London Triathlon

  • Rated 55%
  • 1500m/40.4k/9.8k
  • Road
Entrants (9) Club Pred Swim Pred Bike Pred Run Swim T1 Bike T2 Run Total
Binks My first triathlon. Felt very intimidating before but was fantastic during the race.
My swim was slow as expected. 42.30 mins for breaststroke was on the high end of expectations. Note for next time - learn freestyle.
I really underestimated the cycle part. It killed me. Didn't take enough fluid and felt quite lightheaded for the majority of it. 1.24
I felt like I was running at about 1 mile an hour. I seemed to still be overtaking lots of people. I was amazed to discover that I did the 10k in 46.30. Thats not far off what I normally take to do that on its own. Serpentine RC 3:30:00 3:01:00 3:01:00
bw Reading Roadrunners
Flipper Loved every minute of it! Unaffiliated 4:00:00 3:37:09 3:37:09
Hollywoof! H's Far Too London Tri report...

Up at 4:30 am - ouch!

Long through London's traffic lights made longer by some bu88ers closing the roads for some triathlon race... all the time both Shiraz and I needing a toilet break...

Straight into action at the tri - very well setup and organised - a bit surpirsed they didn't check do any safety checks on my kit - but racking and registering is smooth and easy. I'm delighted to find my bike spot is on the end of a row - very easy to find and with heaps of room for my stuff.

Then over to collect timing chips - do briefly see Firestar across the room but can't talk - we need the toilet again! (seems that dodgy stomachs were a theme for the day!)

Shiraz is off at 8:30, she gets to the swim quite late and with some concerns about her stomach - I make sure I tell her not to take the swim too quickly - she looks at me and assures me Unaffiliated 2:25:28 2:25:28
JEJ Very unhappy with several aspects of the organisation, especially zero enforcemnet of the drafting rule, which cost me a thump in the leg from the drafter behind when I had to slow due to a stopped cyclist in the middle of a narrow section of course ahead.

Persevered through cramp and managed to finish, but ended up jog-walking the run to keep the injured leg stretched.  Splits were:
25:59, 66:13, 36:16 with transtitions of 3mins 25 and 1min 44.

Perhaps if I had trained in the swim & cycle whilst avoiding being collided into,  I could have managed something approaching sub 2?  We'll never find out though, as aged 25, I announce my intention to retire from triathlon. Unaffiliated 2:40:00 2:13:36 2:13:36
MattyP Dunmow Tri Club
Pigpen Striders of Croydon AC
Sir Moses Hill Alarm at 4:05am after five hours on a pal's living room floor and off across town.  Thankfully quiet roads cause arriving at 5:30am was tight enough with stickers to stick, tyres to pump, the car to unpack and bikes to rack.  Dave was off at 6:30am so he jumped the registration queue, while I waited patiently with the others for the 7am wave.  Racked up and got slightly confused by procedure for collecting my chip.  Time was of the essence.  One marshall told me I could get it when I went to the swim start, yet another said I'd need photographic ID so I'd better go before getting changed.  So I darted across, picked it up (without needing ID) and back to the bike for the laying out of gear and change into wetsuit.

Swim ended up being delayed by 20 mins as previous wave were held up by problems on the bike course.  Quite rightly, the organisers didn't want to get the day's racing underway until the entire course was clear and ready.  So poor old Dave was in and out of the water before getting in again for the start.  Thankfully we didn't have to wait half an hour as they probably needed to recover the lost time.  This was my first 1500 open water swim and certainly the largest wave I've swam in.  And I absolutely loved it.  Got into my errrm, stroke quickly and paced myself well to 27:23.  In hindsight, did I need to pace myself?  Despite kicking wildly, 90% of my power is in my arms and shoulders, not my legs, and so I could perhaps afford to go flat out.  Definitely scope to take several minutes off this swim time, but I was delighted to emerge and see 27-odd minutes on my watch.

Through T1 and onto the steed.  First 10k of the bike was tough because I was getting overtaken by the specialist cyclists who I'd been quicker than on the swim.  Then things evened out and from the end of the short loop onwards I definitely caught more people than caught me.  Knowing that the bike is disproportionately long, and fully expecting to spend as long on the cycle as on the swim and run combined, I pushed myself hard.  Pleased to come in on 1:12:11 as pre-race I was expecting a time closer to 80 mins.

T2 was quick owing to the fact that I wore trainers for the bike and so only had to rack the bike, dump my helmet and shades and pick up a gel.  But the first 1k hurt.  Left hamstring was aching and actually considered walking while still indoors.  Thankfully banished such wimpness and slowly but surely started to stretch out.  Saw Dave half way round my first loop.  He looked comfortable but I suspected I was in front.  This was confirmed when it took 200 metres further for him to appear half way round my second loop.  Didn't feel like I was running fast but I was constantly overtaking as I got mixed up in the previous wave and by this time the quicker triathletes in my own wave were already ahead.  Gave up on the water and the sprinklers during the last 5k and concentrated on getting my head down.  Gave it loads in the final km and a very satisfying burst up the hill and back indoors saw me home in 42:21 for the run (which I've since discovered to be 9.8k).  

Add in the transitions and I completed in 2:27:08.  Thrilled with the time, and, even better, five minutes quicker than Dave.

When's the next one? Unaffiliated 2:27:08 2:27:08
zuzi novice tri only 400m swim, 10k bike, 2.5k run Edinburgh Road Club

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