Brigg Keyo Sprint Triathlon
30/09/18
Brigg North Lincolnshire
500/20/5
£40ish
T-shirt,
Buff
Haribo
Last triathlon of the season, I doubt this report can compete with Ris and his emotional rollercoaster of a race ( see race reports, I almost missed it )
A different contrast to the Louth sprint at the beginning of the month. That race was slightly more expensive, and if you wanted a t shirt you had to pay extra, but, both races allow you register the evening before, however, the Brigg one requires compulsory attendance at race briefing 7:30am, all bikes to be racked by 8am, where as Louth has an online briefing and check the notice board, and you can rack anytime before your race time, so Brigg meant getting up at stupid o'clock to get sorted by silly o'clock to then hang around for two hours before race start.
The last run I did was two days after Louth, and put my back out, it generally goes awol twice a year or some reason, so no running for three weeks prior to race day, but, you can only take away what you bring to the party, and being fit to finish, I worked on a race strategy to give me what I hoped was a decent race. There are always going to be ' what ifs ', and the past is a country you cannot visit, so, no point in thinking well maybe, after the fact. Just learn and move on.
The race when it first started about 12 years ago was the ideal tri for beginners, you could see a vast assortment of bikes and gear, nowadays it is a bling fest. Fast and flat, end of season, the course record is about 54 mins, or just under.
I opted to go for none aero, which may be surprising, given the course nature, but aero, disc wheel, bike shoes, and aero helmet, I decided would not outweigh, lightness of bike etc due to my reduced fitness and lack of race fitness having only used my TT bike twice this year, so it was TT bike, with trainer platforms rather than bike shoes.
Swim
16 lengths, count your own, no running on the poolside. The swim brief included the ' if you catch the swimmer ahead, tap the toes, and if you get tapped stop at the end, to be overtaken, there isn't much room to overtake in the pool ".
As the race is constantly running, my swim start has taken on the proverbial, go at the B of the Bang. The starter counts down, and my toes are just leaving the wall as they shout go, rather than start the push off at the word go. Except if swimmers in the lane have just turned, I will then draft behind, tap, and overtake at the end, a couple of seconds lost, , but energy saved, and prevention of early onset oxygen debt as I warm up, the seconds lost are quickly made up.
Everything was going swimmingly, until, the next wave started and the buffoon, thought that overtaking with on coming swimmer was a great idea, I moved into the ropes at the side as best I could, however, sadly, our arms became entwined with a loud thud. I hope that swimmer
has realised that when you have a panzer tank approaching you, it is advantageous to get out of the way, you will not come off better. My arm continued in its usual forward rotation pulling his arm with it. The rest of the swim continued without any more incidents.
00:08:00 ( 30th ), fastest time 00:05:57
T1
00:00:55 ( 29th ), fastest time 00:00:32
Bike
A nice fast flat there and back course, with a couple of roundabouts which caused a small time penalty due to one Porsche Boxster driver who thought that going around the mini roundabout in front of me a couple of times was a funny jape, and a second roundabout with a small queue of traffic, causing another small time penalty. Throughout the race, I decided to run on feel, not HR, or pace, I didn't even use a stopwatch, it was just a case of hanging on at the pace I most felt like giving up on.
A slight headwind on the way out, and tailwind on return, only got overtaken by one other rider in the last half mile. So pleased with that.
00:35:41 ( 34th ), fastest time 00:29:45
T2
00:00:37 ( 1st ), fastest time, that was me,
Run
A flat, out and back course, partly urban, partly rural, plenty of opportunity to see where your rivals are on the course. A small twinge in the left calf, and left knee, but otherwise, it was a case of holding on, and not getting demoralised by being overtaken, not brilliant, more a psychological defeat as running use to be my A game, but not any more.
Back to the finish, and relax.
00:26:11 ( 94th ), fastest time 00:14:54, WTF, 14 minutes and 54 seconds.
Overall 39th/170, 5th in age group
Relatively pleased, I couldn't have gone quicker, happy with my choice of non-aero.