Fritton Olympic Tri 30th May - 1st

Well that's the first full distance race of the year all done. Going into the race I knew that all the pieces of the triathlon pie were roughly in place, even if they were unlikely to be anything spectacular.

The weather was a little unpleasant beforehand but the rain eased off from around 7am and left damp but drying roads. The course is an always fast swim, plus 2 laps of a roughly undulating/slightly short bike course and a cross country run. I didn't think a target of 1.57 was unrealistic...

The swim was pretty uneventful - I was off in the 3rd wave and felt pretty comfortable throughout. Practiced a little bit of drafting in the water which felt pretty good, but when we started passing peeps from previous waves I went back to swimming on my own. Out of the lake in 2nd place in 20.12 (always quick swims here though).


T1 was fairly speedy, then out onto the bike course which I know pretty well...unfortunately I had to stop twice during the hour as my rear wheel pulled over onto the brake pad on acceleration and made it instantly unrideable. I haven't checked how long these actual stops took, but certainly not less than 30 seconds each, and it felt like the brake was rubbing through other parts of the ride. 2nd fastest bike split.


Coming into T2 I still figured I should be on for the win, even if a decent time had gone out of the window. It's a cross country run which had been changed the night before to a 2 x 5k route as parts had been deemed unsafe - I was pleased with this as people had got lost on previous years (myself included). It's a tough little run with some steep undulations, but the footing was pretty good and I enjoyed it. 36.31 for a supposedly 9.7km off road course was pretty fair.


Finishing time was 2.00.04 - 1st place. Target was pretty much achieved I think bearing in mind the problems. A few points to work for Dambuster and beyond, but everything's ticking over...



Since the race my training has been erratic. I had a week off following the race due to being away on business on the other side of the country (long hours with no chance of wheels or water) - this was followed by a bout of food poisoning that's taken a little bit of the wind out of the sails. But I've done my best to eat back any weight that I inadvertantly shed...!!.. and am looking forward to my next race - Dambuster tri on 19th June.