Race weekend started on Friday as I was camping overnight. With a briefing for all athletes at 6am on Saturday it made sense rather than getting up at 3.00am and driving there on the morning. The race was at Rutland Water which has a water sports and cycling centre and enough parking space to cater for some 900 triathletes. Once I’d set up camp at 3pm, pretty easy with a 2 man pop-up tent, I had plenty of time to check out the start/transition area and make sure I knew the routes we had to take when changing between disciplines. Wise to do as it far too easy to get it wrong on the day when adrenaline is off the scale. Registration opened from 5 – 8pm to collect race numbers, timing chips, complimentary energy fuel and t-shirt and it was clear there were already plenty of competitors around based on the queue. With that taken care of it was time to set up my bike in transition and prep equipment ready to go on the Saturday morning. The less to do on the morning the better to avoid rushing and undue stress. With all that done, it was back to the tent to chill out for the evening and have dinner and an early night at about 9pm. By this time the field was full of tents and triathletes in a mini Glastonbury scene.
My alarm sounded at 4am on Saturday morning and was quickly set to snooze for 10 minutes. Even then I could hear people milling about and see torches flashing around in the darkness as people begun their day with a hearty, fuel filled breakfast. I went with peanut butter and honey sandwiches, jaffa cakes, flapjacks, an energy drink and thick black coffee to fire up the system. I then made my way down to transition for 5.30am to make final checks to my race gear and shoe horn my way into my wetsuit for the swim.
And so at 6.30am I made my down to the lake ready for a 6.50am start and met a couple of my Walden Tri Club team mates also in the 40-44 age group wave. Us and about 190 other triathletes all ready for their own race. Some nervous and quiet, some laughing and joking, all dealing with what was to come in their own way. Some lithe physiques as lean as whippets, some less so, all having hopefully put in the required training to get them to the finish line. At a very prompt 6.50am it was time for the B of the bang! Well, not quite, a starters whistle signified the off and the water quickly turned into white water as a mass of arms and legs began turning over. They call it the washing machine or bun fight and with good reason. Fortunately swimming is my best event as so I quickly found some space towards the front of the pack and settled into my rhythm. 2 laps and 29mins later I was out and running into transition to peel off my wetsuit and put on my bike shoes and helmet. Never too graceful an operation given the quick change in position from horizontal to vertical and blood flow. Only one other person in transition before me that I could see and so I knew I had nailed a pretty good swim. Always a good thing with my bike and running ability!
Heading out onto the bike course the weather was gloomy and quite hazy. Not too bad a thing really. It took about 15 mins to ‘find my legs’ and settle into a steady cadence on what was a nice but undulating course. A few reasonable hills that required changing down into a low-ish gear but nothing Alpe d’huez style. Again it was a 2 lap course taking us through transition and out again through cheering crowds and much appreciated spurring on. 2hrs 47mins after starting the bike leg I rolled into transition again, somewhat weary having pushed a little harder than I normally would. Seeing as it was the last race of the season I had decided to give it a little extra and leave nothing out on the course.
Running trainers on, energy gels tucked into my pockets I headed out onto the run course for the half marathon. Seeing as I’m normally spent after a stand-alone training run of this distance, it makes me wonder how the hell and why the hell I choose to do it after 85km on a bike! But if you’ve put the training in, you should get to the finish line. Settling into what is my only pace, slow, I found a rhythm and decided not to try and push my luck by going off too hard. Consistent with the first two legs, the run course was a 2 lap there and back circuit around Rutland Water on a mainly paved route with just a short grass section. Taking us around the lake to the farthest point, it was a scenic run course over a dam to the turning point and back again to the finish area to be cheered on and sent out on a final loop. Due to the design of the course, athletes passed one another the whole time and each time I came towards another Walden Tri team mate we high fived or spurred one another on with shouts of “come on”, “keep going” and “nearly there”. The latter one regardless of how far the finish line was! At the final turnaround point with about 5km to go, my batteries gave out on me as I hit the so-called wall and lifting my legs became a herculean effort. One of my team mates, tracking me for the whole run, eased his way past but not before taking a few moments at the side of me to let me know “nearly there Dave, keep going”. This time it was true! Good sportsmanship. Nearing the finish chute and with the announcer calling people in over the loudspeakers, I gave it that customary sprint over the line with team mates cheering me in. 5hrs 26mins after the starters whistle sounded, I drew to a standstill, received my finishers medal and waded into the lake with fellow finishers to ease our aching muscles and dissect and laugh about the day’s events. A good day at the office. On checking the results a day later I find that I finished 393rd overall. I expected to come around there so all good. Even better though is that I posted the 25th best swim overall and the second best in my age group of 40-44. 1st if you consider that the one person to beat me failed to finish the race. I’m claiming it!
Roll on next season.
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