London Triathlon 2017 - No 7792
I've had quite a good preparation for this. I can swim the distance, and have practiced in the London dock where the race takes place. I've done plenty of cycling, and a few 16 mile time trials. My running is OK, and I'm happy with 22 minutes at 5km Parkruns. I've managed few 5 mile runs in training too. I'm not super fast, but I was ready.
I went up the night before and stayed with Olivia in her house near the Excel. I cycled in the morning, nice and early, with her boyfriend Luke and friend Abby, for our 8.05am wave start.
We got down to the jetty in plenty of time and jumped into the water. It was a bit cold as it seeped into my wetsuit, and I only had a couple of minutes to acclimatize. I tried to get the Garmin Fenix3 watch to find a satellite, but it kept going red when I put my arm in the water. I managed to get some green signals and hoped it was Ok, and then we were off.
Slow and steady, bilateral breathing as much as possible, trying not to get kicked too much, I plodded down to the far end of the dock. I found some space, but then fast swimmers came from behind from the second half of our wave. I'm used to that, at least they don't do breaststroke. After the turnaround, the way back to the Excel seemed to go on forever. I felt slightly sick for a minute, but it passed. I knew I was way back, but was a bit disappointed with over 39 minutes.
I spent too long getting my wetsuit off, and also too long trying to put my sunglasses on with one hand. Olivia, Luke and Abby were already long gone. T1 3:39.
The bike was a lot of fun. After yesterday's thunderstorms, everything had dried up, and it turned into a nice day. Cycling through London up to Westminster on closed roads is great. I haven't done it on my TT bike before, just on my road bike during the Prudential RideLondon100 events. Sadly, both the Fenix3 and the Garmin on my bike failed to find satellites, so I can't compare my segment times on Strava. For the first time ever I think, I was cycling blind, just knowing my time since T1, and that my target was 1:06.
I saw Olivia coming towards me, only about a minute from the Westminster turnaround. Now I had a visible target. It still took a while to catch her. It's a 1.5 loop course, so I was able to make some estimates of my finish time and felt confident I'd manage my estimate, but 1:02:59 was a bit fast - I am sure now that the course is shorter than 40km.
I didn't see Luke, and his bike was in transition already. My T2 was better, at 2:44, as there is quite a bit of running.
The 10k run takes place over three fairly flat loops. There is a run up a ramp into the Excel at the end of each lap, but it's not too bad. I pushed hard, and was getting very warm by now. At the end of lap one I saw Anna and Lyra cheering me on. I can't be sure now, but I think I started the second lap after 14 minutes. I passed quite a lot of people, a few passed me. I gave my hat to Anna at the end of the second lap, and was disappointed in my time, it was about 30 minutes. I speeded up. I was trying to catch Luke but didn't actually know what he was wearing. Near the end of my third lap I overtook Olivia on her second - she was doing well - I gave as much encouragement as I could muster - not a lot.
Arriving in the finish chute, someone had the cheek to overtake me - I found another gear and left him for dust.
I'd beaten my Olympic distance triathlon record, which is 2:32 and change. Not by a lot, but enough.
After I got my medal, I had a pint of free alcohol free beer, and went to find Anna and Lyra. We waited and watched Olivia finish. Eventually we found Luke and discovered that I must have overtaken him on my last lap, as he finished just behind me. Abby was on a heavy mountain bike (I wouldn't like to have done it on that) and finished about an hour later.
My official time is 2:31:55 with splits of 39:16, 3:39, 1:02:59, 2:44, 43:19
Links
Strava - Swim - T1 - Bike - T2 - Run : disappointingly, the triathlon watch didn't pick up any GPS
Official - Sporthive, Olivia
photos (for now) Marathon Photos
I've had quite a good preparation for this. I can swim the distance, and have practiced in the London dock where the race takes place. I've done plenty of cycling, and a few 16 mile time trials. My running is OK, and I'm happy with 22 minutes at 5km Parkruns. I've managed few 5 mile runs in training too. I'm not super fast, but I was ready.
I went up the night before and stayed with Olivia in her house near the Excel. I cycled in the morning, nice and early, with her boyfriend Luke and friend Abby, for our 8.05am wave start.
We got down to the jetty in plenty of time and jumped into the water. It was a bit cold as it seeped into my wetsuit, and I only had a couple of minutes to acclimatize. I tried to get the Garmin Fenix3 watch to find a satellite, but it kept going red when I put my arm in the water. I managed to get some green signals and hoped it was Ok, and then we were off.
Slow and steady, bilateral breathing as much as possible, trying not to get kicked too much, I plodded down to the far end of the dock. I found some space, but then fast swimmers came from behind from the second half of our wave. I'm used to that, at least they don't do breaststroke. After the turnaround, the way back to the Excel seemed to go on forever. I felt slightly sick for a minute, but it passed. I knew I was way back, but was a bit disappointed with over 39 minutes.
I spent too long getting my wetsuit off, and also too long trying to put my sunglasses on with one hand. Olivia, Luke and Abby were already long gone. T1 3:39.
The bike was a lot of fun. After yesterday's thunderstorms, everything had dried up, and it turned into a nice day. Cycling through London up to Westminster on closed roads is great. I haven't done it on my TT bike before, just on my road bike during the Prudential RideLondon100 events. Sadly, both the Fenix3 and the Garmin on my bike failed to find satellites, so I can't compare my segment times on Strava. For the first time ever I think, I was cycling blind, just knowing my time since T1, and that my target was 1:06.
I saw Olivia coming towards me, only about a minute from the Westminster turnaround. Now I had a visible target. It still took a while to catch her. It's a 1.5 loop course, so I was able to make some estimates of my finish time and felt confident I'd manage my estimate, but 1:02:59 was a bit fast - I am sure now that the course is shorter than 40km.
I didn't see Luke, and his bike was in transition already. My T2 was better, at 2:44, as there is quite a bit of running.
The 10k run takes place over three fairly flat loops. There is a run up a ramp into the Excel at the end of each lap, but it's not too bad. I pushed hard, and was getting very warm by now. At the end of lap one I saw Anna and Lyra cheering me on. I can't be sure now, but I think I started the second lap after 14 minutes. I passed quite a lot of people, a few passed me. I gave my hat to Anna at the end of the second lap, and was disappointed in my time, it was about 30 minutes. I speeded up. I was trying to catch Luke but didn't actually know what he was wearing. Near the end of my third lap I overtook Olivia on her second - she was doing well - I gave as much encouragement as I could muster - not a lot.
Arriving in the finish chute, someone had the cheek to overtake me - I found another gear and left him for dust.
I'd beaten my Olympic distance triathlon record, which is 2:32 and change. Not by a lot, but enough.
After I got my medal, I had a pint of free alcohol free beer, and went to find Anna and Lyra. We waited and watched Olivia finish. Eventually we found Luke and discovered that I must have overtaken him on my last lap, as he finished just behind me. Abby was on a heavy mountain bike (I wouldn't like to have done it on that) and finished about an hour later.
My official time is 2:31:55 with splits of 39:16, 3:39, 1:02:59, 2:44, 43:19
Links
Strava - Swim - T1 - Bike - T2 - Run : disappointingly, the triathlon watch didn't pick up any GPS
Official - Sporthive, Olivia
photos (for now) Marathon Photos
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