Well, the day finally arrived, and I was as prepared as I could be. Over a years training for this event, so no excuses. The Windsor Triathlon is one of the most popular in the country, and gets a great crowd. I'm lucky having it in my back yard.
Arrived with family at the ungodly hour of 5.35am and went into transition to get my bike ready. Pumping up the slightly deflated tires, suddenly the rear tube went 'pfffttttt' and deflated completely. Not the best news, and so a panicky replacement was required. Many thanks to numbered competitors near me in the 426-430 range (I was 428), who helped me take my time and not pinch the tube. Maybe next time I won't buy new tires and fit them two hours before bike racking.
Checking the tyre later, I found that the problem was really pretty bad - the whole valve had broken away:
Just found out actually that number 430 was Laurance Harding, a friend of Jonathan's, and he was the eventual winner of the whole age-group race. Karma!
Carol and Jonathan didn't make it in time for the swim start, but Vivienne, Olivia and Gina are witnesses to me taking the plunge and just jumping right in. The water was surprisingly warm, though of course I wouldn't have liked to be without my wetsuit. It didn't even taste much of anything.
Start was 6:35am. I breaststroked a bit to try and find some clear water. Then I alternated breathing to the right, breaststroke, breathing to the left, breaststroke, for the rest of the race. My pace was terrible, and I would breaststroke all the way as it would probably be as fast, if I didn't know that it would tire my legs too much. At least with crawl I can rest my legs quite a bit.
I seemed to be swimming for hours, and just when it got nicely uncrowded, a pile of swimmers from the following wave race overtook me. This happened a couple more times. Got to the bridge for turnaround, and headed back downstream into the sunshine. Kept pace with someone who wasn't wearing a wetsuit, and I was thinking "well, this complete amateur must be very far down the field, so I could actually be last." People in our wave were wearing light blue swimming hats, but even so, it wasn't really possible to get a good look behind me to see if there were any other competitors likewise attired.
Finally the steps appeared. I was feeling relatively good, and expected to be close to my 45 minute estimate as I'd swum at my normal pace, the one that I can maintain with no fear of getting exhausted and panicking in the water. I spotted Carol as I exited the water, but could only find breath so say one syllable - "God!'.
A long run down the grass to my bike is followed by quite an inefficient wetsuit removal. Maybe drying my feet and putting socks on will be somewhere I can shave 30 seconds off next time. I don't even notice as I mount the bike hat my trisuit is wet, and thinking back, still cannot recall any sensation of water dripping off me at all.
For the first time, I get to look at my watch and see I'm pretty much on target, maybe even slightly ahead. From experience, I know that a slow start on the bike, even for the first couple of minutes, gives you a low average speed. It then takes a long, long time to raise that average. So I'm standing on the pedals past SBR and I'm flying round the roundabout (overtaking two people taking it easy) and am going at 35km/h down to the A308. Lights are all green, and there are policemen waving us through too. Up towards Maidenhead I maintain my pace, slowing a little to maybe 33 or 34 km/h. I'm watching my average speed the whole way, and know I need 30km/h by the end to make my 1 hour 20 minute target.
Amazingly, I feel really good all the way round. In fact, I get a little worried that I'm going too fast and will burn out, so even on the flat where I could push a little harder, I stay at 35km/h or so. My hills are good, much better than usual. I am going to thank all my commuting cycles to work for this. I play a little cat and mouse with some other riders. They overtake me, and to avoid drafting, I let them go a few metres ahead. Then I realise they've slowed down, and now I'm going too slow, and so I have to overtake them again. Repeat.
It really pays to know your course, this was proved after one climb. One of the riders I'd been battling with overtook me near the crest of the hill. I knew that there was a steep drop coming up. So as soon as the upward gradient started to lessen, I stood on the pedals and went flying past the other guy at 50km/h before he even realised the hill had stopped. That felt great.
I hit the halfway mark at Drift Road, and my average time was still about 33.5 km/h. Here I overtook a huge number of women from the previous waves. I was worried about getting a drafting penalty, and I think this prevented me from pushing harder sometimes. Nevertheless, the steady riding was probably good for me. The dead turn at the end of Drift Road didn't slow me down much, and I continued to be surprised that my legs were fine for the fast acceleration needed to go from 0 back up to 35 km/h.
Straight along now towards the final climb up to Windsor Great Park. I didn't mind the hill really, but I think I can improve on this section, as I slowed down quite a bit.
