Wattisham Triathlon 2015

Four years ago I finished my first Wattisham Tri in 1:08:48, the next year a helicopter stopped play and I only managed to finish a few seconds quicker. Last year I got it down to 1:01:42; I was really pleased with this improvement and had convinced myself I wasn't going to be able to better that.

A good result at the Culford Tri (different distances) a couple of weeks ago had started to make me optimistic that I might be able to shave a bit off last year's time.  I'd even started to wonder whether I might be able to get under an hour...

The weather was very similar to Culford a few weeks earlier.  The sky was grey and it was drizzling off and on.  In the induction the Race Director warned us that parts of the course were slippy.  As we set up the transition area the rain eased off, but never felt far away.

As usual I faffed with my transition layout, putting everything in one order, then another and repeated this until I was suitably annoyed with myself.  I noticed someone near me had placed their number belt on the tri-bars bars and rested their helmet on top.  I decided to give this ago to make them easier to get at and leave less gear cluttering under the bike.

For the swim I'd planned to do my usual thing of keeping a steady pace and not pushing too hard, and as planned I started off steady.  A couple of lengths in I was feeling pretty good so started to push harder.
T1 went OK; relocating the number belt and the lid worked well (there was some faffing getting the number the right way around but that was me not the layout) and the harder swim didn't appear to have taken a toll.

A little way into the ride I was starting to feel queasy and needing to burp, but each burp was bringing up bile...  I managed to ride on through this and don't think it held me up at all, but the first few miles weren't too enjoyable.  Around the time the sick feeling cleared the heavens decided we'd be dry long enough and the rain started again.
The runway is a feature of the Wattisham Tri, with you riding all the way up it and then back down again.  It's notorious for having a strong wind which can halve your speed in one direction and double it in the other!  Of the 4 times I've done the event this was the first where that didn't happen, despite the rain, the wind was minimal and I seemed to average around 21-23mph in one direction and 25-27mph in the other!
Towards the end of the ride as I left the airfield and joined the road back to the sports centre my back wheel skidded massively on a wet bit of road!  I somehow managed to keep upright but swung out far too wide onto the other side of the road just as another rider was heading towards me!  Fortunately he was still about 40ft away and I was able to get back over to my side without impeding either of us too much.  Unfortunately, just as this happened the Race Director was driving along behind the other rider and he gave me a proper drill-instructor-type shouting at...  I worried that this might get me a time penalty but tried not to think about it and just pushed on with my ride.

At Culford I suffered bad cramping as I tried to change my shoes in T2.  This time I suffered a little but not enough to hinder me.  As I set off running I realised I still had my helmet on and had to double-back to leave it with my bike, I'd guess this cost me 10-15s.

I'd used my Garmin 500 to track the ride as usual, but I'm not normally able to track my run, this time I'd used a TomTom Multisport which did the job well enough, but in future I need to spend some time setting the metrics shown on the screen better.  The main metric I wanted to know was my current average pace, unfortunately it was showing it in kph rather than mph so I struggled to translate it.
Run went well, the ground had held up despite the rain and I didn't suffer any cramping (legs or diaphragm).
The watch was telling me that it was going to be close to being under an hour, which helped spur me on and I gave everything I had up the final straight!

As I crossed the line the announcer shouted my name and that my time was under an hour at 59:30!  At that point no other competitors had gone that quick and if I'd had that time last year I would have been 2nd overall!
For a few minutes it was all quite exciting but soon enough reality kicked in and other competitors were coming in under the hour too. 

Finished in 00:59:30!
7th of 244 overall and 3rd of 27 in category (40-44).
Swim (300m) + T1: 00:06:24
Bike (20km) + T2: 00:34:05
Run (5km): 00:18:59
Results here.

I was approx 3m 20s from 2nd overall and 4m 30s from 1st.

I was 25s from 2nd in my category and and 4m 30s from 1st.

2014 Times
Swim + T1: 00:06:39
Bike + T2: 00:35:12

Run: 00:19:51

Culford 2 Triathlon 2015

I initially entered Ipswich Tri Club's Culford 2 event to support a mate who was doing his first tri, but it would also help to gauge my readiness for Wattisham a few weeks later.

The event is held on the grounds of the very posh Culford School; the swim takes place in their sports centre, the ride consists of 3 laps of the public roads that border the grounds and the run covers 2 laps of the perimeter of sports fields and a long driveway/path.

The forecast was changeable throughout the week, and ended up being drizzly on the morning, it stayed dry for most of the event, however the heavens opened during the run.

