd found my rhythm I managed to cover the four laps without major incident. The lake was extremely shallow, so the few people who'd decided to walk around the markers assisted my sighting.
Out of the water and pleased with the swim, I sped along to transition. By this point my belongings were a touch damp, but nothing much to worry about and I got dressed and headed off onto the bike. I'd decided to take this steady thanks to my lack of training. However, I quickly found that I was way off the pace of the rest of the field. Within a few miles I'd been swiftly overtaken by a fair few cyclists, so I pushed on a little bit for the rest of the first loop. From 20 miles in I was struggling a great deal. Having spent over an hour with my own thoughts, my mind was being increasingly occupied with pain my saddle was giving me. My motivation not helped by the continuous stream of people overtaking me, I battled on. Miles 30 to 46 were incredibly testing. I pondered at points giving up (which is unusual), but the thought of a "DNF" next to my name kept me going. I spent a lot of time shifting on my seat an riding in a stood-up position. Less than ideal but necessary due to the now excruciating pain from my seat!
I've never been so glad to get off my bike. A shame as the bike is normally my favourite section, but the torrential rain for the last hour really put the nail in the coffin for the bike leg, and I was so grateful to dismount and recover my (dry) running shoes. Out of my box I also picked up a dry t-shirt and socks. This seems excessive but I really was that wet, and thought my only hope of recovering feeling in my freezing toes would be with dry socks, hence the three minute T2 time.
Feeling much more comfortable I set off on the run. For the first two laps I felt surprisingly good! My usual singular half marathon pace is around 2:15 so I was expecting that off the back of the ride and swim I'd be looking at around 2:30. However, I somehow managed to fly around the first two laps (in heavy rain still...) averaging a 9-minute mile, which was pleasing.
I'm going to take a small break here to remark on the food during the race. I had read in the instructions that food would be provided halfway around the bike and three times on each lap of the run. This happened to be at a single food station just outside transition. On the bike, one lady waved a peeled banana in my general direction, but having just come around the corner I was going to fast to grab anything. Also, I was feeling fairly happy with how my nutrition was going (1 gel or 1/2 cereal bar every 8 miles, alternating, plus 400 ml electrolyte fluid per hour).
In the run however, I could feel my energy sapping so on the second lap I was intending on grabbing a banana. When I arrived at the station the bananas were not only not-peeled, they were also wrapped up inside bags - very inaccessible! I didn't have the energy to persist with it, but the man behind me did, took a banana and had obviously noticed my disappointment as he then kindly peeled it and gave me half (well more like two thirds!). A simple gesture but at that point in the race, very generous and welcome.
The final lap, even with banana, was agony. I really hit the wall here, and was literally running on empty. My legs somehow felt three times as heavy as they had on the first laps, and the rain was at least three times heavier! Jogging along flooded roads and muddy trails in a sodden t-shirt, trainers, socks was not the ideal way to end the race, but end it I did!
I was actually astounded with my time, having predicted that I'd take at least an hour longer. I'm definitely shocked with the average cycling speed around the course (around 18.7 mph, I managed 16.7) and certainly need to improve my cycling speed in future. However, I was pleased with my swim and run times, yet still feel there is room for improvement here too.
Overall, the race was OK, but the organisation wasn't great. Access to transition was the most difficult and convoluted I've come across to date and involved walking equipment up the narrow run/bike lane. Food was lacking and the course was by far the muddiest I've encountered, with lots of standing water on all the roads, even if the surface was decent. The run course was particularly bad - consisting of running three out and back laps along the side a main road which had poor visibility due to the weather, time of day and corners. A final gripe was the fact that competitors had to pay for the delight of parking in a muddy, boggy field. Why not just add £2 onto the entry fee? Good points - it was on a Saturday afternoon. Although even that wasn't good as Sunday was absolutely beautiful.
Times
Total time: 06:09:53
Swim: 00:42:11
T1: 00:02:40
Bike: 03:16:12
T2: 00:03:03
Run: 02:05:45
Standings
Age category: 10/10 Last :(
Gender category: 41/55 74%
Swim: 27/55 49%
T1: 28/55 51%
Bike: 42/55 76%
T2: 44/55 80%
Run: 36/55 65%
1900 m open-water swim, 90 km bike, 21 km run
My first half-iron event!
I entered Sundowner Middle Distance triathlon very late in the season - mainly because the half iron I was supposed to do in August got written-off by my cycling accident and this was one of the few left with available entries. However, it looked like a good course for a beginner and I was excited about it whilst packing the day before.
I was much less excited when I awoke to drizzly conditions, which looked like they'd set in for the day. Driving over I encountered the sprint triathletes who were, at the time, getting soaked in a torrential downpour whilst cycling into T2. "Poor them" I thought, feeling more than dubious about later...
The rain calmed a little though, enabling me to set up transition in mere spitting rain. This took me a lot longer than usual. I decided that given the threatening weather I'd put my run kit in a plastic box. Based on my predictions it would be at least six hours until I'd be seeing that again so I'd rather it was dry. I laid out my bright red towel as normal and ditto with my bike helmet, number and shoes. I also laid out a cycling top as I planned to swim with my trishorts and sports bra underneath my wetsuit.
