Events Blog

April 24th 2016 400 m swim, 18k bike, 5k run The Lichfield Sprint Triathlon is hosted by Birmingham Running, Athletics and Triathlon Club (BRATs) and is hence nice and local to me. I competed in 2014 (when it was called the Three Spires Triathlon) and finished in a time of 1:22:10. I remember having a terrible swim, reasonable bike and less reasonable run. Two years on in my triathlon journey my aim for this race was to knock at least 5 minutes off this time. The swimming pool was reasonable empty (up to two people per lane when I was queuing for the start) but I was surprised when told to "choose a lane" as I am used to allocated lanes! I was first in the queue so got first choice, placing myself in lane 4 of 6. A quick mental assessment had taken place - there was one empty lane but this was where I had a terrible swim last year and was furthest from swim out (nearest lane 1) so karma and common sense didn't let me choose this one. Lanes 2 and 3 both had two swim...

April 27th 2014 The Three Spires Triathlon in Lichfield is hosted by Birmingham Running, Athletics and Triathlon Club (BRATs), which is my new local club. I was therefore hoping to see a couple of familiar faces on the day. This also meant it was quite local to me - I'd cycled a portion of the route before, so vaguely knew what to expect. The swim was in a six lane pool, and the lanes had maybe one or two other people in them. I think this was due to the 4 minute start intervals (rather than the normal 2 minute intervals I've experienced before). I was allocated the outside lane (furthest from the Swim Out, but hey, you win some, you lose some). The whistle went and I swam off, expecting a flying first length, as per usual. Unfortunately this did not come and I actually felt pretty tired after just one length! Six lengths later and I was struggling, not helped by the latest entry to the lane, who failed to push off on the whistle, letting me turn instead in front of them. ...