Finally the day arrives.
I'm planning on writing a long essay about this day, and will probably put it in my 'proper' blog at http://se71.org/blog, but in the meantime here's a few highlights.
Cycled 10k nice and slowly to the course at 8.30am.
During registration, trying to hold the pack and my bike, dropped the bike and cut my leg - nice start.
Helmet only just passed muster. will need a new one if/when I do this again.
Set my bike up in the rack, people near me all very friendly. All of us wondering why we're mad enough to do this. Breakfast was two Weetabix and a cup of coffee. Had a protein bar whilst waiting and a sip of PSP22. (for the record, had pasta last night, crisps, and a couple of glasses of red wine)
Went out onto the jetty in my wetsuit, jumped in and had a swim around. The water is actually nicer than Heron lake last week. My official photographer arrived (Carol) and I got out and posed for shots in my wetsuit.
Got back in the water and then we were off on time (10.15)
Stuck to the back and tried to swim breaststroke calmly - not panicking about being left behind. There were people around me so I knew I wasn't completely last, but I couldn't really look behind to see just how far back I was. It really is quite tiring, but the 400M came faster than I expected. It's a lovely sunny day and I concentrated on just getting to the end and trying to make sure I enjoyed the experience as much as possible. Saw the bottom and tried to stand up, but it was still too deep, so had to start swimming again. Then I was out and running for my bike.
No idea of my place except that there are a lot of people in front of me. Transition went really well - my wetsuit came off quickly. Had a half-hearted stab at drying my feet, put n my socks and shoes, helmet and sunglasses. Grabbed the bike and ran for the start. More people than just me had a short wobbly moment mounting the bike, but I quickly settled and was off. Saddle a bit slippery as I'm still all wet obviously.
Throughout the bike, I felt I was overtaking a few riders each lap, but it was really difficult to tell. There are four laps, and I know faster swimmers actually were overtaking me too, being already a lap ahead. Saw a few bikes at the size of the road, must have been some kind of crash. I cycled alone mostly, trying to keep my speed in the 30-35 range. No chance of any drafting as I either overtook people or was overtaken. From my weekly cycles, I knew I could maintain this pace easily for the 40 minutes I expected the 20k to take. I didn't try to go faster as I was worried about the run to come.
After 4 laps, and still feeling pretty good, I went back into the transition area. Tried to put my trainers on but forgot to loosen the laces and the act of pushing my foot really hard into the shoe made my right calf threaten cramp. This was a bad moment. Sat on the ground and stretched the leg for 10 seconds. Loosened the lace and got the shoe on. Then loosened the left lace too much and it came out of the toggle thing. there was no way I could get it back in so had to tie the ends together like a normal lace.
Started running, and my legs felt OK. Had the usual odd feeling you get going from bike to run - it's a bit like you're running in slow motion and the tendency is to go too fast. This was the first time I really needed my heart rate monitor. I let it go to 174 bpm and maintained that kind of rate for the first lap and a quarter. After that I tried to speed up and it reached about 180bpm I think.
I was pleased on the run as I appeared to be overtaking quite a few people, and only 2 or 3 went past me, and I think they may have been people on their second lap during my first. Again, I was alone most of the time, not being in any kind of pack with similar speed runners. I just set my sights on the guy in front, and sometimes this was as much as 50M, and tried to catch him. Though I was really tired, I wasn't as bad as I expected. It is quite difficult to pace yourself properly in a triathlon.
Passed the finish line feeling not too bad, eventually remembered to stop my watch which was set at what looked like 1hr 12 - my first thought was that that couldn't be right - far too fast. but then I checked the actual chronological time and saw that it was before 11:30 so reasoned that I had actually done a pretty good time.
My actual result was 1hr 11 mins 52 seconds.
Swim 12:46
Bike 37.42
Run 21:22
Very pleased, I came 63rd out of about 130 people. My swim was slow leaving me in 111th place, but I still had lots of energy after it and gained a whopping 48 places during the bike and run (20 and 28 respectively). If you have a trumpet, you've got to blow it sometimes, and I think now is a good time for me to give my lungs some exercise :-)
I'm planning on writing a long essay about this day, and will probably put it in my 'proper' blog at http://se71.org/blog, but in the meantime here's a few highlights.
