May 17th 2014 already? Time for the Human Race British Sprint Triathlon Championships at Eton Dorney and what should have been an ‘A’-priority race for me. Training had been going quite well over the winter but the last 6 weeks or so hadn’t been quite so good.

British Champs

As I’ve posted elsewhere I just didn’t feel that psyched up for it this year, other things had taken a higher priority than they had last year and although I was still putting in the time in the pool, on the bike and pounding the pavements, not to mention the gym and various sessions of stretching and foam rolling, the focus just wasn’t there. This wasn’t helped by a niggling case of sciatica over the past few weeks and far too many cakes which meant I was a good 5-6kg heavier than I should be.

Too late for all of these excuses though, I had no one to blame for most of them but myself and today was race day. The car was loaded with race kit so off to Dorney Lake it was with Anna and Morgan as my support crew.

Car Boot

The skies were clear, there was no wind and conditions were perfect for a triathlon. It was already shorts and ‘T’-shirt weather at 6:30am and it looked like being the hottest day of the year so far.

Race Prep

We were a little unsure of arrangements for registration and transition set up as the only information we could find was that registration was from 7:30am, the first wave was off at 8:40am and my wave wasn’t off until 11:10am. Quite often at races you have to have everything set up in transition before the first wave is off and then aren’t allowed back into transition (other than for T1 and T2 during the race) until the race has finished. That didn’t leave a huge amount of time to register and get set up and did mean that I would have to wait around for a couple of hours until my wave was due to start, but that was just the way it was. Other races employ and open transition where competitors can come and go from transition for the whole duration of the race and therefore set up whenever they want. This is less common as there is always the risk of those setting up getting in the way of  those who are mid-race.

Not knowing what the system here was we elected to arrive at Dorney Lake early in case it was a closed transition and I had to be set up by 8:30am. It turned out to be an open transition so we needn’t have got there quite so early but it was better to be safe than sorry. This is especially the case as I couldn’t imagine anything worse as far as race preparation goes than having to rush around to get everything done in time. I’d much rather be calm and collected and have time to spare. That’s exactly what we did have. After setting up my transition area we chilled in the shade by the car, wandered around the various stands, let Morgan do a ‘Dry Tri’ and watched the first few waves of swimmers, bikers and runners on the course.

With 25 minutes or so to go until I was due to start I decided to wander back into the transition area to check the entry and exit points one more time and familiarise myself with the position of my bike now that it had other bikes set up around it. As I did so I checked my transition area was how I expected, checked my shoes were firmly attached to my bike, checked my helmet and that the straps were tangle free and gave my wheels a quick spin just to check that all was OK. I squeezed the tyres too to check the pressure and to my horror the rear tyre was completely flat!!

Uh oh, panic time!!! I ran back to Anna to get a small tool kit containing some tyre levers that I had fortunately put in my bag. I now had 20 minutes until the start of my race had to find a track pump, change a tube, get my wetsuit on and get ready for my race start. Time for a deep breath and time to focus. I had a spare tube in my transition box. In fact I had two and always keep them there ‘just in case’. I always feel as though I look a little silly having such spares in my transition box, but not now. Now was that ‘just in case’ moment. I whipped off the tyre, took out the tube, put a new one in, re-seated the tyre and pumped it up with a track pump that I found in the transition area. I’m not sure who’s pump it was as there was no one around but I’m sure they would have let me borrow it in my hour of need had they been there and I replaced it neatly where I found it when I had finished.

I put the wheel back on, had to put new elastic bands onto my shoes and re-position them as they had snapped during the wheel change, sort out my transition area again, gather my thoughts along with my tyre levers, burst tube and other bits and pieces and head back to Anna with just enough time to wriggle into my wetsuit, leave her with my clothes and head off to the start area.

So much for my perfect calm, collected race preparation with no rushing and no stress! I arrived at the waters edge just after we were told we could get in for our warm up. It was on with my hat and goggles and into the calm waters of Dorney Lake with the rest of the 40-44 year old Age Groupers.

The Swim

The water temperature was a balmy (for me) 16ºC. Much warmer than the 11ºC of the sea here and it felt lovely. It wasn’t clear and we couldn’t quite see the bottom but it wasn’t too murky either. The race official went through the usual race briefing as I tried to re-focus and tried not to think about what I would do if my tyre was flat again when I came back from the swim. All of a sudden the count-down was on and we were ready to go.

30 seconds….

10 seconds…..

and the claxon sounded.

We were off with the usual bit of bumping and barging as we went. It wasn’t too bad, I was off to the right hand side of the field so only had a few little bumps from the left as we sorted ourselves out.

Swim Start

I looked up after the melee had settled. There was one guy already pulling out a healthy lead – there was no way I could stay with him even if I could catch him. There was also a small group of about 4 swimmers off to my left who were level with me. I decided to allow myself to head in their direction a little and join their group so that I could benefit from their tow. As I joined them I was swimming well within myself and in a good rhythm, I passed a couple of them and soon found myself at the front of the group. So much for getting a tow from them, it was quite the contrary, I was now towing them along in my wake. Oh well, I felt good and we were now halfway down the first stretch.

