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My triathlon Club send an email during the week that I could get a reduced price entry to this local triathlon if I turned up on the day. Couldn't resist a bargain, and wanted to try out F3 events, and my new Evolution tri-suit, so got up stupidly early on Sunday morning and drove over to Henley to register.
Compared to Human Race or Ironman events this was very low key and informal. Nice if a little disconcerting. For example, bike racks were set up, but it was just a case of first come first served on where you put yours, unlike the strict numbering I'm used to. Not a problem though.
The swim was in an open air 25M heated pool. My first triathlon in a swimming pool. I can't say I like it :-@ People were setting off at seemingly random intervals and I was waiting around when a gap appeared - Martin the organiser asked me if I was ready - I was - so I took the place.
16 laps in a lane with four other people was a bit weird - I got overtaken a couple of times, and swam into the lane dividing rope which was pretty difficult to see, and emerged in average time. I think the 11:23 time includes the up hill run to transition to get my bike.
I really liked the bike course. An undulating road with very few cars. We headed left out of the college and down to a roundabout about 4km away. Then we rode back past the start and another 3km further on to a different roundabout where we did another u-turn and returned to the start. Two laps of that. Being able to see other riders so often is great and lets you judge your progress. I wasn't overtaken once and enjoyed sprinting up a few small hills past other people. My hill work recently has been my best riding. I've lost quite a lot of weight which helps with that.
I did make a schoolboy error though - I imagined that it was a 20km bike section. I got a bit confused when I realised the first lap was about 14k and had to shout to an official. Completely my fault and luckily I wasn't too tired to push on for slightly more than I had expected. Cycling is Ok for that find of mistake - running would be a disaster. Time of 50:35 is good I think.
The run was very pleasant - through some fields, and country lanes - almost flat. The weather was also fine, sunny but not yet hot. I calculate my time at 19:30 by subtracting the splits from the total. It must have been a bit less than 5km, and others commented that the route was slightly shorter than the one advertised. Very happy with that time and felt strong. Caught a few people in this stage too.
Overall time was 1:21:28 - can't compare this with any other races as the bike distance is unusual, but I came 11th out of 61 which is great. Some extra analysis shows I came 2nd in my age group - only 4 seconds behind the leader. This is by far my best result in any race since I was about 15 and came 1st in a local Boy's Brigade cross country championship (a feat never to be repeated!)
It was a really fun event - well done to Zoe Spain and Mark Hyde as well from Evolution Triathlon club - Mark came 2nd overall even though he ran a bit farther than he should have. And thanks to Martin the organiser - it would be great if I could always get a discount - I just can't bring myself to pay £45 for a sprint triathlon that often.
[bib no 179. 11th place out of 61 competitors]
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