750M Swim - 00:16:23 (70th Overall)
Transition 1 - 00:01:47
20K Bike - 00:42:25 (69th Overall)
Transition 2 - 00:01:02
5K Run - 00:20:53 (47th Overall)
Total time - 01:22:57
(26th /56 in Age Group / & 60th Overall / 143)
This is one of the events that I look forward to every year. Maybe because this race was my first ever and it is usually my last event of the season that I get pretty excited about it. It's not an easy course wither but I still love it. Finally I was relatively injury free, managed to string a few weeks of training together and was posting some reasonable swim times in training, so optimism was high. The target was last year's time of 1:23:10.
The Swim
The goal for this swim was to go sub 16 minutes and ideally somewhere close to 15:30. Being placed in wave three felt about right and all the other five people in my lane all were declaring goal times of 16 minutes. The swim pretty much exactly to plan apart from swallowing a lot of water for some reason. No idea why but I just got it on with and considered it as some extra hydration ahead of the bike.
I got out of the pool in 15.40 so I was well chuffed with that time and I made my way out of the pool to T1 taking care not to slip on the pool deck floor as I tried to get out as quickly as possible.
T1
Now. My good fried Donald often wonders what the hell I do to take so long in T1. I've been accused of taking time to straighten my hair and do my nails etc. as I am pretty damn slow.
I have finally made the move to ditch socks for bike and run and I generally try to be a bit more efficient at getting on to the bike.
Today went really well and my time of 1.47 includes the run from the pool out to the Transition area.
As I came in to T1 I was joined by my mate Donald and also Gavin from my Club. Both of them got out on to the bike ahead of me. I never saw Donald again but Gavin was within touching distance. This was to become a bit of a feature of the race for me.
My goodness There's a real danger that this triathlon might just go to plan!! How could that happen?
The Bike
Having sold my TT bike I was forced to use my Road Bike, however on this course which is a bit grinding and rolling there was no real loss in using the Road bike instead of the TT bike.
As I got out on to the course I was feeling strong and was trying to pull in Gavin who at this stage was about 150M up the road from me.
The first 3 miles of the course are pretty much dominated by a grinding upward course and then it levels off a bit. Nothing too steep but just enough to force me down a few gears.
At about 5 miles in Gavin was still about 150M ahead and I just couldn't bridge the gap, although I noticed that when the course started to rise up a wee bit I managed to gain about 50M, immediately losing it again as it flattened out.
At about 11 miles there is a final false flat and gradual rise and I could see Gavin ahead of me, this was my chance. I pushed on but unfortunately so did he, so I finished the bike ride about 100M behind him.
I was delighted with my bike and I managed to knock a few seconds off the time from last year.
T2
Quick for me, that's pretty much all there is to say about it. Out on to the run with a Rabbit to catch up ahead of me.
The Run
The run at this event is never easy. It's two loops and the first half of each loop is up hill and has a couple of tough wee gradients just to test the legs out.
I was feeling relatively fresh as I hit the course and only felt any stiffness in my upper Hamstrings and that was caused by a lot of standing around yesterday at The Hillsborough Oyster Festival. Not Tri related at all.
This was turning out to be a real race for me. Not just going along on my own but a real race. I ran one and a half laps either side by side or just in front or behind another competitor from my wave in the race. I could tell we were both not wanting to give an inch at all. Any time he slowed on the hill I pushed ahead and as we got to the flat or down slope he pushed ahead of me.
The positive side of this was that I was managing to pull back a bit of time again my "nemesis" and I could see him about 50m ahead of me.
As my shadow and I came to the top of the last part of the hill for the final time, Gavin took a little glance back, saw me and put the hammer down.
I responded and pushed on more but this just seemed to rile up my shadow and he simply took off and I could not catch up to him.
I finished really strong and managed to run the last three quarters of a mile at 6.45 per mile pace. Sadly it wasn't enough to catch the Shadow or the Nemesis.
I am pleased though to have clocked up another decent run off the bike.
I think in future I should cycle to running events as I always seem to run stronger off the bike than just stand alone.
Overall
Pretty much mission accomplished. I beat all of my times last year apart from the run time, but that was only 21 seconds slower than last year.
Considering my lack of training this year and the inconsistency that caused, I am delighted to finish the season with my strongest performance. Not a bad way to close out the season.
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