Warwickshire Triathlon

 

Mad October has officially started as it is October, and more importantly event no.1 was succesfully completed today !

 

We took the trip down the M69 and headed for Stratford Upon Avon to take part in the Warwickshire Triathlon being held in Shakespeare country.  I was excited because I’ve been happy with the small improvements that I had been making, but also a little disappointed as this was the last Triathlon of the year and it will be April before I get the opportunity to do another.

 

It all starts at the Stratford Leisure and Visitor Centre, the swimming takes place in a 33 metre pool , the cycle route is  miles of generally flat ‘A’ roads , and the run is a two lap out and back mostly along tarmac paths. Given that there were over a thousand other competitors today, this was going to be one hell of a busy race !

 

This is how it went…

 

Swim – 400m – 10.15 PB

 

As I mentioned earlier this is held in an indoor heated 33m pool which means 12 lengths rather than the regular 16 that you do in a 25m pool. The twist here is that the pool is divided into three lanes and you swim in each of them by doing four lengths in each ( ducking under the rope at the end of each four ). This works really well in reality and gives you a fighting chance of surviving the carnage !

Each competitor enters lane 1 at 15 second intervals and it was apparent from the that there was not going to be a polite procession. I made my way to poolside and slotted myself into the line up – which was numeric – makes sense !!  a marshall shouted out 525 ! I slid into the pool then 5,4,3,2,1 go !! 

I made myself a promise that I would pace the first four lengths having blown up at Southwell, and I managed it this time ! Swimming the extra 7m per length did’nt seem to take a lot longer and I soon felt comfortable whilst all around me there was overtaking, swimming under, swimming over and general crowded madness .  I got to the end of my first four and slid under the rope to start my second set of four in lane 2 and trying to keep an eye on the clock at the same time, oh and the other nutters in the pool! At the end of the three lanes i climbed out of the pool and glanced the clock. As yet I don’t have the official results but i am sure that this will be a PB. ( updated – at 10 mins 15 seconds, this smashed my previous best !)

 

T1 – Uneventful , on a par with Southwell, maybe a little slower by a couple of seconds.

 

Bike – 23km – 53.38

 

Since I learned how to inflate presta valved tyres my bike times have improved dramatically, and today was the most confident I have ridden and really attacked this course. Once out of the centre of Stratford the route goes all scenic for a bit, not that I took a lot in cos my head was down and I was going for it big willie style !!!!

There are mile markers along the course and having seen sign number 14 on my way in I knew I had at least another 13 to go when I got to the first one – and decided to see how long I could keep the pace up for. i was again overtaking earlier competitors and maybe those who had overtaken me in the swim. No.538 came past me at one stage and was away – still I was going well and felt OK at mile 7.At about mile 9 you join the busy A46 which is normally a dual carriageway but today was a single road coned off with traffic on one carriageway going both ways – this was not healthy with not a lot of room for the traffic and the triathletes –  however it was cosy I suppose and helped you really concentrate as coaches and lorries came close past you. The bike course is reasonably flat apart from one long sweeping incline at about mile 10/11 and once you have made it to the top of the slope it reasonably downhill from there onto the quieter A439 and back into Stratford. it was on this road where I retook my position from no.538 which is another first for me.

Going into T2 I felt really good knowing that I had completed the bike leg in a decent time. I saw Heidi and posed for a photo on the way back in and was promptly overtaken – bah !!!

 

T2 – farted around, sat down to put socks on, think I lost 20 seconds or so on Southwell.

 

Run 5km – 28.55

 

The run is initially across a grassy trail until you reach a narrow tarmac path and then its an out and back T shaped course. I think I may have overdone it with the bike because my legs didnt feel right and my running felt forced. It took a long while to settle into a pace and when I did , the Garmin watch told me it was slightly slower than Southwell (although faster than Rugby). Now these paths are used by the general public and there seemed to be lots of people having Sunday morning walks, walking the dog etc and this made for a crowded path. I did hear one moaning, but I didn’t hear a Tri-er moaning so that makes us better people ! At the end of the two laps I was ready for the finish and had put in my second best run time.

 

Overall – Warwickshire Triathlon is a super test and I really enjoyed it, although 40 quid for a race with no chip timing seems steep.

 

Thats race day 1 of Mad October put to bed ! There is just 5 days to regroup now until the Mens Health Survival of the fittest 10k on Saturday…..