Race Day

BTW - quite proud of yesterday's backblip: Station Master if you get a chance to look.

These are the flowers that Mrs42 and Miss42 got for me (waiting as a surprise on the kitchen table) for completing my second triathlon today - the Haddington Sprint Triathlon.

I was there with five other members of the tri club I belong to and it was a great event. In the end three of the six of us (not me) got prizes for being in the top 3 in our age category. Not bad for a wee club.

Since 19 August I've been blogging about my training. I've actually trained for eight weeks, about six days a week so I was hoping for a good improvement in my time - and I did! Almost 13 mins quicker! Here are the stats - and then a wee race report.

<the times>

Haddington Sprint Tri: 1 September 2013

(my previous triathlon times in brackets)

Swim: 13.29 (14.03)

T1: 1.59 (3.16)

Bike: 44.12 (51.53)

T2: 1.01 (2.08)

Run: 25.44 (27.42)

Total time: 1:26.27 (1:39.02)

</the times>

The day started early with a 6:40 pickup to get down to Haddington and registered. The wind was strong and picking up. We were not looking forward to the outward leg of the ride.

Parked in the car park (lucky!) and registered - swim heat 5 and lane 4 for me, coincidentally with one of my clubmates. Then out to faff in transition and get everything set up and tyres pumped up a bit more.

The a good bit of waiting around.

Finally got into the water and going at 10:40. I quickly overtook the guy in front of me - and subsequently we all lapped him too. I think he was in the wrong heat. I picked up behind my clubmate and sat behind him for a few lengths before tapping him on the feet and overtaking too. From then on I had clear water in front of me (pulling my clubmate along!) and did a great time in the pool.

Out into T1 - cold and windy outside - and faffed around a bit before getting out onto the ride. I could definitely take another minute off with a bit of T1 practice.

We had a bit of overtaking over the first few km, straight into the wind and out of Haddington gently up hill. It was a bit of a slog but using the drops on the handlebars and making myself as small as possible helped.

The turn at 9km was very welcome and then it was a short easy rise up tot eh long fast ride back to Haddington. I even made it into top gear for a couple of stretches. The cross-wind where the road turned was nasty, but all in all happy with the ride. Without such a strong wind I could have gone even quicker.

T2 and I was much quicker - although forgot to take off my helmet. "Helmet John" rang out a cry from another clubmate spectator. Numpty.

I found the run pretty difficult - dunno if I was tired or the gentle uphill and wind in my face made it harder. Anyway I had words with myself and sped up a bit. I had no idea that I had ran 2 minutes quicker.

Overall very happy with my time and race. Still room to go faster I think. My clubmate who started in the pool with me finished in 1:10!