The lake is usually used for rowing and therefore has buoys marking out the rowing lanes all along it’s length. These are tethered together by ropes that run along the length of the lake a few feet under the water surface. It didn’t take me long to realise that all I had to do was follow this rope just like a black line on the bottom of the pool until I got to the large orange buoy that marked the first right hand turn. There was no need to sight every few strokes and I was certain I was swimming in a straight line.

As I approached the first buoy I did look up a few times to make sure I didn’t overshoot it and as I rounded it I sighted a couple of times to make sure I was on target for the next buoy. As I did so I could see the guy out in front now with a lead of around 50m – he was flying! I also spotted at least one, maybe more people still on my feet. We rounded the 2nd buoy and once again had a perfect ‘lane line’ to follow thanks to the underwater  ropes.I was feeling good, still in 2nd place and leading a little pack so decided to pick up the pace a little to drop them from my feet. I managed to do so and was now swimming out on my own.

Me in the Swim

The buoys finish about 50m from the swim exit and I soon drifted off course a little here but soon the swim exit was upon me, I was second out of the water and on my own as I entered T1. My swim time was 10:53 for the 750m course.

T1

Well, that was a good start and I was now running through T1 to my bike, unzipping my wetsuit as I went. I managed to overshoot my bike by a few feet as someone had moved my towel but I soon backtracked, stripped off my wetsuit, buckled my helmet and grabbed my bike.

I took a look at my rear wheel as I ran to the bike exit point and all looked OK. Phew, my rear tyre was still inflated and the race was on. I mounted my bike and headed out onto the bike course.

The Bike

The bike route was flat as flat could be and simply comprised of 4 laps around the lake. There was nowhere that you could take a wrong turning, nowhere to get lost and just two or three slightly tricky bends. other than that is was flat, straight and easy.

I took a while to get going though, easing into a decent speed and working my way up through the gears. I was passing plenty of people from previous waves, but I was passed by quite a few people from my wave too. I could hear them coming with their disc wheels rumbling as they caught me up and passed me. Everyone who passed me were on proper Time Trial Bikes with deep section rims and disc wheels making me a feel a little out of place on a farily old-fashioned looking bog-standard road bike with standard wheels and a pair of clip on aero bars. I was going quite well but had nothing on some of these guys. Although saying that I did pass plenty of people on such bikes as well.

On The Bike

I was down to about 10th place after the first lap, and dropped further down the field to 15th by the halfway point of the bike. Conditions were perfect with very little wind and a not too congested course. I was going OK but just didn’t seem to be able to pick it up for that extra little bit of speed. I did gradually get into it on the third lap and was now holding my own and not losing any places. By the fourth lap I was picking up the speed a little and some of the people who had overtaken me earlier seemed to have completely run out of steam.

I started passing people from my wave and as I came into T2 I was back up to 10th place. My time for the 13.2 mile bike ended up as 33:37, and average speed of 23.9mph.  I reached down to undo my shoes and as I did my right calf cramped up. It was pretty sore and it took me a while to get my foot back on top of my shoe so that I could stretch my leg out and undo the other shoe. I could still feel the pains of cramp in my calf as I swung my leg over my bike and approached the dismount line. This could end in disaster as my cramping calf was now going to be forced to run and run fast as I dismounted at speed and chattered barefoot across the concrete trying to keep up with my bike. Would my calf cooperate or would I end up in a heap?

T2

The dismount line approached and there was I poised like a leopard ready to spring into action. A leopard balancing on one leg on a bicycle wearing a lycra suit with a bad case of sciatica in one leg and a painful cramp in the other. Down went my left leg and all was OK, immediately followed by a very tight right leg, cramp shot through it but it held and I was half hobbling, half sprinting into the transition area and looking for my racking space.

Dawn and another of the Team GB Managers were stood right in front of it having a chat, but they jumped out of the way as I approached. Bike racked it was off with my helmet and into my box it went. On with my visor and on with my running shoes and I ran with a slight hobble as I tried to recover from the cramp towards the run exit point. My legs weren’t ready to run, but run they did.

The Run

As I exited T2 and headed off along the run course I heard Anna shout that I was in the top 10. I didn’t see her so couldn’t wave but continued on my way, grabbing a cup of water from the drinks station and pouring it over my head. It was now midday and the temperature was souring. It was up around 23ºC, way warmer than anything we’ve had for months so there was no harm in keeping cool.

Out on the Run

The run course was a simple affair out and back on a completely flat path along the  right hand shore of the lake. We did this twice and then had a hundred yards or so to the finish line. Once again, as easy as it could be. I was already gaining on people ahead of me and soon started overtaking them. Most were from earlier waves but I was sure I’d passed one or maybe two from my wave as well.

I have my watch set to beep at me every mile on the run so that I can check my pace and after 5 minutes and 58 seconds it beeped for the first time. Not a bad pace, but nowhere near the 5:45 I was running in races last year. I knew I wasn’t on form and it was showing. A guy in a fairly colourful TVT tri-suit overtook me, I wasn’t sure if he was in my wave or not, but this was the first place I’d lost on the run, until now I’d been passing plenty of people from previous waves, but this was one place lost. This was feeling tough and it felt as though the extra 5-6kg I was carrying were now being dragged around around the course in a bag behind me. Someone who was definitely from my wave passed me as I started the second lap, but he was going far too fast for me to even try to keep up with him. I tried to keep my pace up but the next mile took 6 minutes and 8 seconds.

