Categories: uncategorized
Date: 17 April 2005 19:59:17
today was the first tri of the season organised by black country tri in wombourne, notable as having been my (glorious?) debut in triathlon back in 2003. threats of this morning rain never materialised leaving bright sunshine, frost on the shed roof when i got up was a bit of a worry mind!
swim: the 400m swim went ok for me. 16lengths of the 25m pool i only had to share the lane for a few lengths, i went out what felt quite hard for me and had a couple of lengths where i deliberately throttled back a little to catch my breath. one thing not helping was the eyeful of water that snook under my goggles on the first turn, annoyed with this i considered pausing to let it out but decided just to get on with it. provision al results here show a time on the way out of the pool of 7:28 which i'm pleased with given my recent swimming woes!
t1: out the door and barefoot along the tarmac past the burger van into transition. a few clueless spectators to dodge but the marshals doing their best to warn people 'swimmer coming through' was their regular cry although as i came past they added 'at quite some speed!'. i wasnt hanging around having seen some of the earlier starters doordle their way into transition. helmet, number belt and shoes and off to mount the bike.
bike: setting off down the road i put my glasses on having tucked them under my gps strap, having the gps as a speed guide worked well to motivate me along this section. down the first hill to the traffic lights.... which were red! having had to slow down i made sure i put my foot down to get my time allowance. on the hill up the other side i was catching 172 who had started a minute in front of me. he started in the lane nearest the swim exit whilst i was on the opposite side of the pool, he had quipped about his 5m headstart, so i'd said 'well i'll see what i can do about that later' (joking of course.... mostly) it's always good to have someone to chase down.
i caught and passed him before the first right turn, but was slightly worried as i've done this before only to suffer later on and be passed again. the turns were excellently policed with no chance of having to stop for traffic as nice mr plod was stopping them and waving us across. i was pushing the big ring where i dared but dropping to the small one and trying to kee a good cadence going on the climbs. with the second right turn the route differed from what i've done before and after some more climbing there was a nice switchback section followed by a nice wide road dropping down to the roundabout and turn point. as i apporached the roundabout i couldnt see any marshalls so had to take my chances, it wasnt until i'd sneaked infront of a motorbike (going qucker than i thought) i could here someone yelling. apparently there was a marshall there albeit without the yellow vest and hiding behind the chevron sign on the roundabout... hmmmmm, useful, i think he was trying to warn me what traffic was coming but seeing as i couldnt hear him until i was on the roundabout it wasnt much help.
having averaged around 21mph on the way out the way back seemed hilly and windy in comparison. i kept it going as much as possible and almost had to stop for the lights again! back in a provisional 33:56 (not sure if that includes the traffic light allowance or not) , keeping my average speed in the high 19s, keepng 172 behind me and catching 6 or 7 others, i was happy.
i thought i had undoing my shoes, taking my feet out and coasting into transition off to a tee yesterday but i discovered today its a bit different when you have wet feet. still, at least the straps on my shoes were already undone.
t2: rack the bike, kick shoes off & lose the helmet, pop running shoes on and i was off again wondering what i'd forgotten to do.. ah yes.. turn the number belt round to show my number at the front. with friends and relatives cheering my on i left on the run at a fair canter that i adjusted to something more surviveable pace when i got out of sight. up the railway track seemed further to the turnaround point than i recall but i still enjoyed closing in on people (especially those out for a sunday run who weren't even in the race) and passing them. on the way back i had to back off a couple of times to sort my breathing out but was soon on my way back across the sports fields to the finish.
the final 5km run is showing as 20:55 which is in the region i was expecting.
total race time as 1:04:04, provisionally 52nd of some 200 starters, all in all a good day out. ... especially for a warm up race for stratford.
so tah very much to all the marshalls & plods, and well done to all finishers & tritalk peeps