Birmingham Super Sprint Triathlon

Team Newham...

Sunday 21st July 2013 - Dave's first triathlon !

The venue was Sutton Park in Birmingham, and we stayed over the night before so that we got a good nights sleep and avoided lots of travelling on a stressful race day. Dave still managed to take us to the wrong hotel and we stayed there an hour protesting before finding out we should be 5 miles up t'road ! D'oh !!

On the morning of race day, we drove down to the madly congested Sutton Park and finally got into the venue at around 10.30. Our stated start time was to be 12.00 so no great shakes - A walk to registration which worked well, and then sit chilled chatting and sorting out kit for a good while before deciding it was time to take the bikes to transition and get the part started !

... OK, rewind, transition was chaos and it was a one in one out affair as organisers tried to keep on top of the limited racking space. Race start delayed 15 min, however, we were soon in and found ourselves a couple of rows away from each other, which was not what we anticipated, but we got on with it and it was soon time to head down to the water for our 200m swim leg.

We had a little time to warm up in the water, before we were started at 12.15 and we were off !

Almost immediately,, it was obvious that we were going to be the last two in the water and we were given our own canoeist to chat to as we progressed around the first buoy (which was promptly cleared up after us), and although we were ahead of our target pace, we were a few minutes off the back as we exited the water. I witnessed a miracle at this point as Dave smashed the last 5m, legged it up the path to transition, to leave me (a 4 time Ironman finisher) milking the sympathy of the crowd as a trooper and well done for swimming 200m ! (Funniest moment ever - but applause was still v. much appreciated !).

Quickish transition and onto the bike for two bumpy laps of the bike section. Roads were poor, congested by riders and lumpier than I liked. I rode with the intention of keeping Dave in my sights, but found I had misjudged how fast he was going to ride and found myself having to put in a real effort to catch him up. We made up a few places, and I think both of us were happier to get into T2 and onto the run.

The run was a 2.5km mixed terrain affair, and we engaged in a walk run strategy, keeping an eye behind us to make sure were weren't overtaken. A strong finish saw us both finish in 1.09.35 with me taking the honours on the day alphabetically. A picnic afterward topped off an excellent day all round and the icing was a super medal !

Team Newham :