Only one more mile to go “Come on Al” keep it up. As I approached the far turn-around point for the second time some guy going the other way shouted “Come on there’s places to be gained!” He was right, I was slowly catching a group of of runners in front of me and who knows, some of them could be from my wave. I tried to re-focus, ignore the pain and concentrate on closing down the gap. Sure enough the gap was decreasing and I passed a group of three or four runners and focussed on the next group. I was increasing the pace as I did so and was now also closing down the guy in the bright TVT tri-suit who had overtaken me earlier. I passed a few more people and continued to turn the screw battling through the pain as the final half mile was upon us. Coming towards the finish line I ended up in a little group and kept on pushing. I pulled away from a couple of them and the guy in the TVT tri-suit was just a few yards ahead of me. I passed him too and there was one more in front of me.

Nearly There

I heard Morgan shout, “Come on, Sprint” from somewhere off to the side, I tried to but just couldn’t. I looked over to where I thought they were but couldn’t see them so just kept going as best I could across the finish line. At last, I crossed the line and was handed a cup of water. I tried to drink some but couldn’t so spat it out and tried to recover. That had been hard, harder than any other race but the times didn’t show it.

The Results

I found Anna and Morgan. They had been watching and supporting me all the way and had been keeping up with the live timings on the web too. I’d crossed the line in 1:05:11, 4 seconds behind the guy in front of me and just 1 second ahead of the guy in the TVT tri-suit. That was good enough for 8th place so not too shabby really, especially as this was the British Championships and the competition was very tough. I was nowhere near as fast I could be though and judging by the times of other people that I usually compete against was probably about 2 minutes off the pace.

The full results can be seen here, but here are the top ten with me in 8th place.

Pos.	Bibno.	Participant	Category	Club/Company/Sponsor	Finish time
1	284	Chris Stuart	(M) 40-44	Army Triathlon Association	1:01:38	9:57	1:04	31:22	40.0	18:35
2	305	Glyn Painter	(M) 40-44		1:02:13	11:42	59.0	29:46	39.0	19:07
3	321	Noel Sutton	(M) 40-44	Deal Triathlon Club	1:03:17	11:09	1:11	32:35	44.0	17:38
4	301	Neil Collins	(M) 40-44		1:03:23	11:42	1:08	31:48	48.0	17:57
5	307	Simon Shaw	(M) 40-44		1:04:05	11:40	1:10	33:41	44.0	16:50
6	281	Lindsay Pearson	(M) 40-44	Oxford Tri	1:04:58	11:38	55.0	31:57	44.0	19:44
7	290	Duncan Emery	(M) 40-44		1:05:07	11:52	1:10	31:23	55.0	19:47
8	330	Alan Cole	(M) 40-44	Intrtri	1:05:11	10:53	1:06	33:37	47.0	18:48
9	282	Alex Scott	(M) 40-44	Thames Valley Triathletes	1:05:12	12:20	1:17	32:24	48.0	18:23
10	289	Lee Charles	(M) 40-44	Evolution Tri (Evo Tri) Windsor	1:05:24	12:02	1:02	31:00	48.0	20:32

 The aftermath

Immediately after crossing the line my sciatica starting hurting. I hadn’t noticed it at all during the race but I’m sure it hadn’t helped, my calves were pretty sore too. I hobbled off to get a shower then ate some croissants and muffins we had taken from the hotel breakfast buffet earlier. I had a chat to a few guys I recognised and we sat in the sun for a little while and then headed off towards Bristol to visit my parents.

All things considered it had been a pretty good race. I had a good swim, I could have done a little better on both the bike and in the run, but I knew I wasn’t on form so eighth place isn’t too bad. As always there’s lots to be learnt. First, it’s always worth checking your bike and transition area one last time before the race if you possibly can. If I hadn’t checked it when I had all would have been lost but instead, although the final few minutes of race preparation weren’t ideal, at least I had time to rectify the burst tube and complete the race with no mechanicals. Secondly, I don’t know if I can justify spending money on a Time Trial bike and better wheels but I’m sure there’s some time to be gained by doing so. Thirdly, the extra few kilos in weight make all the difference and there’s certainly no point spending money on new bikes and such like if I can’t lay off the cakes!

Finally a note on the course and the organisation. The venue is just perfect for a triahtlon. Clear, flat water with built in lane markings, a flat traffic free cycle course and a flat straight run all self-contained and perfect for spectators as well as competitors. The surfaces in transition were kind to bare feet too. The organisation by Human Race was spot on too. Waves were well spaced so as to avoid congestion, everything was well marked and ran smoothly and the marshalls were friendly and helpful. It was a good atmosphere for the whole day and they even managed to arrange for the hottest sunniest day of the year as well.

What more could I want other than an easy drive home with a stop at Burger King for a Whopper meal followed by pizzas, snacks and cake!

Tags: RacesTriathlon