As a brief summary, the event is held on Wattisham Airbase and involves a 300m indoor pool swim, a 20km bike ride (including twice up and down the runway) and a 5km run.
Last year I'd only been running a few months so was quite happy to be able to complete 5km never mind tackle it quickly, also my swimming ability was only notable by the fact that I've reached my mid-thirties without drowning... While I'd been biking competitively for a few years it's all been on mountain bikes and I'd only bought a road bike specifically for this event so was still fairly new to that discipline too.
Since last year's tri I'd kept up the running, getting involved semi-regularly with the local ParkRun, but hadn't really gained any pace. I'd also spent a lot of time on the road bike, almost favouring it over the MTB (Oh god, what have I become!?!) but I'd hardly swum at all.
Training
Training-wise I started swimming occasionally over winter as an alternative to riding and running in the cold, in mid-March I took out a swimming pass for Crown Pools and started to go much more regularly. Most lunchtimes I'd nip over from work and do 3 lots of 12*25m lengths. I also started to try different techniques from the Swimsmooth website - position in the water, breathing on alternate strokes, etc.Swimming was undoubtedly my weakest of the disciplines but is also the shortest part of the tri so even if I improved a lot I wouldn't be saving much time overall on the whole event. I found learning the breathing techniques very hard, while I'd manage it fine for a few lengths, I'd be struggling for breath after a while.
Last year the swim leg had killed me and led to me being unable to focus at the start the ride which spoiled my supposedly best part of the event. I resolved to just being able to do the swim in a similar time as last year but not be as ruined by the time I got out of the pool.
March was also when I started to take the running a bit more seriously too, getting out for 3-4 runs a week and trying to get to ParkRun whenever possible (although ParkRun isn't strictly a competitive event it's very useful for gauging yourself against other runners). And by April I was doing quite a few rides followed by runs.
As for the bike, I ride pretty regularly as it is, so I just focussed on the road bike rather than the MTB and rode whenever possible. I've a local 12mile loop so rode that and as motivation I tried my best to pick off some Strava segments on there. In addition I did a couple of large back to back rides from my in-laws' to my parents and back again (see earlier post) covering around 150miles in 2 days.
The Big Day
After all the hanging around from last year I had resolved to arrive later this time but itchy-feet syndrome on the day meant I got there about 11ish, a whole 15-20mins later...
This year I knew a few people doing the race, Simon who is a regular, and 2 friends who are first timers (get me sounding like I'm dead experienced at this) Karen and Mags. Also a few other friends were spectating, Ian, Clare, Andy and Laura, and Bim, it's great to have people cheering you on and I find it makes a surprising difference to your motivation when you're flagging. It also means there are photos to remember the day by, thanks very much for those :)
Once signed in (number 161), my free banana eaten, my race numbers stuck to the bike and race belt and my free t-shirt stowed in car (never to be worn). I then went to set up my transition area; Karen had kindly bagsied me a spot near the swimming pool exit and I set up everything as best as I could, given the strong wind and forecast downpours.
Following the induction meeting (very similar to last year, although the line about Lance Armstong had inexplicably been changed to Bradley Wiggins, can't imagine why...), there was much hanging around and faffing, although having a few friends there to pass the time with really helped.
The race began at 13:00 with competitors setting off at 30s intervals. Your start time is based on your estimated swim time with slower people going first - I'd estimated 6m 30s (by the end of my training I was getting just under 6mins) so didn't start until 14:21...
The Race
Around 14:15 I took my place in the queue by the poolside. Once in the pool I was braced for a 10s countdown which never seemed to come. The person ahead of me had completed 2 lengths (much longer than 30s) and the guy who starts you off was having a chat with someone else. My brain starts to play tricks on me at times like this and I became convinced he'd told me to set off and I'd not heard him; this is ridiculous as he'd have told me again... He eventually gave me the countdown after what seemed like centuries and off I went.Last year I'd started the swim as hard and fast as possible and burnt myself out by the 5th length, this year I was determined to pace myself. The swim was, fortunately, uneventful and I wasn't overtaken. The only items of note are that the water tastes more saline-y than in most pools (I'm sure there's a joke about squaddies in there, but I prefer not to think about it) and I'd forgotten how deep the Wattisham pool gets (prob 30ft).
My goal of not knackering myself on the swim worked and although a little groggy I managed a swift transition and got away on the bike in what felt like a good time.
The winds were really strong making the cycling tough at times. After skirting around the perimeter of the air-base you head onto the runway and hit a solid wall of wind. A mile and a quarter later you do a U-turn and the wind noise instantly disappears and you absolutely fly back down the other way! Looking at my GPS stats, I was averaging around 15mph into the wind and 30mph coming back the other way!
The race involves 2 laps of the course and on lap two I was struck by an unfortunate event...
Wattisham is a working air-base and you're advised in the induction that where necessary you have to give way to site traffic, as I flew along the top of the base with a tail-wind assist I saw another cyclist stopped in front of me and a marshall waving frantically at me to stop. Having slammed on the brakes and come to a complete stop I learned that there'd been an emergency call out and that the police helicopter needed to take off...
The other rider complained to the marshall that this was affecting her time and could he contact the timing people to have it taken into account. Unfortunately the official timing equipment isn't able to measure delays such as this and you just have to accept it.
To be fair, police emergencies obviously take priority over people messing about on bikes, but it's frustrating none-the-less.
At this point it looked like my goal of beating last year's time was over..
My Garmin showed that I was stopped for 1m34s but adding on the time it takes to stop and get back up to speed, and for auto-pause to realise you've stopped and started I think it's fair to say it was the best part of 2mins.
While stopped I slumped on my bars, not even looking around so I don't know how many people were affected by this stop, I'd guess 4, maybe 5. My new target became just to do as well as I possibly could...
Once underway again I chuntered under my breath into the runway headwind and giggled like a girl up the runway tail-wind and made it back to the transition point without any other incidents.
A quick swap of footwear, removal of helmet and flip of race-belt later and I was out for the run.
Much like last year my chest/stomach hurt like mad for the 1st 2km. I ran through it as best I could but there must be something to do with being crouched on the bike that compresses my diaphragm so that it's uncomfortable when I start to run. Once the pain eased I found my pace and even managed to sprint a little along the finish straight (note for next time, ignore the water station, you end up wearing 90% of it, if not more!).
Having finished, I wandered resignedly over to the results screen to find I'd actually managed to beat last year's time (1h 8m 48s), by a whole 11s at 1h 8m 37s!
This put me in 61st (of 258) overall and 17th (of 27) in the Male 35-39 category.
If I assume the stop cost me 1m 50s, this would have put me 49th and 11th, respectively, instead.
Last year my split times were as follows;
- Swim + Transition: 00:08:20
- Bike + Transition: 00:38:07
- Run: 00:22:20
- Total: 01:08:48
This year's split times are as follows;
- Swim + Transition: 00:07:27
- Bike + Transition: 00:40:35
- Run: 00:20:34
- Total: 01:08:37
My swim has improved by a minute and my run by 2 minutes, and if I'd not had to stop, my ride time would have been pretty similar to last year despite the headwinds.
All in all I'm very pleased :)
Ian Aldis's photos
Clare Bailie's photos
