Thorpe Sprint Tri - 18/08/13

[Don]

Where: Thorpe Lakes, Chertsey
When: Sunday 18th August
Organiser: Tri Project http://www.thetriproject.co.uk/
Course details: 750m lake swim, 20.6km bike, 5km run off road
Facilities: Showers and toilets available plus a very decent Café
Technical: Chip timing
Freebies: T-Shirt and some kind of healthy snack bar

My approach to this race was basically a final warm up blast for a half iron distance I have lined up this weekend, and also as I’ve done this race twice already earlier in the year, it’s a good marker to measure improvement over the course of time.

The morning of the race was as usual an early start, and remarkably I was feeling pretty fresh at 5:30am so my mood was good. Driving to the venue I had the tunes pumping in the car and it was all shaping up well for a great morning. So half way there, one minor thing popped into my mind – Damn it!! I’ve gone and left my bloody wetsuit hanging up at home, a quick check of my bag and yep, no wetsuit. Oh well sod it – I’m half way there already and too late to turn back home. A great start!

Arrived in decent time for registration and caught up with Miskin who looked mean and ready to smash it! Mixing with the big boys now!

Racked up and headed over to the race briefing and was only one of two people non-wetsuit-ed. The young lads wave went off first so whilst that was going on I slipped the goggles on for a second. “Hang on – these seem a bit loose!” … Oh great, the strap’s busted, so with five minutes to the off legged it all the way back to transition for my spare pair. Phew!

Into the lake and it wasn’t that cold really so no problems there and we were off. Immediately I was dropped like a stone by the leading group, where normally I would expect to be near and I’m now in the main pack. Everything from a technical perspective was going pretty well and was working hard. I took a close line on the turn buoys chancing a kicking in order to make some time up and survived that well. Into the last 300m and this is where I typically like to push on, but it was difficult making any significant progress so just targeted 3 guys to beat and succeeded there. Swim time was 14:53, when I was hoping for getting close to around a wet-suited 11mins.

T1 was by my standards pretty quick, helmet on, shoes on, off! Bosh!

Off on the bike at a steady pace early on. Knowing the course pretty well really helps as to where you know you can dig in and where to expect a drop in speed which physiologically is a bonus to me. Out to the turn point I was pretty isolated, not sure whether this was reflective of my swim time or in fact I was actually holding out pretty well. On the way back I managed to get with a group of six or seven other guys for the final 8 or 9km. There was plenty of jostling for position and surprisingly even a bit of banter! This part of the bike was great ... proper racing! The bike was completed in 38mins, 2 mins faster than when I did the race in June, so pleased with that outcome

Into T2 and again, tried not to faff around too much, and out onto the run.

Within the first 1km my hamstring didn’t feel quite right, and at this point toyed with the idea of pulling out not wanting to injure myself with bigger things round the corner, so I briefly stopped, gave it a stretch and a massage and carried on! Wow – I have healing hands, as the problem went away. Running off the bike doesn’t feel as painful these days as over the course of the season the body’s kind of got use to it, so settled into a steady pace. I actually felt pretty good and coming up to the back section of the run at around 2.5km tried to push on. This was looking good I thought, and maybe I can get run PB out of this. With 800m to go I kicked on and up to the finish line for a sprint. Time for the run was a disappointing 25:34s – crap, and nowhere near a PB.

Overall, it was an enjoyable race and some aspects I was pretty pleased with. A few cock ups along the way, most noticeably forgetting my wetsuit, but then again shit happens!

[King Sad]

Well done Don an improvement and the 'big un' yet to come

[Jimba]

Well done Don, true BCTTT style!

[kfjatek]

Sounds like a couple of clusters that you got out of your way ahead of the biggie next weekend - that's good!

Feeling partly responsible for the wetsuit cock-up - I organised the OW swim on the day before!

Great report - and good luck this weekend!

[Sir Jibbenstein]

Great work Don! Superb effort forgetting the wetsuit, don't do that this weekend though!

Off on the bike at a steady pace early on.

Really? That doesn't sound like the Maverick I know

[wannabetri]

Looked good at the finish and that's all that matters.

Can't believe you and a few other nutters did non-wetsuit. It wasn't that chilly but I know what I'd prefer!

Best of luck this weekend. Enjoy Ben Nevis.