350m swim: 25kms cycle: 5m run
Now this is a real turn up for the book; my first competitive triathlon for over 15 years, and a real last minute thing it was too.
I was swimming in my local pool at Ploermel when I got chatting with the other chap in my lane, a Triathlete, as it happened. He told me about his Tri-club which was attached to the local military base in Coetquidan, a town I’d regularly cycled by on training rides. The camp was not too far away and boasted a 50m swimming pool.
When I returned home, I Googled the Coetquidan Tri-club on the ‘Interweb’ and discovered that they were hosting a couple of races the next day, Easter Sunday. In the morning there was to be a Duathlon, and in the afternoon, a Sprint Triathlon. On the spur of the moment, I entered the Sprint Tri. After all, I’d have the luxury of a lie-in; much more civilised than the early morning Sportive starts I’d been used to. It would also give me the opportunity to check out the weather. I could always abort if the forecast rain arrived – it didn’t.
The next day dawned grey but cool. I didn’t have the cold feet I’d expected and so found myself enrolled and sitting beside the beautiful 50 metre pool awaiting my turn to take the plunge. In order to start and finish early and I had estimated my 400m swim time to be around 7:30mins, so I was set to start in the fourth wave; around 14:40hrs.
I had set myself a challenging (for me) target time of one and a half hours, although I decided to treat the whole thing as a hard training session and not worry too much about the transitions (more fool me).
Swim: The swim went really well, it was the first time I’d been in a 50m pool for over 15 years too. I exited the water after the 7 lengths, first in my wave with a split time of 6:34. Not brilliant, but OK for an old fart with limited swim training under my belt.
I took my time in transition, towelling myself dry, donning cycle top, shoes (no socks), helmet and sunglasses, and ran with the bike through transition to the start of the bike course. For those not familiar with the rules of Triathlon, there’s no cycling allowed in the transition area, and no drafting allowed during the cycle (at least for non-championship events). Triathlon was designed as an individual time-trial sport, no help is allowed; you’re on your own.
Cycle: The two-lap cycle course was hilly, very hilly, and set on closed roads inside the Army camp. Some of the surfaces were a little bumpy, a bit like all the roads in the UK. On the first lap, I wasn’t passed, nor did I pass anybody, but as I started on the second lap, a slew of riders overtook me, one by one. I managed to catch a couple of people on that second lap and averaged 28kph overall – not bad for a time-trial on a hilly course in the wind. Now for the run!
Run: My lack of preparation for the transition took its toll in the end. I dismounted the bike, ran through to my rack position and proceeded to try and put my running shoes on. Try as hard as I night, I simply could not get my left shoe on; it wouldn’t fit! I ended up having to sit down and undo a bloody knot that had formed in the lace. Without my reading glasses on, I had to do this by touch alone and it seemed to take forever. I was about to give up and start running with a loose shoe and flapping laces, when the stubborn knot loosened and I finally managed to don the recalcitrant footwear.
The run course was two laps on dirt paths through woodland. Cross-country! Had I known this before entering, I might well not have bothered. Luckily we’ve had very little rain here for a few weeks and the conditions underfoot were bone dry so the going was easy than it might have been. After a mile or so, the track dipped down into a cutting and there was a really sharp uphill climb which really took it out of my legs. I overtook a couple of stragglers here, but was in turn, overtaken by some real hares.
The second lap passed by without incident and I even managed a sort of sprint finish to cross the line in a reasonable time of 1:29:57; a full three seconds inside my target! Wa-hay!
Overall: I actually felt quite comfortable during the run, my worst discipline, and this is part of my problem in competitive terms. I shouldn’t feel comfortable at any stage of a triathlon. I should really put the effort in and be close to the edge of breaking down, but I’m always in fear of not finishing and so back off a little. I’ll have to reconsider this strategy if I do any more Triathlons this year. But for a first effort back in the sport after such a long layoff, I felt reasonably satisfied.
Results: Overall time: 1:29:57 (Winner’s time 1:03:16); I finished 106th of 143 entrants. Swim: 6:34 (transition time: 2:19); Cycle: 55:47 (transition time: 4:40); Run: 25:17.
Just look at that, a total transition time of 6:59 – disgraceful. Had I thought about it a little I could have easily shaved something like 5 minutes off that which would have gained me about sixteen places. Tee hee! You live and learn.
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