Cycled 10k nice and slowly to the course at 8.30am.
During registration, trying to hold the pack and my bike, dropped the bike and cut my leg - nice start.
Helmet only just passed muster. will need a new one if/when I do this again.
Set my bike up in the rack, people near me all very friendly. All of us wondering why we're mad enough to do this. Breakfast was two Weetabix and a cup of coffee. Had a protein bar whilst waiting and a sip of PSP22. (for the record, had pasta last night, crisps, and a couple of glasses of red wine)
Went out onto the jetty in my wetsuit, jumped in and had a swim around. The water is actually nicer than Heron lake last week. My official photographer arrived (Carol) and I got out and posed for shots in my wetsuit.
Got back in the water and then we were off on time (10.15)
Stuck to the back and tried to swim breaststroke calmly - not panicking about being left behind. There were people around me so I knew I wasn't completely last, but I couldn't really look behind to see just how far back I was. It really is quite tiring, but the 400M came faster than I expected. It's a lovely sunny day and I concentrated on just getting to the end and trying to make sure I enjoyed the experience as much as possible. Saw the bottom and tried to stand up, but it was still too deep, so had to start swimming again. Then I was out and running for my bike.
No idea of my place except that there are a lot of people in front of me. Transition went really well - my wetsuit came off quickly. Had a half-hearted stab at drying my feet, put n my socks and shoes, helmet and sunglasses. Grabbed the bike and ran for the start. More people than just me had a short wobbly moment mounting the bike, but I quickly settled and was off. Saddle a bit slippery as I'm still all wet obviously.
Throughout the bike, I felt I was overtaking a few riders each lap, but it was really difficult to tell. There are four laps, and I know faster swimmers actually were overtaking me too, being already a lap ahead. Saw a few bikes at the size of the road, must have been some kind of crash. I cycled alone mostly, trying to keep my speed in the 30-35 range. No chance of any drafting as I either overtook people or was overtaken. From my weekly cycles, I knew I could maintain this pace easily for the 40 minutes I expected the 20k to take. I didn't try to go faster as I was worried about the run to come.
After 4 laps, and still feeling pretty good, I went back into the transition area. Tried to put my trainers on but forgot to loosen the laces and the act of pushing my foot really hard into the shoe made my right calf threaten cramp. This was a bad moment. Sat on the ground and stretched the leg for 10 seconds. Loosened the lace and got the shoe on. Then loosened the left lace too much and it came out of the toggle thing. there was no way I could get it back in so had to tie the ends together like a normal lace.
Started running, and my legs felt OK. Had the usual odd feeling you get going from bike to run - it's a bit like you're running in slow motion and the tendency is to go too fast. This was the first time I really needed my heart rate monitor. I let it go to 174 bpm and maintained that kind of rate for the first lap and a quarter. After that I tried to speed up and it reached about 180bpm I think.
I was pleased on the run as I appeared to be overtaking quite a few people, and only 2 or 3 went past me, and I think they may have been people on their second lap during my first. Again, I was alone most of the time, not being in any kind of pack with similar speed runners. I just set my sights on the guy in front, and sometimes this was as much as 50M, and tried to catch him. Though I was really tired, I wasn't as bad as I expected. It is quite difficult to pace yourself properly in a triathlon.
Passed the finish line feeling not too bad, eventually remembered to stop my watch which was set at what looked like 1hr 12 - my first thought was that that couldn't be right - far too fast. but then I checked the actual chronological time and saw that it was before 11:30 so reasoned that I had actually done a pretty good time.
My actual result was 1hr 11 mins 52 seconds.
Swim 12:46
Bike 37.42
Run 21:22
Very pleased, I came 63rd out of about 130 people. My swim was slow leaving me in 111th place, but I still had lots of energy after it and gained a whopping 48 places during the bike and run (20 and 28 respectively). If you have a trumpet, you've got to blow it sometimes, and I think now is a good time for me to give my lungs some exercise :-)