Then finally I'm pushing down the big hill through Windsor Great Park, hitting 60km/h and trying to push even faster. As expected, this feels great - I always love this stretch of road. The weather is perfect, and all the way around I've hardly noticed any headwind. This air resistance is the most breeze I've felt, and I let if cool my head through my new Giro Atmos helmet. Some people are overtaking me as the slope evens out and turns back upward. This always happens in training too. But I'm also overtaking others. It's really difficult to know whether I'm making headway in my age-group race or not. I've passed quite a few people, but quite a few have passed me (were they the same ones?).
Into Windsor, and again the police wave us through the lights. Annoyingly I have to slow down at one roundabout as some riders are in front of me and are in the left lane when they need to be in the right one where I am; a car comes through the middle of us, and then has to brake to let them across, which means I also have to brake. Doh! I can see my speed is still averaging arounf 34km/h - amazing, I'm way ahead of schedule. I could easily keep on cycling, but can I run?
Into transition, cycling as fast as I can through the 200M inside the park, which isn't really very fast at all as other riders are also nearby. Rack bike, change shoes (carefully, remembering last years near cramp episode at Dorney). I take a big drink of PSP22, and then I'm off. I notice Olivia near the exit, but my tunnel vision doesn't reach anyone else.
I start running, and pretty much instantly realise that I'm not going to be able to go fast. I practically sprinted out of transition last year in the shorter Dorny race, but therer is no chance of that today.
I take a cup of water from the water station just before the climb up to the castle, and try to drink it on the move - it goes up my nose rather unpleasantly instead. The next two laps I also take water, but stop a second to drink once big gulp.
I'm feeling tired but OK, until about 2km into the 10k, when my left calf starts to ache. I have only had one run in the last 5 weeks, since I sprained my ankle. I'm worried again about cramp. I don't really have much choice about going faster, as there just isn't any pace in my legs, but this doesn't help much. Looking at my watch, I see that if I can just keep going as close to my 10k rate as possible, or even as slow as my training rate, I should still break the 3 hours target I've set myself.
I was hoping for a 45 minute run, but this gets more unlikely as I get tireder and tireder. I expect to see my supporters, but it isn't till the third lap that I spot Carol. I'm going to have to brief them better if they come again! It's starting to get hot, but not unbearbly so. I feel OK, I'm just annoyed that I just can't go any faster, and keep plodding along.
And then I hit the finish line, and it's over. My watch says it's 2 hours, 47 minutes since I set off. I've done it.
Not your normal Sunday morning, it's still not even 9.30am.
Results
991 428 Shiels, Robert 40-44 190 male 00:40:41 00:02:46 01:12:26 00:02:29 00:49:33 02:47:55
Arrived with family at the ungodly hour of 5.35am and went into transition to get my bike ready. Pumping up the slightly deflated tires, suddenly the rear tube went 'pfffttttt' and deflated completely. Not the best news, and so a panicky replacement was required. Many thanks to numbered competitors near me in the 426-430 range (I was 428), who helped me take my time and not pinch the tube. Maybe next time I won't buy new tires and fit them two hours before bike racking.
Checking the tyre later, I found that the problem was really pretty bad - the whole valve had broken away:
Just found out actually that number 430 was Laurance Harding, a friend of Jonathan's, and he was the eventual winner of the whole age-group race. Karma!
Carol and Jonathan didn't make it in time for the swim start, but Vivienne, Olivia and Gina are witnesses to me taking the plunge and just jumping right in. The water was surprisingly warm, though of course I wouldn't have liked to be without my wetsuit. It didn't even taste much of anything.
Start was 6:35am. I breaststroked a bit to try and find some clear water. Then I alternated breathing to the right, breaststroke, breathing to the left, breaststroke, for the rest of the race. My pace was terrible, and I would breaststroke all the way as it would probably be as fast, if I didn't know that it would tire my legs too much. At least with crawl I can rest my legs quite a bit.
I seemed to be swimming for hours, and just when it got nicely uncrowded, a pile of swimmers from the following wave race overtook me. This happened a couple more times. Got to the bridge for turnaround, and headed back downstream into the sunshine. Kept pace with someone who wasn't wearing a wetsuit, and I was thinking "well, this complete amateur must be very far down the field, so I could actually be last." People in our wave were wearing light blue swimming hats, but even so, it wasn't really possible to get a good look behind me to see if there were any other competitors likewise attired.
Finally the steps appeared. I was feeling relatively good, and expected to be close to my 45 minute estimate as I'd swum at my normal pace, the one that I can maintain with no fear of getting exhausted and panicking in the water. I spotted Carol as I exited the water, but could only find breath so say one syllable - "God!'.
A long run down the grass to my bike is followed by quite an inefficient wetsuit removal. Maybe drying my feet and putting socks on will be somewhere I can shave 30 seconds off next time. I don't even notice as I mount the bike hat my trisuit is wet, and thinking back, still cannot recall any sensation of water dripping off me at all.
