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Heathfield Triathlon
Since my last attempt at a tri I've been out and
bought a few things because as we all know it is possible
to make up for your lack of ability with kit. My first
purchase was a pair of tri shorts, lightly padded, just a
little too tight and a touch too revealing. The hope was
to take away a few seconds from my transition times which
can currently be measured on geological time scales. My
second purchase was a trip computer that measures
cadence. Well with the Tour de France being on and so
much talk about Lance's peddling rate I though it might
be a good idea to find out how fast my hairy legs were
revolving. I was quite looking forward to the Heathfield
Tri so that I could test my new kit, the fact that I
recently had a heavy cold (no, lets call that a viral
infection, it sounds so much more serious) that had
knocked me for six also provided an instant excuse for a
poor performance, what could go wrong.
Getting lost in Heathfield is what could go wrong owning
to not bringing the race instructions with me (note to
self: you are given race instructions for a reason).
Eventually I found my way to the community college by the
simple expedient of following a car which had two rather
flash bikes strapped to the back. It was nice to see some
friendly faces from EGTC at registration, a friendly
hello helped settle the pre-race butterflies before I
sorted out my slightly less ramshackle collection of gear
in transition.
I ambled over to the pool to find the swim starts where
running a bit late. This gave me plenty of time to try
and work out the order that competitors where being put
in the water, someone somewhere was applying some sort of
high order mathematics and a random number generator
which meant that people with race numbers much higher
that mine where being put in the water ahead of me. I
never did work it out but I did manage to eavesdrop on a
very involved conversation on the various swim styles of
competitors in the water which boiled down to the fact
that everybody was doing it wrong! I met a few club
members at the side of the pool who where equally as
confused with the race order. I noticed that Tony and Bob
and brought along their own support teams, quite how they
had persuaded anyone to get out of bed on a Sunday
morning to watch them compete is beyond me but judging by
their results it must help.
Finally it was time to don the latex hat and plunge into
the warm water. Warmth at last. Now I know that 25 yards
is shorter than 25 meters but I was quite surprised how
quickly the edge came up until I reached for the side of
the pool to find that it wasn't there. A black line on
the bottom of the pool had given me the impression of the
edge. Not to be fooled for a second time I ended up
swimming straight into the poolside at the end of the
length. I soon caught up with the other swimmer in the
lane but no amount of foot tickling would persuade him to
let me past at the turn, in the end I had to put on a
spurt to pass him leaving me with clear water in front.
Now I could just swim without thinking about passing
people, which is just how I like it. Unfortunately I'd
lost could of the number of laps that I'd done so it was
just a case of ploughing on until the 2 laps to go board
was waved in front of me. It seemed and awfully long
time.
The bike leg was two laps of a 13km circuit. I would have
known this had I read the race instructions but for some
reason I was sure that it was a 10km circuit. The first
part was all fast downhill. This could only mean one
thing; there must be a lot of uphill lurking about
somewhere ahead. My little peddle-o-meter was showing
that my legs where going round at rather an alarming rate
until I hit the first rise when they seemed to slow to
the speed of a water wheel regardless of which gear I
used. The only explanation for this must be that the
computer was faulty, what else could it be? At the end of
the first lap I knew what was coming but my ride did seem
a bit slow for 10km maybe my traumatic viral infection
had taken more out of me than I'd thought. The second lap
was really uneventful apart from passing and being passed
by the same rider three times. Didn't they know that once
you've been passed you should stay behind to preserve the
ego of the passing rider? I'm sure it's in the rules
somewhere.
The run was six laps round a field grabbing and elastic
band at the beginning of each lap - six bands and you're
out. I quickly settled into my standard running pace,
which I was glad to see, was the same pace as a few
others going round. Just after the band collection point
was a water table. Now I've seen them do this on telly,
grab a cup take a few sips and cast it to one side all in
one swift movement, I can do that, In my dreams. How do
you keep the water in a full plastic cup whilst running
along? It's impossible. The water went everywhere except
into my mouth. I cast the mug aside in disgust. Next time
round and another go. This time I managed to throw the
water all over my face, cool but not refreshing. I gave
up after that. Sod hydration you have to actually be able
to get it in your mouth first.
At the end I sat in transition knackered, I'd enjoyed
doing the tri and my new bits of kit had been a partial
success. What more could I want.
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