Having done Wattisham Tri a couple of times I thought I'd attempt a different local event. The distances at Stow are similar to those at Wattisham but rather than being on a closed circuit it's on public roads.
The 300m swim is in Stowmarket Leisure Center, then you head out on the bike along 18km of back lanes to Hauleigh and back, finally there's a 5km run along some fields to the finish.
In training I'd put a lot of effort into improving my swimming technique, and by race day I'd knocked nearly 30s off my estimated 6m swim time. The running was going well and I was close to PB times at ParkRun and I continued to bike at every waking opportunity :)
My friend Clare had also signed up for the Tri and we often swapped training tales, it was interesting to see the similar, and differing challenges that someone else experiences.
On race day myself and Clare headed over bright and early and sussed the layout of the site; pool to transition, transition layout, transition to cycle, cycle to transition and transition to run. With transition areas set up, adjusted, tweaked, faffed with and set up some more we went to see the induction meeting and watch the first few people set off.
My start time wasn't till 10:21 (number 143), so there followed an hour of hanging around and resisting the urge to faff. Bailie arrived with the girls to support Clare, chatting with them helped to distract me.
Once in the pool the swim went very well and I'd almost caught the person who set off ahead of me. Having blown up on the swim at my first Tri I'm conscious of not overdoing it these days, but even though I was trying not to knock my self out I felt I'd put in a good time.
The transition went well, for the first time in an event I'd decided not to bother with socks which seemed to save a little time. The run from transition to the bike mount area was noticeably further than at Wattisham and is on a public road. Fortunately no cars were coming and I got underway without incident.
Shortly after setting off there are 2 right turn junctions, for each of these you have to come to a full stop and put a foot down before setting off again. It was a windy day, but mostly the wind was in my favour, blowing my up hills and a headwind on descents. I passed quite a few riders on the ride and thought this leg had also gone pretty well.
In the 2nd transition I struggled to get my trainers on, I either needed more talc or to get some elastic laces, but it didn't cost me too much time. Once under way I had a problem that's hit me on each tri, the top of my stomach/chest area cramped badly. This time was probably the worst it's been and it wasn't until the 2nd lap that it eased off. Early on the 2nd lap I was passed by someone who flew past and left me for dead, it was only afterwards I discovered it was Ryan Ostler, an international Duathlete champion!
At the the finish I met up with Bailie, Clare and the girls where Bailie presented me with a bacon butty - HERO!
The results show I came 26th of 178 over all, and 8th in the 35-39 Males category, the times were as follows;
- Swim: 4:28 (suspiciously quick, probably a timing error by 1m)
- T1+Bike: 34:38
- T2+Run 25:38
