- Mallory Park Triathlon -
Just like the professional footballers do, I gave myself a little bit of a fitness test yesterday, which comprised of a short bike/run combination. Feeling OK afterwards, I passed myself fit (my doctorate is no doubt in the post) and made the decision to go ahead and compete at the Mallory Park Triathlon. This event would be my first taste of open water racing, and as my only experience was the session at Holme Pierrepont a fortnight ago, I rather hoped that the water temperature would be too low, which would turn the event into a run/bike/run Duathlon.
The trip from Lincoln to the Mallory Park race circuit is not especially long and I thought that I had given myself time to get there well before registration closed, but lo and behold the signage disappears near to the circuit and I lost myself twice over trying to find it. Thankfully, I could still register even though I was late, and then had enough time to rack the bike , and put my wetsuit on. Lincoln Tri really invaded this event, being our club champs, as there was a good group of us competing. The club also put up a tent and flags, so we all knew where to congregate.
It wasn't long before we had to make our way down to the start and I made sure I lurked at the back of the pack, to be honest I nearly bottled it there and then. Once I had gotten into the water though I decided to give it a go at least to the first bouy which was about two hundred metres away, I could just see it in the distance as it had started raining. I had enough time to put my head under once and then we were off !
Swim 19.03
It was hard work for the first part of the race as I swam with my head above the water, because it was cold and because I was trying to avoid panicking. When I did go underwater all I could see was a poo coloured milkshake and it was nothing like the pool where you can see the lane bottom and can guage how quickly you are going. At the first bouy we turned to the right and the water seemed very choppy and thats where I ended up swallowing a lot of it. At this point I think I heard somebody giviving up behind me and that was when I decided that it would not be happening to me. Something clicked and I relaxed and started swimming like I do in the pool got into the groove so to speak, I overtook the two people in front of me and started to pull away, I managed to keep my rythym right until the end where I was gratefully helped out of the water and back onto dry land. My legs felt funny and I did a zombie shuffle all the way into T1.
T1 3.03 - Jeez, what was I doing in there, taking a .......????
Bike 50.08
This was a straight ten laps of the full race circuit. Now correct me if I'm wrong but when did they start putting hills in race circuits ? Well,not so much of a hill but an incline, and it had to be climbed ten times in total, mind you, it made for great speeds on the way down the finishing straight ! There was some great Lincoln Tri support on the bike leg (cheers) and this made the laps a little easier. Some laps the incline was easy and on others it seemed much harder - go figure?
T2 1.07 That's more like it !
Run 30.09
This was a full bike lap (including that incline!) and two smaller laps. It felt like I had done all of the hard work and I just enjoyed the run. I didn't do anything daft and looked after my calf, the aim of the game was finish and my one pace kicked in and that was that.
Total time - 1.44.11 which is PB now for this distance and a target to be shot at. I am pleased I carried on today and that I won my race where my only opponent was me.Lincoln Tri had a very successful event with the Chairman coming third individually, and collecting the team prize for first four club individuals across the line.
Next week sees a return to pool based Triathlon frivolity at Woodhall Spa, ooh, a lovely warm pool, can't wait....
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