London Triathlon 2008

I am not going to deny that the London Triathlon was one of the big races on calendar for this year, I had done the best training that I could manage in the time after my crash and I was kind of fit. I was not kidding myself though, I knew that I was not as fit as I could have been. The four weeks off from running had really taken their toll and getting back into the running had been slow and painful. The swimming and cycling were still going well at least, I just hoped that I would be able to blag the run I think.

Anyway, come race day and things got off to a good start. I had decided to move further across the dock at the start to avoid the melee as some 240 people headed off in the sub-230 race and this seemed to pay dividends. There was nowhere near as big commotion as the race kicked off and I quickly settled into my race plan of not starting off too hard, preferring rather to concentrate on quickly getting into a good efficient stroke. This all worked well and on the home straight of the swim I was taking positions back all the way in as the others tired. It actually felt quite good to come up behind swimmers and then just move past as they were not swimming as fast as me. I got out in just under 23 (I think it was a bit long) and was informed by my mum that I was currently in 11th - not bad going for me.

Anyway, a slightly slower transition that I wanted saw me lose a place or two before getting out on the bike, but I was now confident that I would be able to quickly make my way back through the field. This is where the problems started though. As I tried to do up the strap on my shoe, whilst pedalling away, I pulled the strap through it's hole and I was now in a position where I could not do it up. whatever I tried. At this point, I even thought about stopping but in the end decided to make do. Cycling with only one shoe done up is not to be recommended though, it really saps your ability to use the up stroke on the rotation. So, I battled on like this for the rest of the course and ended up in a tussle with someone I I would not normally expect to be with. In the end, we cycled a lot of the course in close contact, but, after last time, I ensured that I could never be construed to be in a drafting position....this does involve using the brakes and freewheeling at times.







You can see the offending strap here....just flapping in the wind!


Still, in from the bike and I was in a decent place to start out on the run. However, for some reason, after the problems on the bike and then, and I still don't know why, as soon as I started the run, I just lost interest in the race altogether. I was not bothered who came past me and decided to pretty much just jog round the rest of the course. I tried occasionally to lift the pace, but the reality was that that I just couldn't be bothered. I am not sure if this was simply a case of not having the run fitness, or what it was really. Anyway, in the end I coasted around the run in a pretty dismal time, some two and a half minutes slower than last year, eventually coming home in just under 2:05 and finishing up 11th.







So, bad day in the office for the London Triathlon. I only have two races left for this season now. One of those is the Thames Turbo Sprint race on the Bank Holiday and then I have the Vitruvian on the first weekend of September. The Vitruvian will be my first visit to the world of middle distance with a 1900m swim, 85k bike and 1/2 mara to round things off. I am planning on just trying to enjoy it as much as possible.

The National Club Relay Championships

Some of you may recall that last year I travelled north to Nottingham for the Club Relay National Champs where the Thames Turbo team that I was in managed to get 4th place. Last weekend, the Thames Turbo masses headed back up north for another go at the relays, which, for those of you who aren't aware, involves a triathlon, but not in the normal sense. Teams are comprised of 4 athletes, which each one having to do all three disciplines. The difference here is that you get to have quite a long rest at various points of the race as all four do the swim in turn, followed by the bike in turn and then the run at the end. In the end, the 500m swim, 15k bike and 5k run takes over 3 hours for everyone to complete.

After last year's performance it was decided that our best chance of getting a medal at these National Champs would be to enter our strongest team in the mixed competition. So, I was in with two very fast ladies and James...who I only just beat in the club's sprint race champs. So, on paper, we had a good team.

It was decided that I would set off on the first swim, the notoriously rough swim (see photo below), and try to get us in a good spot for the next 3 people to carry on. The swim start was pretty frantic with arms and feet all over the place, but after a 200m or so, I was in a good area and could concentrate on trying to get out of the water as quick as possible. Personally, I did not enjoy the swim at all though, I just could not get into a good rhythm and kept on feeling that I was going a lot slower than normal - still, it was only 500m, so I was not gonna be losing that much time for the team.
Once I had swum, I tagged the next person and off they went for their 500m dash..


Once we had all been round, it was time for the last swimmer to tag the first cyclist, in this case me....(You can see me in this shot)

I had figured that we were in about 10th place so we had a lot of work to do on the bike to get us in to contention for this one. By the end of the first lap, I had clawed back a few places and then I kept on going to get some more back. By the time that we had all managed to finish the bike, we had managed to sneak our way all the way up to second place!

Out on the run, things were pretty tough. With a tailwind down one side of the rowing lake and then a stiff headwind coming back for the last 2.5km. My time was not great and I had let the leader get a bit further ahead but I was hopeful that my team mates would be able to pull them back.In the end, it got close, but not close enough - we came second by about 40s to a team from Manchester. We had managed to put a significant amount of time in to the 3rd place team however.

copyright david spencer/us2design 2008

So, at the end of the 3 hours and 19mins of racing, this was my first National Championship medal!




Just for fun, well not fun really, I did the whole thing again for the men's team. The second time round, I am pretty sure that I swam and biked faster, but the run was not that nice the second time round. The men's team did manage to finish 12th, which, considering the standard of the competition, is not that bad. We had been up to 7th spot at one point during the race as well.

All of this was followed by a night out in Nottingham with all the other Turbos. Going to a cheesy club after all that racing is very interesting....my legs were sore and was very grateful for the VIP pass which allowed us access to a quieter area (with seats)....think I am getting old. Don't get me wrong though, I did spend about 20mins in the techno room!