Sidmouth aquathlon race report

Last weekend I took part in Exeter tri club’s Sidmouth aquathlon, the first race of there four part aquathlon series and my first race of the 2022 season. For those of you who don’t know an aquathlon is a swim/run event so is significantly shorter than triathlons. I competed in the sprint distance race, a 600 meter pool swim followed by a 5k out and back run and finished 8th over all in 32:19. The race was very well organised and everything went smoothly on race day so thanks to Exeter tri for organising such a brilliant event. Now onto the race report.

Pre race

I arrived at the venue about an hour before I started my race and registered straight away. Registration was quick giving me lots of time to check out the run route and warm up. We also got a free bottle on registration, always a plus – you can never have too many bottle. After registration I went back to the car and sorted my kit out, we couldn’t put our kit into the poolside transition until just before we started our race. Once all my kit was ready I walked the first 500 meters or so of the run route. The marshals were all very helpful in pointing me in the right direction. When I was satisfied that I knew where I was going I headed back to the car park for a short warm up and grabbed my kit. I had to wait for a couple of minutes for a space to become free in transition. Due to the time trial nature of this race there weren’t many people in the pool at once and there were few spaces in transition. As soon as someone finished their swim and got out of transition the marshals collected their kit in a bag with their number on and moved it somewhere for them to collect it at the end of their race. Exeter tri have been doing it like this for as long as I can remember and it always seems to work well. Once my transition was set up I joined the back of the queue ready to start and the pre-race nerves started to build.

The Swim

I would have liked to start my race somewhere near the middle of the field but due to my slight lack of organisation (I know many people who would disagree with the slight part of that statement and say it’s more of a severe lack of organisation) I was the penultimate person in the water. The swim went very smoothly and I finished it slightly faster than I had expected. We were swimming one person to a lane which meant that there was plenty of space and I didn’t have to worry about anyone else. I think I possibly started slightly to fast in the first 100 meters of the 600 meter swim but by the time I got out the water I felt like I’d paced it pretty well and was one track for a good run (SPOILER ALERT: the run did not go as well as I had hoped). One of the great things about the Exeter tri aquathlons is that the timing person counts your lengths for you and waves a kickboard at the end of the lane when you have two lengths to go. This is great for me because whenever I try to count my own lengths I get to about three then can’t remember what comes next (numbers have never been my strong point, in the past I’ve even asked people to swim in front of me at club sessions because I know I’ll lose count). Officially I finished the swim in 9:48 however that included transition so based on my watch I think the actual swim time was 9:09

Run

Me finishing my first race of the season

I was hit by the cold as soon as I came out of the warm pool to start my run. I’d checked the forecast before the race and knew it was going to be cold but hadn’t quite anticipated how cold having not raced for a few months over the winter. Fortunately I warmed up very quickly and was feeling good by the 1000 meter mark. Reaching 1500 meters I was still on pace for a sub 20 minute run which had been my target and was feeling like I was going to hit it. Sadly, shortly after this things got worse. I started to regret wearing relatively new trainers as they started to rub at my bare feet which were already blistered. By the time I reached the turn around I as struggling.

The run route was beautiful. For the first few hundred meters it was along quiet roads then we crossed a bridge over a ford, ran up another quite road then into a park and up a river. We ran up the river for 200 meters or so then crossed it and ran up the other side for a bit. After a short while we left the river and headed down a quite footpath through some greenery then went across another bridge over a small stream. Then it was around a corner and up a shortish but steep hill that I definitely wasn’t expecting. After another flat section with fields to our right we hit the turnaround and came back exactly the same way.

On the way out I was was running uphill with a headwind. This meant I probably should have been running the first half slightly below the target pace and would have been able to pick it up on the way back. Unfortunately I didn’t do this and was pushing the pace too high especially with sore feet. With about 2k to go I was passed by the person behind me (the last starter) meaning I was at the back of the field. I tried to stick with them but with about 1500 meters to go they were gone. I held a relatively steady pace until I had about 500 meters to go when I upped the pace slightly for the end. When I crossed the line I was told my time and splits immediately (32:19 – 9:48 600m swim + transition/22:30 5K run). I sat down as soon as possible and took my shoes of to find that both my feet were bleeding which I am pleased to say didn’t change the fact that I had a great time at the first race of the 2022 season.

Thanks again to Exeter tri for organising this event and thanks to you for reading this post I hope you liked it. If you did subscribe to this blog, follow me on twitter @firstplacetri and leave a comment to tell me what you thought or if you would like me to write about something specific. I hope you all reach your tri goals in this new season.

First place tri

P.S. You can find the race results here, my results and splits here and you can find Exeter tri and enter the other races in their triathlon season here. Thanks again for reading.