Dyfi Dash – Race Report

It’s been a while (July in fact) since I did any racing, but Sunday saw me get the first race of the season, the Dyfi Dash in Machynlleth, under my belt.

Pre-Race Prep

Saturday was a glorious Spring day so it was then that I decided that I would take part. Training had been going fairly well. I had  a hard training day on Friday at the end of what was a fairly hard week. Nothing of a taper for such a race but I did have a ‘rest day’ on Saturday which was spent getting ready for the race. The bottom bracket on my bike was seized so I had to free that, the front wheel had a puncture, I changed my tyres, gave everything a bit of a clean and oil and also noticed that my rear brake caliper was sticking and therefore rubbing, so that was stripped down, cleaned, greased and reassembled.

With my bike ready it was time to pack my bag ready for the race. Usually I’m quite finicky and organised and end up taking loads of things, including loads of spares. This wasn’t meant to be a big race though and was really only a Sunday morning training session so I decided to travel light. Just my bike, tri-suit, goggles, cycling shoes, helmet, running shoes, a towel, my Garmin watch and a single water bottle for the bike. It felt weird only taking the bare essentials, but strangely liberating too, except of course for that niggling feeling that I’d forgotten something important.

Race Day

I was up early on the Sunday, but with my bag packed with the bare essentials I didn’t have much to do, so I had some breakfast and settled down to a couple of hours work. Before I knew it, it was time to leave so I loaded up the car and started to head off. That’s when I realised that yesterday’s glorious Spring weather was no longer with us. It was now dark, pouring with rain, very grey and fairly windy too. Oh well, I was committed now so there was no turning back, and at least at 9ºC it wasn’t too cold. It’s also when I remembered the first of the important things I’d forgotten, some money to pay for the race entry fee. I came back into the house raided Morgan’s money box for some cash and then headed off again, hoping there was nothing else I’d forgotten.

I was in Machynlleth for 7:30am in time to register and sign my name on the dotted line. As usual, there were loads of people I knew there. All of the Cerist Triathlon Club crew, a number of people from INTRtri, quite a few from the University Tri Club and a few other familiar faces too. I spent some time chatting before heading back to the car to get ready.

I have to say that I’d never been this laid back before a race. I’d only decided to do it the day before, I had very little to do in preparation and I was treating it as a hard training session rather than a race. I wasn’t feeling at all nervous and wasn’t too concerned about the finer details. Whereas usually I take a while to set everything up in transition, making sure I know exactly where everything is and that it will still be in exactly that place when I get there and that contingency plans are in place. Today, I just rolled up in the rain, put my bike on the rack, put my helmet and number belt on the bars, put my running shoes next to my bike and then headed off to find shelter indoors out of the rain which was steadily getting worse. The entire process took about 30 seconds.

As one of the later people to register I was number 79 and would therefore be going off in one of the later waves. Actually, there weren’t waves, just a constant stream of swimmers. 2 people to a lane, 20 lengths each and when one person had finished they’d start the next one off. I sat on the poolside for the start and then sat there chatting and watching people’s strokes for about 2 hours waiting for my time to go. Everything seemed to be running smoothly and the organisation was good. There were a few very fast swimmers though, and one or two incredibly fast posting times of just under 5 minutes for 400m. I’d be able to go under 6:30 however easy I took it, and a sub-6:00 would be possible for me if I felt OK.

The Swim

I’d been chatting to Michael most of the time and as number 78 he was off just before me. I’d usually spend a bit of time with some last minute toilet visits and then a minute or so focussing on what I was about to do before a race, but not today. There were no additional toilet visits over and above my usual morning routine and I just sat on the poolside before being called up for my swim start.

I was put into the lane next to Michael who was now halfway through his swim, and there was another guy starting in the next lane along at the same time as me. The count down began… 3, 2, 1, GO.