When we arrived we drove along the bike route to check for standing water and pot-holes and just to get a feel for how tight/open the turns were.

Notable details;

• Swim: 300m, Bike: 21km, Run: 4km
• Transition points were pre-allocated
• I kept banging my hands on the bottom of the shallow end of the pool
• Run to T1 was pretty big; few hundred meters
• The ride had a single foot-down stop per-lap at a road junction

 I took the swim steady, as I have for the last few tris, not wanting to tire myself early on.  The person before me had dropped out so I had a clear swim.  This also meant my transition point had one less bike in it which helped prevent it from being overcrowded.

The ride went well, there was minimal standing water despite the earlier rain, although having to perform a foot-down stop each lap was tricky to get right.  Fortunately there were no cars for each of my laps so I was able to get going again straight away.

In T2 my thighs cramped horrendously.  Trying to get my trainers on seemed impossible, and was made especially hard by the fact I'd used the "loop lacing lock" tip which meant they were harder to pull on than normal.  I probably lost 30s due to this, but after much spasming I managed to get the trainers on and out onto the run!

The run went well, although it started to rain fairly heavily after about 1km, this left some of the surface fairly slippery and trying to stay upright while navigating one particular hairpin was tricky.  The course was flat apart from one evil bump, which wasn't long but was steep enough to knock all momentum out of my stride.

I finished 8th of 185 overall and 3rd of 22 in my category (Male 40-44).
Swim (300m): 5:35 (68th)
Bike (21km) + T1: 36:51 (8th)
Run (4km) + T2: 14:46 (12th)
Total: 57:12

I was approx 3mins from 2nd overall and 9mins from 1st.
I was approx 30s from 2nd in my category and and 2mins from 1st.

Wattisham Triathlon 2014

Written long after the event so only highlights.

Beforehand
Training had gone well.  Extra core work (mainly planking) to attempt to combat diaphragm cramps I'd previously had on the run.

Swim
Was overtaken on the 7th length of the swim - I'd put an accurate swim time so was very surprised when this happened!  This gave me some focus for the rest of the event and helped me to push on when I was flagging.

Bike
On the ride I caught the bloke who passed me and we swapped places several times.  I eventually kept in front and got back and out of transition about 30-60s ahead of him.  This was the first time I'd used tri-bars in an event, they definitely worked well and I'll use them again.
Last year I'd been held up on the ride by the Police helicopter taking off so was happy not to have a repeat of that this year!

Run
The run went the best it ever has in a Tri.  No repeat of the diaphragm cramps I usually get and I was able to run well.  The bloke who overtook me in the swim passed me about a 1/4 of the way around the run, but as he was in Hadleigh Hare's running club gear it was to be expected that this would be his strongest discipline.

In the end I came 15th overall, 5th in age cat!.  Best result I've ever had by quite some margin!

Swim + T1: 00:06:39
Bike + T2: 00:35:12
Run: 00:19:51

Total: 01:01:42

Family came to spectate this year (Mum, Dad, Wife and daughter) this is the only event of mine that any of them have ever been to!

Alton Water 10k

As Clare discovered joys of running she developed an interest in taking part in an event.  To offer support, I agreed to sign up to the Alton Water 10k run with her.  I don't usually run much further than 5k (the distance required for the tris I do) so upping the distance seemed a fair challenge for me too.

Before the event I ran the full distance a couple of times, but had mostly focussed on increasing my 5k speed.

On the day of the event it was a cold drizzly morning.  We had friends taking part in the other distances; Alison R in the 5k, Claire A in the 2k.
As I was mostly there for moral support, and as it was Clare's 1st taste of an event we hung back and started from near the rear of the pack.
We'd decided that we weren't going to run together as our paces are reasonably different so I started off picking my way through the pack.
I often ride at Alton Water so know the course well, although have only run there once before.
I'd decided not to run with any water and only took some at 1 of the water stations along the course, although as usual I wore more of it than I drank.

At the final kilometer I was still feeling strong so started to push a bit harder than I would normally, managing to catch and pass several people who'd caught me earlier.  For the final 100 meters or so I had a flat out sprint with a bloke who I just managed to pip over the line!  I've never had that kind of finish before which was very elating; once over the line we shook hands and he bin me "well done".

For my first 10k and having started at the back of the pack I was stunned when I found out I'd placed 30th of 473 overall and 30th of 296 males, with a time of 42m40s.

Clare came 230th overall and was 34th of 177 females, with a time of 53m53s.

We really enjoyed the event and I even got a t-shirt for being one of the top finishers!  My first/only prize from an event :)