Soon into the wetsuit, I attended the useless (late) briefing, where they informed us about the deep water start and went over the bike route. Keeping an eye on the time I skipped the run section of the briefing to head to (one of just two) loos before the swim warm up. I entered the water about 10 minutes before the advertised start. I was pleased I did as by September the water temperatures are getting to the stage where putting my face in is still a big shock to the system so it took at least 5 minutes to acclimatise.
Just before the start, everyone retreated back up towards the bank, so I followed suit. A lane rope was slung across the water and then pulled back in. The point of this I still do not know. Then as I was happily milling about, a horn suddenly went off - the start! Along with everyone else I dashed through the water and began swimming as soon as it was deep enough. This didn't seem to be the majority tactic in this 'dash and splash' (and NOT deep water as indicated in the briefing) start and I found myself swimming along amongst a forest of legs, which was a little weird. However, I carried on as I was making good distance on everyone for little effort. Once I'd found my rhythm I managed to cover the four laps without major incident. The lake was extremely shallow, so the few people who'd decided to walk around the markers assisted my sighting.
Out of the water and pleased with the swim, I sped along to transition. By this point my belongings were a touch damp, but nothing much to worry about and I got dressed and headed off onto the bike. I'd decided to take this steady thanks to my lack of training. However, I quickly found that I was way off the pace of the rest of the field. Within a few miles I'd been swiftly overtaken by a fair few cyclists, so I pushed on a little bit for the rest of the first loop. From 20 miles in I was struggling a great deal. Having spent over an hour with my own thoughts, my mind was being increasingly occupied with pain my saddle was giving me. My motivation not helped by the continuous stream of people overtaking me, I battled on. Miles 30 to 46 were incredibly testing. I pondered at points giving up (which is unusual), but the thought of a "DNF" next to my name kept me going. I spent a lot of time shifting on my seat an riding in a stood-up position. Less than ideal but necessary due to the now excruciating pain from my seat!
I've never been so glad to get off my bike. A shame as the bike is normally my favourite section, but the torrential rain for the last hour really put the nail in the coffin for the bike leg, and I was so grateful to dismount and recover my (dry) running shoes. Out of my box I also picked up a dry t-shirt and socks. This seems excessive but I really was that wet, and thought my only hope of recovering feeling in my freezing toes would be with dry socks, hence the three minute T2 time.
Feeling much more comfortable I set off on the run. For the first two laps I felt surprisingly good! My usual singular half marathon pace is around 2:15 so I was expecting that off the back of the ride and swim I'd be looking at around 2:30. However, I somehow managed to fly around the first two laps (in heavy rain still...) averaging a 9-minute mile, which was pleasing.
I'm going to take a small break here to remark on the food during the race. I had read in the instructions that food would be provided halfway around the bike and three times on each lap of the run. This happened to be at a single food station just outside transition. On the bike, one lady waved a peeled banana in my general direction, but having just come around the corner I was going to fast to grab anything. Also, I was feeling fairly happy with how my nutrition was going (1 gel or 1/2 cereal bar every 8 miles, alternating, plus 400 ml electrolyte fluid per hour).
In the run however, I could feel my energy sapping so on the second lap I was intending on grabbing a banana. When I arrived at the station the bananas were not only not-peeled, they were also wrapped up inside bags - very inaccessible! I didn't have the energy to persist with it, but the man behind me did, took a banana and had obviously noticed my disappointment as he then kindly peeled it and gave me half (well more like two thirds!). A simple gesture but at that point in the race, very generous and welcome.
The final lap, even with banana, was agony. I really hit the wall here, and was literally running on empty. My legs somehow felt three times as heavy as they had on the first laps, and the rain was at least three times heavier! Jogging along flooded roads and muddy trails in a sodden t-shirt, trainers, socks was not the ideal way to end the race, but end it I did!
I was actually astounded with my time, having predicted that I'd take at least an hour longer. I'm definitely shocked with the average cycling speed around the course (around 18.7 mph, I managed 16.7) and certainly need to improve my cycling speed in future. However, I was pleased with my swim and run times, yet still feel there is room for improvement here too.
Overall, the race was OK, but the organisation wasn't great. Access to transition was the most difficult and convoluted I've come across to date and involved walking equipment up the narrow run/bike lane. Food was lacking and the course was by far the muddiest I've encountered, with lots of standing water on all the roads, even if the surface was decent. The run course was particularly bad - consisting of running three out and back laps along the side a main road which had poor visibility due to the weather, time of day and corners. A final gripe was the fact that competitors had to pay for the delight of parking in a muddy, boggy field. Why not just add £2 onto the entry fee? Good points - it was on a Saturday afternoon. Although even that wasn't good as Sunday was absolutely beautiful.
Times
Total time: 06:09:53
Swim: 00:42:11
T1: 00:02:40
Bike: 03:16:12
T2: 00:03:03
Run: 02:05:45
Standings
Age category: 10/10 Last :(
Gender category: 41/55 74%
Swim: 27/55 49%
T1: 28/55 51%
Bike: 42/55 76%
T2: 44/55 80%
Run: 36/55 65%
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