English
Hello everyone! Last week I did my first ‘big’ Triathlon one of the Human Race events, at Eton college near Windsor. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and what a great venue to compete at: the post event picnic was definitely a good idea! I had plenty of time to warm up and prepare for my race: having a pop-up tent was useful, not only was it a good sun-shelter, but it helped keep all my gear together. Before my event there was the Boys Youth event and before that I even had time to watch the Scootathlon!
The thought of the bike transition was pretty daunting and I had had to get the OK to enter this event from my South West Academy mentor (Harry Wiltshire!) so obviously it wasn’t going to be for the faint hearted ! It was also going to be the first time I had done the full wetsuit – bike shoes transition – I normally brave the waters in just a swimming costume! It was a deep water start for the swim in Dorney lake (the college rowing lake.) It was a tough swim, quite boisterous at the start and not my best start -however once we had begun to spread out I just tried to maintain my technique of breathing every two strokes, and sighting on the exit ramp to avoid repeating the dog-leg route swam in the preceding boy’s race: My Aquasphere Kaiman Gogglesmade it easy to see the ramp. I came out of the swim 9th out of 30. I was quite impressed at how quick I got my AquaSphere Wracer Wetsuit off.
We had done some transition training with the South West academy last summer, and I had rehearsed my technique on the beach the week before, and realised how much I had forgotten – The main issue being – Don’t do up all the Velcro on the neck band or you’ll never shift it in a rush! In T1 there was a slight pile-up which I rode into just as I had mounted my bike and ‘clipped in’. Luckily a marshal caught me and I didn’t crash, unfortunately in the ruckus two people overtook me so I knew I had to make up some ground here for a start.
The bike stage went better than I expected – the two laps around the lake – with a slight hill over the far side was an exhausting ride in the unexpected heat (26 degrees C!) I had been practicing on my newFocus Cayo 105 road bike, mainly on my trainer but still haven’t fully got to grips with the extra gears I now have, but I did appreciate the lightness of the bike and the power it could deliver on the long straights.
The ride down to transition over the bridge, with the dragonflies buzzing alongside was quite idyllic, in contrast to my physical exertion! I got my feet out of my shoes and rode the last 300m with my feet on top of my shoes, no problem with my Speedplay X5 Pedals– but I do need to check their tension settings – they feel too easy to disengage now! When I came into dismount my bike there was no second dismount line, the marshal called out – I want you off your bike here (meaning ‘by here’) and I left it a little late – I nearly got disqualified, but luckily I was just on the ground in time.
My best transition was the T2 into the run though my legs felt completely drained of energy but I still managed to overtake three people in the run finishing 19th out of 30 in what was a very wide age group and a very strong field of competitors. I learnt a lot from this experience and am looking forward my next one already, it was great!
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