Dambuster Triathlon - RAF Champs 2008

Bit of a late post about the RAF Champs 2008 at the Dambuster Triathlon on 21 June 2008 - sorry! Busy busy at home!

The weather put a real cold and wet slant on the actual race but there were many good points to take away from the venture. I decided to camp at Rutland water in my import Tiyota van. My eldest daughter, JJ, came along too and she really enjoyed the whole experience. many thanks to Jamie Elliot's wife, Lauren, for adopting JJ whilst the race was actually taking place (lauren, JJ has not stopped talking about you!). The camping on the Friday night was fun; there were at least 8 RAF Tri chaps camping and it made for a great atmosphere. We all woke to a gloomy morning and the rain started at about 0600. We racked our kit and waited for our wave swim starts. As as I squeezed into my wetsuit I noticed that the zip on my trisuit had broken.......eek! With the cold temperature and rain falling I did not fancy riding 26 miles baring my chest to the elements! Lauren and JJ saved me by quickly dashing back to the campsite and grabbing a spare top that I had in my bag. Potential disaster averted, I started the swim by unintentionally blasting the first 200m or so! I sighted and saw that I was in the first 10 places – even the lead canoeist was visible, which is unheard of for me! I had to get on to a decent swimmers feet to catch a draft or I was going to be toast for sure! I tried in vain to draft some swimmers and I began to feel my technique fall apart gradually as I began to get tired. I did feel as though I was swimming straighter but I didn’t feel good in the water. My official time was 25:05 for the 1500m swim; that is not actually too bad for me but I really need to be around 23 mins to be competitive.

I didn’t have a great T1! I seemed to have trouble getting going but no show stoppers. As normal when it is cold and wet, I struggle to feel strong. The old bones just do not move well in cold conditions. Nobody passed me on the bike and I passed huge amounts of people continuously. However, my bike time was more than a minute down on last years’ time. In T2 I flapped my hands at my helmet trying to undo the strap! My hands were totally numb. I would have ran the entire 10k wearing it! However, a friendly referee snipped the catch and I was away.

I struggled with a mobile stitch as I began my run and I could not let loose and run at full pelt. That said, I was not going slowly but I just had to back off. Once I got into my stride I was fine but I kept trying to avoid the stitch returning. With about 1 ½ miles to go I let rip and ran free. The stitch disappeared instantly and I was really motoring. I was slightly annoyed at this, as with only a short way to run until the finish, there was not enough time to make up for the slow parts of my run. I finished the run feeling far too strong.

Overall, it was an ok performance. I recorded a PB for the Dambuster course at 2:11:59. That bagged me 3rd place in the RAF Champs and Vets Champion too. Andy Reardon won the RAF Champs with 2:08:41 and Daz Sharpe recorded 2:09:50 in second.

The RAF ladies really showed how to win!! Vicky Webb is the 2008 RAF Champ and she bagged 2nd lady overall too! Kelda won her age group (again!) and Bev won her age group (again!). Guess the blokes had best get going and match the girls!! There were heaps of RAF guys and gals participating – over 30 – and it was great to see all the red white and blue Royal Air Force kit everywhere…..some first time Olympic distance finishers amongst them too! We should not forget what a challenge completing this category of triathlon is! An open water swim of 1500m, a bike of 40k and a run of 10k is not easy!! Well done to all.