Dambuster Triathlon 2010

Last weekend I took part in my first triathlon for over 8 months and the only one I'll be doing before the Outlaw on August 8th. It was an Olympic distance event, so not ideal build up for an Ironman (a half-Ironman would have been better) but I wanted to take part in an event nonetheless to blow away some of the cobwebs (quite literally in the case of my wetsuit!).

The event HQ was thankfully just down the road at Rutland Water given the early start. I arrived around 6am to rack my bike and prepare the transition area. I love the nervous energy pre-race, everyone has their own ritual of preparing the bike and laying out kit and equipment for the two transitions.

I was a bit put out to have been moved up an age category before my time as the BTF rules are to take your age at the end of the year. This meant that I was in the 3rd wave off and the first swimmers were already finishing by the time I was wading in the water and boy was it cold. I took a few strokes to try and acclimatise and then convinced myself it would be okay once we started. It was the head that was cold, the body was toasty. Oh come on, everyone does it...

The gun went off and I quickly discovered I wasn't okay. The cold literally took my breath away every time I put my head under water and I couldn't get swimming. I took a few strokes, stopped, repeated and then eventually resorted to breaststroke. My slowness also meant I was right in the thick of the carnage as someone swam over me, my watch got kicked off twice and I couldn't find an inch of space. It must have been 5 minutes before I acclimatised, found some clear water and got into a rhythm. Not a great start!

It was good to see that my support team had arrived as I exited the water and trotted off to transition to the sound of encouraging cheers trying to unzip the wetsuit as I went. I was hopelessly slow in transition, getting the wetsuit off and my bike tops on. You can really lose a lot of time in transitions, I was about 4 minutes slower over the two transitions than the winners. That's the equivalent of a lot of training effort gone!

I'd cycled the bike leg a few times in the build up to the race and the knee injury had just about held of as I gradually built the pace. I kept my fingers crossed that I'd be able to put in a decent effort. I had my usual experience of being passed on the flats and descents by those with aero bars but able to make up ground on some when we hit the hills. I really must get a more aero position for these shorter events. I came into transition with the average speed having just fallen below 20mph for the 26.1m course, which was quite pleasing given the hills on the course and the injury worries.

Another slow transition and I was out on the run. I'd had cramp issues on the run in last year's triathlons but I felt stronger this time around. I'd done a number of brick (bike/run) sessions, which I think helped a lot. The issue this time was the stomach cramps that made me feel like I needed to nip off behind a bush! Maybe this made me run more quickly as I finished the run strongly and carried on running to the portaloo! I posted a 41:31 run split, which I was delighted with. The course is a slightly short 9.7Km but even so that would give me around a 43min 10k at the end of a triathlon, which is a bit of a breakthrough for me.

My overall time was 2hr 34mins, which is about 13 minutes quicker than last year. Quite pleasing as I've not been training for this distance. Sub 2hr 30mins is definitely in reach - a goal for next year maybe.

Hats off the Pacesetter events for another excellent event. It's a great location for triathlon and they create a great atmosphere. Thanks to my sister and brother-in-law for making the journey to come and support with Em - much appreciated. They might even have caught the triathlon bug and be racing themselves next year!