First Triathlon of the Season

Mid May is Eton Super Sprint weekend, this comprises a series of short open water Triathlons (400m swim/ 20.4Km bike/ 5Km run), the event is set at Eton Rowing Lake, the venue for the London 2012 Olympic rowing regatta. The event is popular particularly with novice racers and those who are weaker swimmers. There are usually 2000 competitors over the two days and they set off in age group based waves of 100 or so. Two years ago this was my first ever triathlon; an eye opening experience which for some reason did not deter me from continuing. I entered this year just to get back into competing and to be able to see where I am compared to last year.
Well the rain held off which was contrary to the forecasts but the wind was forceful to say the least; 20mph and gusting pretty hard. The water was choppy and the bike leg was going to be tough. Back in January I had convinced Andrew, my brother in law to enter this race as he was looking for something athletic to do. He turned up with a borrowed wetsuit he had never worn and no open water swim experience. I was a little concerned for him. We got to the venue pretty early as I wanted to make sure Andrew was all sorted out in Transition and knew what he needed to do. As we registered, I was serenaded with a verse of “Happy Birthday” by the crew and I had a birthday card in my race pack – so nice it made my day! The chap behind me in the queue was entering the over 60’s age group and it was his first Triathlon: “the kids are entering so I thought I would have a go” he said. Huge respect for the man, I hope he had a great day.


Swim
The biggest difference between this event and any previous event is that I was not nervous about the swim. For the first time I was not hesitant getting into the water and I even felt confident enough to have a warm up swim prior to the starting gun. I opted to start right in the middle of the pack for the swim with a goal to grab onto someone’s feet and get the benefit of the draft. Having practiced this behind Tony in the pool a few times I know how much benefit there is to getting a good draft in the water.
As soon as the gun went off I managed to find someone’s feet and followed him for the first 150m, I found myself battling with someone else who was trying to tail the same man which required a little aggression and made me smile inside. I lost my “pilot” at the first turn and found myself alone for a while but soon picked up someone else and tailed him into the shore. This is the first time I have succeeded in drafting towards the end of the race because normally by then I am behind the people who keep stopping for a breather, these people are impossible to follow so for the first time I had the benefit of the draft all the way through. The guy I followed in was a little too slow for me but I opted to stay behind him and save a bit of energy for the bike/run. The result was I got out of the water and felt fresh, far too fresh really but better to be fresh than wasted as I normally am. I saw Tony was still in transition which pleased me as that meant I had swum a good time. That stroke technique work has really paid off.


Bike
The bike leg was hard because of a mighty cross wind for most of the lap. The ride felt great, I pushed hard but should maybe have pushed harder. I overtook dozens of people on the first lap and I thought I must have been quite high up after the bike. As it turned out I was 5th but the later finishers from the previous wave prevented me from seeing the leaders. I noted that I was overtaken by only one person and he was on bling Cervelo P2 Time Trial bike worth a few grand, a small pang of jealousy there. Trying to keep the bike on an even keel was interesting and watching riders on the route bent over to the side as if they were going round a corner would have made a good photo. My eventual bike time was better than last year but much slower than I had hoped, I imagine the wind was the primary cause of that.

Run
The run is two laps out and back which means that on the 1st lap you can generally see where you are in the wave but the wind meant that the race numbers were flapping about, rendered unreadable and with people from the last group still out on the course it was hard to tell who was in my age group and hence what position I was in. No-one overtook me on the run and I actually ran the 3rd fastest time of the wave. I passed Andrew and Tony on my second lap as they set off on their first, I was happy to see that Andrew had clearly made it out of the water OK and looked like he was on for a good time as well.

I bettered all my times in each discipline which considering the conditions was great, I came 6th in my age group and 92nd out of 950 competitors which is a major improvement on my 249th place last year. We wrapped up afterwards and then popped into the local pub and had a couple of pints of Guinness (all in the name of carbo recovery of course) and a lunch with Andrew and his family which was a grand way to finish off the event.