National Club Relays

My triathlon season for 2011 officially ended with a trip over to Holme Pierrepont for the National Club Relay Championships where I was part of a four man Lincoln Tri team competing in the mens Sunday morning event.



I did this event last year and it was complete chaos, it also rained heavily for the entire event ! I hoped for better waether this year and the triathlon gods duly obliged by providing a sunny day, with some cloud cover albeit with strong wind.


I arrived at the National Water Sports Centre very early and met my team-mates ( Mark, AJ & John) under the Lincoln tri gazebo - AJ was the team captain and he had already registered the team and paid my £5 non BTF registration fee. We had plenty of time for some chatter, before taking the bikes down to transition and walking the course, checking out and agreeing our changeover points and generally getting our bearings as there is a lot to remember !


Once we had changed into our wetsuits, we were ready to start and at a little over 10.15am, our first swimmer enetered the water - this is how things unfolded....

Swim - 500 metres

Last year the swim course was 400m, but by moving the swim start to the end of the lake, the organisers had to lengthen the course so that those people in the grandstand could see some swim action. Whilst AJ was in the water, I managed to get in for a little swim, before getting out and standing at our tag point for the baton handover. One I had been given the baton I then preceeded to run past the water entry point and then had to turn back and do it again - I think I lost 2o seconds or so here....I managed to flop into the water gracefully and then set out to find the first bouy. Now, my swim felt fine (apart from swimming through the weeds and it grabbing hold of my face like something out of 'Alien'!), and considering I have had very little swim time since Ironman I though I had done very well, however I later found out that my swim leg was 12.45, which was over a minute slower than the rest of the team. I think the time has come to invest again in some swim coaching because it really is my achilles heal !

Bike - 15km

The bike course is three laps of the lake and is as flat as you can get. There was a strong wind that blew right along the lake which made this a bit of a heaven/hell bike ride. The heaven part was the first part of the lap where you could get into a big gear and stay aero for a very quick opening two kilometres. The problem came when you turned around and headed back up the other side of the lake, it was murder ! By the end of the first lap my legs ached and the second lap was very hard. The third lap I started taking some places back and then put in a big effort along the back section to tey and beat last years 25 minutes bike lag - but this wasn't to be and by the time I tagged John in to do his laps the clock had ticked over to 26.21 which I initially though was a step back. The results showed that we were all in the 26 minutes band and as there were some decent cyclists in the team, in the end that was a very very good effort !

Run - 5km

Last year I ran a time of 27.14, but knew this year my times had been tumbling, so set myself a target of beating 25 minutes. I set off on my leg like a hare (for me) but soon settled down into the same pace that I ran Birchwood last weekend. This pace although tough was manageable as I first navigated the off road undulating section. and then as I got to the lake and had the wind behind me , down towards the bottom to complete the first three kilometres. However, as soon as I made the turn home into the wind it became doubly tough and I could feel the pace noticeably dropping. At this point I was racing a chap from Wakefield Tri and as a result got a little bit of shelter. 24.43 was my time for my leg and I was chuffed with it to say the least.

That was my race over, my times adding up to 1.03.49 exactly 1 second quicker than last year, but with an extra 100m of swimming thrown in which at my current swim pace means an extra 2.5 minutes - not a bad days work.

I had time for a shower and to yam a bowl of Bolognese Pasta before making my way down to the finish to see Mark - our anchor man - complete our event with a strong run. 4.09 for the team overall, and I think we all came away with something to smile about.

Next up is a crack at an official 5km sub 25 time on Wednesday evening at the Lincoln Wellington race at Yarborough Leisure Centre.