Ill Concieved Plans Poorly executed

Crawley Late Summer Triathlon

Those of you who have seen me struggling with gaining a foothold in the waking world on a Saturday morning will know that I don't do early very well. If you think that early on a Saturday looks bad, early on a Sunday looks even worse. Luckily it was so early that small children and easily frightened pets were still asleep as I stumbled towards the car to head off to the start of the Crawley Tri. Why did they want me to register so early? It disrupted my usual pre-race plan of arriving at the last possible moment and leaping into the event. Now I would have to sit around for a while contemplating the world in general before my number is called. This was not good but as this was round two of the Pete and Nigel race series (and I was one race down) Nigel and I managed to fritter away the time with idle conversation.

After what seemed like an eternity I was in the pool and being counted down. In front of me at 10 second intervals were another three people. Now my swimming has been going quite well recently with a PB on the swimming split at Sevenoaks last week so I was quite looking forward to this. I'd put 10 minutes for my 500 metre time on the form but I'm starting to suspect that that may be a little on the generous side. The water in the pool was incredibly cloudy. Not as cloudy as the lake before the algal bloom stopped play but cloudy enough to be noticed. A couple of lengths later and a pair of feet came into view, victim number one. A little bit of foot slapping and a spurt of power and I was past. Another length, another pair of feet, another competitor in my wake. To say I was chuffed was an understatement. What's more the swimming felt really easy, nice long relaxed strokes gliding through the water, right up to the next pair of feet. All three in my lane passed and clear water ahead, and just to make it sweeter I'd not lost count of the lengths either. If you get the impression that I really enjoyed the swim you would be right.

There is a line just to the east of Crawley. On the east side of the line the roads get lumpy and cycling involves the frequent use of the lower gears. On the West the mountains are molehills and the big gears get an outing. The bike route was to the west. It was going to be fast. Just to add a bit of interest there was even a cobbled section at Charnwood for a Paris - Roubaux feel to the proceedings. Usually on the bike section I'm passed by the fast boys but for whatever reason it didn't happen today, not a flash bike in sight. Just to make it sweeter there was a handful of slower people to pass in the last 10k. This sort of thing doesn't usually happen to me. This must be what its like to be really good! Surely the run will reverse the trend.

The run started with a yell from a marshal of "Oi! You've forgotten your shoes". Now I'd made sure that I could run unshod well before the event as they had originally said on the race instructions that "suitable footwear must be worn" and considered it mild inconvenience to explain that I had checked and it was alright. The run course was a delight. Nice smooth tarmac and nothing to pain a barefoot runner. Up ahead I saw Nigel. He started before me and I was closing in on him. There was every chance that I would pass him levelling the series and winning on the road as well. I managed it on the closing kilometre. Nice! But then no one had passed me on the run today either. Yes, Today I was on a flyer.