750M Swim - 00:16:55 (90th Overall)
Transition 1 - 00:02:04 (160th Overall)
20K Bike - 00:42:39 (69th Overall)
Transition 2 - 00:01:02 (102nd Overall)
5K Run - 00:20:32 (40th Overall)
Total time - 01:23:10
(30th in Age Group / 75 & 63rd Overall / 181)
https://www.championchipireland.com/cca/results/files/Stena%202012%20Result.xls
Probably my last Tri of the year and I was hopeful of a good showing, despite the lack of training, over-zealous alcohol consumption and general weight putting on over the last 6 weeks or so.
I don’t know what made me think I could perform well but I did think that my running has been strong recently and my recent dipping of the toe back in to the pool had confirmed that I had not forgotten how to swim.
I love the Stena Tri as it was the very first Tri that I competed in and it got me hooked on the sport. It is also a reasonable course with a bike route that isn’t flat and a 2 loop run which has you heading up hill for about ¾ of a mile at the start of each loop but rewards you with a nice downhill run to the finish of each loop.
I had hoped to be sporting my new Trisuit, decked out in the colours of my favourite podcast, IM Talk, which was a 40th Birthday present from Keara. However, when it arrived it was too big – who would have thought that was possible!! So it had to go back and the replacement has not yet arrived. Damn.
On to the race itself.
The Swim
This Tri is done in swim waves and I was in Wave 4 of 6. The faster your predicted time is, the later your wave start.
I love the pool in the Valley Leisure Centre. Like all the pools in Northern Ireland it is 25M, however I think it looks shorter because it is only 6 lanes wide and I am used to swimming in one of the best pools in the country in Lisburn, which is 8 Lanes and looks a lot bigger. Even though it is not.
I got in to my lane with 5 other people and we all lined up ready to go based on our expected finish times. I optimistically said 16 minutes – most others were roughly the same with a couple of 15 minute men.
Once underway it became apparent that most of them had been lying Bas$€*ds. The pace was really sharp right from the start and after about 6 lengths I thought I was starting to fade.
I stuck with it and only got passed on about length 15 for the first time.
I got in to my rhythm and decided to swim at my own pace rather than trying to stick on the heels of obviously faster swimmers. This worked well and as I rounded towards the end at length 28 with only 2 to go the first of the other swimmers was getting out after completing his swim. This was indeed at about 15 minutes, so maybe they hadn’t been lying after all.
I got out of the pool at 16 mins and 15 secs. Pretty happy with that and then a short run to T1.
T1
As usual, not the best part of my day.
I spent more time trying to get stones off my feet and put my socks on than I really should have and this cost me valuable seconds.
Once I finally got myself sorted and off to mount the bike, I found myself incapable of actually getting on to it and clipping my feet in. I was weaving around like a drunken Orangutan and almost fell off as my feet missed the pedals altogether and I slipped off the saddle.
What a tube!!
I eventually got on and headed out on the course. Not my best T1 ever and I really do need to sort this out next season. I was 160th from 181 competitors. Crap!
The Bike
The route takes up hill for about the first 3 or 4 miles. Nothing too steep just a fairly constant and gradual gradient but it makes it a little bit more challenging that heading out on to a nice flat route.
I made good progress but was disappointed to have to stop at a Red Traffic light after only about 2 miles. Then another one about 500M later.
Not that I would go through one anyway, but the race briefing had been very strict about this and the threat of being disqualified really put me off.
At about the 4 mile mark – guess what? Another Red light. Bloody hell this was frustrating.
I was going well and only got passed once the whole way round but managed to pass about 6 other people. Most spectacularly on the mile long descent to T2. This is a pretty steep and fast descent on a good road. I came up behind a Guy who was tucked in to an aero position and freewheeling fast down the hill. I really cranked it and went past him like a shot. I will have to check the Garmin for the actual speed but I am sure it was at least 45mph. It felt really fast and the roundabout at the bottom of the hill came upon me pretty damn quick.
I am really pleased with the bike split time as it took about 2 minutes of my time last year and didn’t feel as hard work. I also made up quite a few places here.
T2
This is always a much better affair than T1 for me and I was in and out pretty quickly this time. Pretty pleasing.
The Run
Everyone talks about how bad your legs feel going to the run from the bike. To be honest in pretty much all of my events this year, including Ironman, I have not had any jelly or lead feeling legs going out on to the run.
I got a bit of it here alright.
The first half mile of the run, which is pretty much all up hill, felt really hard and I imagined that I was making no progress at all.
The reality was that I would complete the first mile in just over 7 ½ mins and the second loop around the course would feel much better.
My dream time of 1Hr20mins had passed so I was just trying to get as fast a time as I could.
I passed about another 8 people before even getting to the final 800M or so where I really pushed hard. It felt really tough and I was starting to hurt like hell but I knew it would all be over soon and there is time to hurt, boke, pass out or do whatever at that point.
I crossed the line absolutely knackered and pleased that I had pushed it pretty well all the way through and happy with an improved time over last year.
The ballsy approach worked and my run time was the 40th fastest of the day from 181 competitors – probably my best relative performance in a run at a Tri to date.
Overall
On reflection I probably lost about 1 minute with the traffic lights and another minute through being a dipstick in T1. At least I can work on one of these!
Another enjoyable event and a nice way to round out such a big and important Tri season for me.
Hopefully there will be more running races before the end of the year to enjoy and try to get he benefit out of my improving speed over the shorter distances.
Well done to my friends, Donald, Paul, Stuart, Simon and Joanne who all competed and did really well.
One great thing was that this was the first time the 3 Ironmen have raced at the same event, Me, Donald and Simon. We had to get a commerative photograph of the tattoos to save for posterity. (L-R Donald, Jeff, Simon.) Looking good.
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