On Saturday I took part in my first ever Bushy Park Time Trial which is basically a free race that takes place in a park near me. There were a lot more runners that I thought there would be as well, must have been close to 200 runners in the end.
This was the first straight running race I have raced in a long time so was not sure how fast I would be able to go. As it was only a 5k, I worked on the assumption that I would go out quite hard and just see how long I could hold the pace. The main aim was to get close to 18 minutes. My best last year was a 17:20 on a course which was about 60m short, so something close to that would keep me happy.
Half way round I passed the chap who normally comes in as the fasted Thames Turbo chap so I figured I could at least have the glory of being the fastest turbo if I could stay in front of him for the last couple of k's. I thought I must have put some distance into him by the time that I got to the finishing straight but it was not long before I saw him come up on my left shoulder...cue that horrible feeling of knowing that you are going to have do some manic sprint to the finish. In the end, we sprinted from quite a way out and Tom eventually beat me by one second....I was gutted. Still these races are on every week so I am gonna be back on Saturday for round 2...can't wait.
Anyway, we all went to the pool afterwards for a bit of swimming and was chatting afterwards and discovered that there was a duathlon on the Sunday that a couple of people were going to do. The distances sounded perfect to me, 2.5k run, 20k bike and then another 2.5k run. The short runs meant that I would have a good chance as I would be able to claw back any lost time on the bike and then hopefully hold out for long enough on the second run. The race was a pretty low key affair though run by Tri-Quays which eventually had about 30 entrants.Within the first km of the initial run, I realised that I was in the lead and that I was actually managed to put some distance into those behind me. I just didn't get it..running is by no means my strongest discipline so I had never had that luxury. I eventually finished the run with about 20s on the next chap and was now confident that I should be able to win the race, so long as there were no really strong bikers. The bike course was pretty tough, 14 laps of a 1.5k circuit...counting the laps was pretty hard so was thankful that the marshalls were doing the counting as well. I eventually managed to lap the guy who was in second place so at this point I knew that I had the race in the bag.
Coming off the bike for the second run was never going to be that nice, but the legs were not too bad and I managed to get round the second run in not too bad a shape. I finished the race in 51:57 which I later discovered was a course record for the series of events that they had put on. More importantly for me, this meant that my time was quicker than one of my main rivals this season. Always hard to compare races on different days etc, but am glad that I was at least doing similar run times as him.
3 weeks and 3 prizes now...think that this is the end of the run of results though...next big one is the second of the Thames Turbo races where I am going to be going for my first win of my triathlon career. Well, that's as long as the winner of the first race doesn't suddenly appear on the start sheet.
Results are here
2 comments:
Blimey congratulations mate. You won the thing by nearly three minutes! Are the World Triathlon Championships an annual event? If so you must be hoping to make the GB squad again?
Yep, they are on every year. This year they are in Hamburg. I am also racing the European Champs this year so am heading out to Copenhagen at some point.
For the worlds though, I need to qualify again. I am hoping to do this early june or perhaps later on in july. I only have two shots to make the team...I think that if I stay injury free, I should be okay.
Post a Comment