I pushed off and stared off on my swim. The guy staring at the same time pushed off too and soon started to pull out a bit of a lead on me. By the end of the second length I was already into a nice smooth, steady rhythm but was also a body length or two down on the guy who started at the same time as me. Oh well, I wasn’t really racing so I’d just stick to my moderately hard (but not flat out) pace and let him go. Halfway through the swim though and I had caught him back up. In fact he seemed to be fading fast so I just stuck to my pace and soon got the tap on the head to say I had two lengths to go. The guy who’d started at the same time as me was now quite a way back so I completed the swim, pulled myself out of the pool, pressed the lap button on my watch to give me a swim time of 5:50 and headed out to T2

T2

Not much to say here. Owain was waving at me through the windows of the café, and I then woke Fleur up who had fallen asleep in her chair at the side of the pool! I didn’t realised that she was really asleep, but the way she jumped when I said ‘come on Fleur, wakey wakey’ as I walked past gave her away. It was cold outside in comparison to the pool, it was still pouring with rain, the wind was blowing and my helmet and number belt had blown off the bars. I soon had them on though and was on my way.

The Bike

I managed to get my feet into my shoes without any issues so was settled and ready to go by the time I reached the clock tower. I had to track stand here for a bit waiting for the traffic but only a few seconds and then headed off East towards Cemaes Road roundabout. I settled into my aero position – something I haven’t done for several months – and actually felt quite good.  In fact I seemed to be rolling along quite well. A ride on my race tyres always feels good, and despite the driving rain and slick roads, they felt as god today as always. I was soon averaging over 23 mph and seemed to fly up the only real hill on the course. I overtook Michael at the top of the hill, He had been stopped at the side of the road sorting something out on his bike so I asked if he was OK as I cycled past and he said that ‘he was now’ so I carried on without slowing. I overtook quite a few earlier starters as well and then rounded the roundabout. I took a look at my watch here to see that I’d taken 14 minutes or so to get to this halfway point with an average speed of 24.1mph – that’s pretty good for me.

I started the ride back and it was immediately noticeable that this was going to be a little harder thanks to a fairly stiff headwind. Maybe the 24mph average so far wasn’t quite so good after all. I tucked in, tried to stay out of the wind and the driving rain and continued to pass people on the way back. No one overtook me so I was going OK. It was getting quite cold now though as I headed into the wind and driving rain. My fingers were freezing, I couldn’t feel my toes and the cold wasn’t doing my legs muscles any favours either. Not far to go now though and I was soon rolling back into town with the bike portion of the race behind me.

T2

Getting the buckles undone on my shoes wasn’t as easy as it should have been thanks to the fact that the cold had turned my fingers into claws. The same was true for getting my running shoes on. I managed to coax my fingers into action just enough and soon set off on the run, splashing through the puddles and tip-toeing cautiously over the muddy patch as tested my legs to see how they felt.

The Run

I didn’t feel very settled on the run at first, but when I looked at my watch after the first mile and it show 6:32 I decided that it wasn’t too bad. Although I’m have been capable of much faster than that in the past, this was a ‘training session race’ and I hadn’t run at that pace in training for quite a while. In fact I had struggled to get under 6:45 pace in training lately so 6:32 was pretty good. I didn’t push too hard up over the hill in Penrhosmawr and kept up my hard but not flat out pace all the way around. The hill slowed my pace considerably with a 6:55 for the second mile. Still OK though. Mile 3 was OK, with a slight descent it was a 6:29 mile. I started to feel a little more fluid and as though I’d got into the running by the time I reached the golf course cattle-grids, and actually picked the pace up for the final stretch to the finish. The run is a little longer than the usual 3.1 miles of a Sprint race at 3.9 miles and the final 0.9 miles were ticked off at a min/mile pace of 6:19 – that’s a little more like it, but still not fast.

I crossed the line with a total time of 1:04:03, which wasn’t too shabby. It was enough for 6th place overall and 2nd in my age-category. Full Results can be seen here: Dyfi Dash Race Result 2015

After a shower and trying to warm up with a cheese toastie and a coffee I waited around for the presentations, before heading home. As I left the leisure centre the rain stopped, and by the time I got home the sun was out. I unpacked which thanks to my minimalist approach was a nice easy task and now we were being treated to a glorious sunny afternoon. The sky was blue, the wind had dropped to barely a breeze and everything was drying out. I headed off for a walk along the beach to make the most of the sunshine and was soon quite hot in the sun.

All in all a pleasant way to get the ball rolling and the first race of the year done and dusted. It was a shame the weather didn’t clear a few hours earlier, but you can’t have everything and other than being a little cold you don’t really notice it during the race. Thanks as always to all of the organisers and marshalls, many of whom had to stand out in the wind and rain for a lot longer than we as competitors did.