Loads of bike bling on offer at Brize! Check out this little beauty!
Since the current team of Jamie ‘not really fat’ Elliot and Nick Maxey took over the organising of Brize Sprint Tri the event has become very slick and great fun. With about 80 participants yesterday and the sun shining, it was a great event – very enjoyable. There are always a few stories to be told after a triathlon; so here we go!
My Race - Swim: Faced with a 4k swim at the World Champs in August I had decided to take every swim nice and steady. Hence I started at a nice cruise speed in the 400m swim for this event and felt very relaxed. Maybe too relaxed as the other 3 guys in my wave were about half a length ahead of me after 50m! I stuck with my plan and by the end of the 16 lengths they had all come back to me and all 4 of us exited the swim together! I had a slick T1 and first out onto the bike by a large margin.
Bike: The bike was simply head down and go. After the initial technical part through the housing estate I worked a big gear. However, I soon started to blow and had to settle for a higher cadence – or blow up completely. The new front wheel felt great but I had no idea if I was going well or not. There was no sign of anyone from previous waves and nobody in sight behind me. After about 5 miles I caught a girl from the wave ahead of me and had a couple more in my sights that I just failed to catch. I pretty much spun the legs easily over the last mile to prepare for the run – but I was tired!
Run: I was worried about my glute on the run so I really eased into it, just trying to maintain some form for the first half. My glute felt fine (very happy!) and as I started catching people I managed to feel the run legs coming back after the bike – though I had the beginnings of a stitch in my side (a common problem for me). I eased back to avoid a full blown stitch and that seemed to work. I was able to manage full blow pace over the last ¾ mile and the sight of Turbo Man from the previous wave up ahead was spurring me on! I got within 15m of him but the finish line came too soon! I had really shifted over the last 800m but I know there is more to come on the run.
As for final positions, there was a timing problem. I was announced as the winner (52:52) but I will wait to see the revised results before accepting the win (I timed myself as 54:49). Greg MacDonald was a no show. A far better triathlete than me, I was looking forward to racing against him. Dale did show, but only to help time the event as he was racing at the weekend. I must point out that there are many faster guys in RAF Tri who do not seem to support these events. It sure would make good racing if they pitched up.
Turbo Man finished with a faster time than last year, despite a slightly longer course. Debs Pratley knocked over 7 minutes off her time from last year – awesome! Vicky Webb won the ladies event, only just missing out on breaking the hour barrier. Bev was not far behind.
Overall, I am very happy. I seem to be in good shape, despite holding back due to injuries/recovery periods. I am now confident I can complete a last training build period before hitting some real quality work prior to the Inter-Services and The Trentham Big Half Triathlon in July.
My Race - Swim: Faced with a 4k swim at the World Champs in August I had decided to take every swim nice and steady. Hence I started at a nice cruise speed in the 400m swim for this event and felt very relaxed. Maybe too relaxed as the other 3 guys in my wave were about half a length ahead of me after 50m! I stuck with my plan and by the end of the 16 lengths they had all come back to me and all 4 of us exited the swim together! I had a slick T1 and first out onto the bike by a large margin.
Bike: The bike was simply head down and go. After the initial technical part through the housing estate I worked a big gear. However, I soon started to blow and had to settle for a higher cadence – or blow up completely. The new front wheel felt great but I had no idea if I was going well or not. There was no sign of anyone from previous waves and nobody in sight behind me. After about 5 miles I caught a girl from the wave ahead of me and had a couple more in my sights that I just failed to catch. I pretty much spun the legs easily over the last mile to prepare for the run – but I was tired!
Run: I was worried about my glute on the run so I really eased into it, just trying to maintain some form for the first half. My glute felt fine (very happy!) and as I started catching people I managed to feel the run legs coming back after the bike – though I had the beginnings of a stitch in my side (a common problem for me). I eased back to avoid a full blown stitch and that seemed to work. I was able to manage full blow pace over the last ¾ mile and the sight of Turbo Man from the previous wave up ahead was spurring me on! I got within 15m of him but the finish line came too soon! I had really shifted over the last 800m but I know there is more to come on the run.
As for final positions, there was a timing problem. I was announced as the winner (52:52) but I will wait to see the revised results before accepting the win (I timed myself as 54:49). Greg MacDonald was a no show. A far better triathlete than me, I was looking forward to racing against him. Dale did show, but only to help time the event as he was racing at the weekend. I must point out that there are many faster guys in RAF Tri who do not seem to support these events. It sure would make good racing if they pitched up.
Turbo Man finished with a faster time than last year, despite a slightly longer course. Debs Pratley knocked over 7 minutes off her time from last year – awesome! Vicky Webb won the ladies event, only just missing out on breaking the hour barrier. Bev was not far behind.
Overall, I am very happy. I seem to be in good shape, despite holding back due to injuries/recovery periods. I am now confident I can complete a last training build period before hitting some real quality work prior to the Inter-Services and The Trentham Big Half Triathlon in July.
6 comments:
I didn't realise you were that close - I knew you would be chasing me down but I had one look back at the end of The Meadow and after that it was head down for the finish line.
You raced well buddy, goodness knows what you would be like if you were properly fit!
Well done Sags, good racing mate. Looking forward to our meeting at Dambuster! Great report as well.
Keep up the good work,
Daz
I wish I'd been there! Having beaten Vicky at the New Forest it would have been very interesting to see how close I could get to her over the sprint distance! I'll have to make do with my own race this weekend at the British Champs are cancelled so it's off to Jim's swimming pool (remember Turbo) and quick once around - 800 m then jump on the pre-positioned bike by my long suffering and race home (18 miles) before running the loop (4 miles) hopefully that will put me in good shape for Vancouver.
Need to sharpen up your cycling buddy, very slow. Other than that, a good race!
Nice one Sags! A very good race- and I get a name check! Happy with that.
Debs
Just seen the official results! Nice one Turbo! I strongly suspect that you had a slick T2 and my actual bike split was probably .....say....2 sec quicker than yours 8-)
Nice to see Irongirl in blog land too!
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