The only thing that had been worrying me about this race was the deep water start. There was a very real possibility that I would be kicked in the face and then hit by the flailing arm of someone trying to fight their way through the swarm of swimmers only to resurface feeling slightly dazed and discover that there would be no mercy and be kicked again losing my goggles. This was not how I wanted to start my first triathlon of the season. As we lined up between the two buoys I feared that this was going to be my fate. The only way to avoid the worst of it would be to get a good start but, having not started my open water training properly this season, I knew this was unlikely…
It had been an early start on the morning of Sportiva Event’s Roadford Lake Triathlon which was exacerbated by a night of restless sleep as I stressed about the morning; my brain going over everything I could have forgotten at least 6 times before it let me think about sleeping and then waking me up again at 2am to repeat the process.
Despite this, by the time I got in the car I felt awake and indestructible. The race didn’t start until 9:15 but with transition closing at 8 we aimed to be there for 7:30. It was a good job we did as with some confusion with parking and an unexpected walk from the car park to registration we barely made it in time. The good thing about having to arrive so early was that we had plenty of time to take in the beautiful venue before the race began.
After a short warm up jog, it was time to put my wetsuit on and wait for the race briefing. This was when the nerves really started to set in. I don’t usually get nervous before races but my lack of open water swimming was a concern. We were walked down the steep hill to the water and my heart sank as I realised we would have to run back up to get to transition. After a brief opportunity to acclimatize, we got out the water and had to wait for the last few swimmers of the standard distance event to finish which only gave my nerves more time to build.
We made our way into the water and lined up on the start line. I had managed to get myself in a good position at the front with a good line to the first buoy. We were told we had 90 seconds until the race would start and I desperately tried to clear my goggles as they fogged up every time I put them on making it practically impossible to see the first buoy. As we waited, I tried to ignore my own thoughts as my brain ran through everything that could go wrong.
We started the swim and the nerves immediately disappeared.
Fortunately, I managed to avoid most of the start drama I had been worrying about by swimming hard to the first buoy. As I turned I risked a glance backwards and saw that I already had a reasonable gap to the next swimmers. I pushed on to the next buoy. Looking back at the GPS after the race I realised that I had had some sighting issues on this section of the swim and so had gone considerably further than I needed. Even so when I reached the second buoy I still had a gap on the second and third swimmers.
Knowing that swimming is my strongest discipline I wanted to open the gap as much as possible to give myself the best possible chance on the bike. However, with the sun behind the buoys I was aiming for and my goggles fogging up I really struggled with sighting. I was forced to stop two or three times on this last section of the swim to adjust my goggles and find the buoys. Even so, I came out of the swim first and with a decent lead (19 seconds according to the official results).
The run up to transition was painful. The first part was the worst part as we had to go up a steep and slippery bank. Then it was a more gradual but still steep incline all the way to transition as I tried to wriggle out of the top half of my wetsuit. I had a pretty quick transition getting my wetsuit off very quickly which had been another concern before the race. I went to grab my bike and realised one thing was wrong. I was wearing my run shoes. A quick change later and I was on my way but knew I had lost some time in transition. It’s things like this that really annoy me in races because they’re easily avoidable but can cost precious seconds.
I still had a decent gap to second place coming onto the bike. However, I could see the gap coming down quite quickly. The race wasn’t on closed roads so I had to stop briefly early on due to traffic on a narrow lane and was caught by second place. I accelerated again and managed to open up a small gap. I was caught and passed not long after this and from then onwards we were exchanging the lead a lot for the first half of the bike leg. I was doing well on the climbs where I know I excel and taking the lead back here but then losing it again on the descents.
With about 9k to go we were both passed by another cyclist. I tried to stay with him but couldn’t quite do it on the descents. It was fast descents all the way into the second transition from here which I know is an area I need to work on so I dropped down to third before going into transition.
T2 went smoothly and it was on to the run. I had gone bit harder than I would have liked on the bike (I had been aiming for 40 minutes but had done 37:46) but could see the gaps coming down quickly. It wasn’t long until I hit the front again.
There were some issues on the run with unclear signage and not many marshals which was the only problems I had with the event. Because of this I spent the whole run not sure I was going the right way but hoping I was and getting brief moments of relief when I saw another sign (not that I knew where it was telling me to go but at least it meant I’d gone the right way so far).
I reached the last section of the run and was surprised that I’d made it this far in front. Crossing the line in 1st I received my finishers T-shirt and medal and waited for the podium presentations.
Despite the slight mishaps with the run course this was a very enjoyable event which I plan to do again especially if it stays in this early season slot.
My next race is Cardiff triathlon on the 25th of June so if you would like to head about this as well as receive other triathlon related content subscribe to this blog and follow me on Twitter @firstplacetri
First Place Tri 