For the first time, I get to look at my watch and see I'm pretty much on target, maybe even slightly ahead. From experience, I know that a slow start on the bike, even for the first couple of minutes, gives you a low average speed. It then takes a long, long time to raise that average. So I'm standing on the pedals past SBR and I'm flying round the roundabout (overtaking two people taking it easy) and am going at 35km/h down to the A308. Lights are all green, and there are policemen waving us through too. Up towards Maidenhead I maintain my pace, slowing a little to maybe 33 or 34 km/h. I'm watching my average speed the whole way, and know I need 30km/h by the end to make my 1 hour 20 minute target.
Amazingly, I feel really good all the way round. In fact, I get a little worried that I'm going too fast and will burn out, so even on the flat where I could push a little harder, I stay at 35km/h or so. My hills are good, much better than usual. I am going to thank all my commuting cycles to work for this. I play a little cat and mouse with some other riders. They overtake me, and to avoid drafting, I let them go a few metres ahead. Then I realise they've slowed down, and now I'm going too slow, and so I have to overtake them again. Repeat.
It really pays to know your course, this was proved after one climb. One of the riders I'd been battling with overtook me near the crest of the hill. I knew that there was a steep drop coming up. So as soon as the upward gradient started to lessen, I stood on the pedals and went flying past the other guy at 50km/h before he even realised the hill had stopped. That felt great.
I hit the halfway mark at Drift Road, and my average time was still about 33.5 km/h. Here I overtook a huge number of women from the previous waves. I was worried about getting a drafting penalty, and I think this prevented me from pushing harder sometimes. Nevertheless, the steady riding was probably good for me. The dead turn at the end of Drift Road didn't slow me down much, and I continued to be surprised that my legs were fine for the fast acceleration needed to go from 0 back up to 35 km/h.
Straight along now towards the final climb up to Windsor Great Park. I didn't mind the hill really, but I think I can improve on this section, as I slowed down quite a bit.
Then finally I'm pushing down the big hill through Windsor Great Park, hitting 60km/h and trying to push even faster. As expected, this feels great - I always love this stretch of road. The weather is perfect, and all the way around I've hardly noticed any headwind. This air resistance is the most breeze I've felt, and I let if cool my head through my new Giro Atmos helmet. Some people are overtaking me as the slope evens out and turns back upward. This always happens in training too. But I'm also overtaking others. It's really difficult to know whether I'm making headway in my age-group race or not. I've passed quite a few people, but quite a few have passed me (were they the same ones?).
Into Windsor, and again the police wave us through the lights. Annoyingly I have to slow down at one roundabout as some riders are in front of me and are in the left lane when they need to be in the right one where I am; a car comes through the middle of us, and then has to brake to let them across, which means I also have to brake. Doh! I can see my speed is still averaging arounf 34km/h - amazing, I'm way ahead of schedule. I could easily keep on cycling, but can I run?
Into transition, cycling as fast as I can through the 200M inside the park, which isn't really very fast at all as other riders are also nearby. Rack bike, change shoes (carefully, remembering last years near cramp episode at Dorney). I take a big drink of PSP22, and then I'm off. I notice Olivia near the exit, but my tunnel vision doesn't reach anyone else.
I start running, and pretty much instantly realise that I'm not going to be able to go fast. I practically sprinted out of transition last year in the shorter Dorny race, but therer is no chance of that today.
I take a cup of water from the water station just before the climb up to the castle, and try to drink it on the move - it goes up my nose rather unpleasantly instead. The next two laps I also take water, but stop a second to drink once big gulp.
I'm feeling tired but OK, until about 2km into the 10k, when my left calf starts to ache. I have only had one run in the last 5 weeks, since I sprained my ankle. I'm worried again about cramp. I don't really have much choice about going faster, as there just isn't any pace in my legs, but this doesn't help much. Looking at my watch, I see that if I can just keep going as close to my 10k rate as possible, or even as slow as my training rate, I should still break the 3 hours target I've set myself.
I was hoping for a 45 minute run, but this gets more unlikely as I get tireder and tireder. I expect to see my supporters, but it isn't till the third lap that I spot Carol. I'm going to have to brief them better if they come again! It's starting to get hot, but not unbearbly so. I feel OK, I'm just annoyed that I just can't go any faster, and keep plodding along.
And then I hit the finish line, and it's over. My watch says it's 2 hours, 47 minutes since I set off. I've done it.
Not your normal Sunday morning, it's still not even 9.30am.
Results
991 428 Shiels, Robert 40-44 190 male 00:40:41 00:02:46 01:12:26 00:02:29 00:49:33 02:47:55
