Went well for 2 miles....punctured. Walked back. What a waste....
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Monday, June 01, 2009
Crystal Palace Triathlon
Yesterday saw the 4th in the London League races taking place at Crystal Palace and I was hoping to put in a good show for Thames Turbo to hopefully give us a chance of getting some London League (a league of London based triathlon clubs, competing in about 8 local races) points.
I was almost the last off in the swim so I was hopeful that the field was at least not going to be littered with top class swimmers, either that, or I had put down a wrong time on my entry form. The swim was 750m (15 lengths) of the newly refurbished Crystal Palace pool and I was hoping to do about 10:30. I was sent on my way at 2:40 and I quickly managed to settle into a good pace and I found that I was catching the girl who had gone off 20s in front of me. It was not long before I caught her and throughout the rest of the swim, I managed to pass another 4 or 5 swimmers as well. I knew I was going well and was pleased to see that I had swam 10:41 (that includes getting out and running round the corner to the timing mat). Things were going well...
Out on the bike and I was quickly able to settle into a good rhythm on the technical course, which was in effect, a course of two halves. Out of transition was a short sharp hill followed by a drag and then it was pretty much all downhill for the rest of the lap.
On my 4th lap, just as I was ascending the steep hill, I heard a loud bang....initially I thought I was in the clear, but the noise of carbon on the road quickly alerted me that was in fact I who had just punctured. Thankfully, we had the foresight on this occasion to bring some spare wheels for the event. The problem with these were that they were all the way back in transition and I was about 1 mile away from transition. I quickly got off, took the cycling shoes off and embarked on my first bare foot run since being a small kid. Heaven's knows how much time I lost, it must have been a fair bit. Still, I made it back, changed the wheel and headed out for the remainder of the laps. I managed to make quite a bit of ground, but I was only really struggling to get back to where I was when I had started the bike....alas, I was determined to finish so I just battled on.
The run pretty much started directly on the steep hill....I felt like I was walking as I went up the first time, in fact, walking may have actually been quicker. Still, I made it round the first lap of the two lap run and realised that I was managing a fairly decent pace. I also realised that the run was short - my kind of race. The second lap was not as bad and I finally crossed the line in 1:05.
If you ask me, 6th and a 1:05 for half an Olympic is not too bad really, considering it was a technical course, a steep hill and the obvious amount of time it took me to change the wheel. I only actually lost the race by about 2 minutes, so who knows what would have happened.
Results are HERE
Garmin output is HERE
I was almost the last off in the swim so I was hopeful that the field was at least not going to be littered with top class swimmers, either that, or I had put down a wrong time on my entry form. The swim was 750m (15 lengths) of the newly refurbished Crystal Palace pool and I was hoping to do about 10:30. I was sent on my way at 2:40 and I quickly managed to settle into a good pace and I found that I was catching the girl who had gone off 20s in front of me. It was not long before I caught her and throughout the rest of the swim, I managed to pass another 4 or 5 swimmers as well. I knew I was going well and was pleased to see that I had swam 10:41 (that includes getting out and running round the corner to the timing mat). Things were going well...
Out on the bike and I was quickly able to settle into a good rhythm on the technical course, which was in effect, a course of two halves. Out of transition was a short sharp hill followed by a drag and then it was pretty much all downhill for the rest of the lap.
On my 4th lap, just as I was ascending the steep hill, I heard a loud bang....initially I thought I was in the clear, but the noise of carbon on the road quickly alerted me that was in fact I who had just punctured. Thankfully, we had the foresight on this occasion to bring some spare wheels for the event. The problem with these were that they were all the way back in transition and I was about 1 mile away from transition. I quickly got off, took the cycling shoes off and embarked on my first bare foot run since being a small kid. Heaven's knows how much time I lost, it must have been a fair bit. Still, I made it back, changed the wheel and headed out for the remainder of the laps. I managed to make quite a bit of ground, but I was only really struggling to get back to where I was when I had started the bike....alas, I was determined to finish so I just battled on.
The run pretty much started directly on the steep hill....I felt like I was walking as I went up the first time, in fact, walking may have actually been quicker. Still, I made it round the first lap of the two lap run and realised that I was managing a fairly decent pace. I also realised that the run was short - my kind of race. The second lap was not as bad and I finally crossed the line in 1:05.
If you ask me, 6th and a 1:05 for half an Olympic is not too bad really, considering it was a technical course, a steep hill and the obvious amount of time it took me to change the wheel. I only actually lost the race by about 2 minutes, so who knows what would have happened.
Results are HERE
Garmin output is HERE
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