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Costwold Triathlon
Sep. 11th, 2006 07:14 amAnyone would think that the 5:30am wakeup call (schnell! eat then snooze! transition opens at 6:00!) was sick enough on its own without having to go and run a race... but up super-early we all were, shovelling bananas and all-bran bars down before zombieing through setting up our pitches. Transition was sealed off before the start, first indication that the organisation was going to be tight and controlly - which worked a treat.
Cotswold Tri is held in the water park, a whole bunch of flooded gravel pits given over to boating and adventure sports. Last time I was down here it was in a longship! Warm lakes, cold air: the water steamed like a hot tub. The start was delayed by 45 minutes as we hoped for the mist to clear, before the organisers decided to cut the swim to about half-length in order to make it navigable.
The viz was bonkers, I made it 50m and every time the wind got up, it just encouraged the lake to make more mist! The lineup along the shore looked like a miniature version of the start of the Escape From Alcatraz, very evocative. I was quite happy with the short swim, though I just about found my rhythm as I found the righthand bank (gravel)... and a buoy boat (hard)... and the exit chute (muddy). Need to work on sighting, perhaps?
Bike was great. The course is similar to Burnham, a flat 20k loop, and it was morning-cool so I could really open up without overheating. It was well-signed and very well marshalled, no problems, keep turning left and eating up the guys who ate me in the water; the body count of 14 means I owe Meatloaf an Ace of Spades sticker (don't ask). Having the elite youths (?) hammer past all rattlydisk was a bit startling though ;) There was bit of drafting going on out there too... and the start was foggy enough that a couple of athletes had lights!
The run around the lake was pretty, but I mistimed it; took it easy on lap one planning to open up on lap two; lap two I just got a bit tired and lost my tempo until one of Exeter's mob yelled at me in the final stretch. I am Pavlov's dog... Tempo running is where my training needs to be.
Overall a lovely event, great venue, nice routes, good craic in the campsite the night before with tri vets swapping war stories. Definitely recommended as a nice one to do.
You can tell how much fun I had by the lack of timing angst. Well, overall was 1:11, splits are due out today. Bike averaged a sniff under 20mph so was a nice solid TT kind of time (which makes me want to try a 25 TT sometime soon). Run felt faster than it probably was. Second-last in my wave in the swim. Transitions were long, but smooth - 100m run with the bike, which will add to everyone's times equally. It felt like a better performance than any so far: I wasn't newbie-mullered like at Wellington, heat-struck like Burnham or beasted like Bude.
The women's wave warm up and wonder if they'll find the first marker in the mist?
Washing machine and smoke machine...
Swamp Thing blurring through T1
Looking walrusy on the long run out of T1 to the bike mount
Braking hard for the line
About 1k to go... the fishermens' bacon sandwiches are torture!
The rest of the photos are here, but they're mostly of women in moist rubber, so I doubt you'll be interested...
Cotswold Tri is held in the water park, a whole bunch of flooded gravel pits given over to boating and adventure sports. Last time I was down here it was in a longship! Warm lakes, cold air: the water steamed like a hot tub. The start was delayed by 45 minutes as we hoped for the mist to clear, before the organisers decided to cut the swim to about half-length in order to make it navigable.
The viz was bonkers, I made it 50m and every time the wind got up, it just encouraged the lake to make more mist! The lineup along the shore looked like a miniature version of the start of the Escape From Alcatraz, very evocative. I was quite happy with the short swim, though I just about found my rhythm as I found the righthand bank (gravel)... and a buoy boat (hard)... and the exit chute (muddy). Need to work on sighting, perhaps?
Bike was great. The course is similar to Burnham, a flat 20k loop, and it was morning-cool so I could really open up without overheating. It was well-signed and very well marshalled, no problems, keep turning left and eating up the guys who ate me in the water; the body count of 14 means I owe Meatloaf an Ace of Spades sticker (don't ask). Having the elite youths (?) hammer past all rattlydisk was a bit startling though ;) There was bit of drafting going on out there too... and the start was foggy enough that a couple of athletes had lights!
The run around the lake was pretty, but I mistimed it; took it easy on lap one planning to open up on lap two; lap two I just got a bit tired and lost my tempo until one of Exeter's mob yelled at me in the final stretch. I am Pavlov's dog... Tempo running is where my training needs to be.
Overall a lovely event, great venue, nice routes, good craic in the campsite the night before with tri vets swapping war stories. Definitely recommended as a nice one to do.
You can tell how much fun I had by the lack of timing angst. Well, overall was 1:11, splits are due out today. Bike averaged a sniff under 20mph so was a nice solid TT kind of time (which makes me want to try a 25 TT sometime soon). Run felt faster than it probably was. Second-last in my wave in the swim. Transitions were long, but smooth - 100m run with the bike, which will add to everyone's times equally. It felt like a better performance than any so far: I wasn't newbie-mullered like at Wellington, heat-struck like Burnham or beasted like Bude.
The women's wave warm up and wonder if they'll find the first marker in the mist?
Washing machine and smoke machine...
Swamp Thing blurring through T1
Looking walrusy on the long run out of T1 to the bike mount
Braking hard for the line
About 1k to go... the fishermens' bacon sandwiches are torture!
The rest of the photos are here, but they're mostly of women in moist rubber, so I doubt you'll be interested...
