Thames Turbo Sprint - Race 1

This weekend also saw the start of the tri season for me with the Thames Turbo sprint race...the exact race where I started my triathlon career some 3 years ago.

I was initially quite worried about where I had been seeded in the start order as I knew that the person behind me was firing on all cylinders and would be hard to keep at bay for the 15s gap that I would have as we started the pool swim. Alas, this ended up being the first time that I have ever caught someone in the pool and I even managed to keep Mark at bay, albeit, he definitely put some time into me over swim.

Transition went okay, although it is fair to say that this could have been a bit faster. I suppose a lot of this is just practice though and with this being the first of the season, it's better to take a bit longer and get it right. I decided to put my cycling shoes on in T1 for this one as I am sure that the loss in time is easily recovered as you head out on the bike. Instead of spending the first few hundred metres sorting the shoes out, I can get straight on with the racing.

It wasn't to be my day though....I jumped on the bike and instantly felt that something was not quite right with the bike. It just seemed to be going pretty slow and I knew that something more serious was wrong. I eventually looked down to see that the front tub was flat.....this was not to be my day.

A quick dash back to the pool and before I knew it, I was heading out on a friend's commuting bike, complete with mudguards and pedals which did not have the same fittings as my shoes. On top of that, the bike was about 2 sizes too small....so was more akin to riding a BMX or something. Still, I tried to make the most of it and even tried to keep pace with a couple of people on proper TT bikes, albeit, that was hard work without having my shoes clipped in etc.

Copyright: David Spencer - us2design

I eventually made it round the course though and headed back to T2 and out on to the run. I figured I may as well complete the course anyway. The run went okay, but not really being in the thick of the competition probably lowered my willingness to hurt myself properly.

Ended up 35th with a 1:04:26 which is slower than my first ever attempt I think. Still, not too bad considering that this includes the time taken to swap the bikes and then doing the ride on a commuter.