Race Report – London Triathlon 2016
My personal check list…
pack kit up the evening before – check
clean, shiny bike with new wheels – check
carb rich dinner and no alcohol – check
child awake at 1am and angry that you didn’t hear him shout (bangs door open and thumps elephant-like across bedroom floor) – check
back into bed, pull covers over, close eyes – check
‘Mummy’ yelled by youngest as now needs a drink (yep, me too and it ain’t milk!) – check
alarm goes at 4am – check (really tempted to just stay in bed and forget race)
up, dress and breakfast – check
in car – check
arrive at venue (after having usual conversation with myself in car about why I am doing this) – check
I did the Standard (Olympic) distance race here last year and enjoyed it, so thought ‘Why not do it again?’ I can tell you that a 4am start on a Sunday morning and a child awake at 1am makes you seriously question that decision.
Anyway, exactly the same transition set up as last year – collect timing chip, set up transition. Had a lovely chat with an older lady doing her first Olympic distance on her new road bike – very nervous. Watch in horror as some bloke decides to change into his trisuit next to his rack – is that really his hairy bottom? – er, yes it is – eww! I thought I’d seen it all at the old Histon lake on a Friday swim, no that was more than I’d seen lake side before.
Swim start and hugged a lovely lady next to me – such a friendly race. Off to the swim….
Swim: usual rectangle and as per normal my sprint skills aren’t great, so people shoot off ahead and after about 750m I start to catch up with them. I get disorientated at the half way point and takes me a while to figure out where I’m going (we’re swimming in a rectangle – how hard can it be? – so I blame my tiredness). Last couple of turns and it becomes a bun fight – some aggressive female swimmers. Out of the dock and stick wetsuit in a bag and carefully up the steps into transition. It’s a long run to the rack but I note that not many bikes have left the rack yet.
Bike: not quite 40k of fast and flat but there is a strongish wind which seems to hit from all sides. Off to Westminster for the 1st long lap and then a shorter second lap follows. Loads of motorcycle officials around. Only one woman passes me, so quite pleased with that. Up the ramp and into T2.
Run: off onto the run for 3 laps. The run isn’t a great course – it does have a great view of City airport but TBH you’re not really bothered about looking at that are you? The run out to the turn point is okay but at the turnaround the head wind hits you full on and it did make it feel harder (try to find some tall blokes to run behind), however you can see the Excel centre in the distance and it helps to know it isn’t that far. Lots of support which is good. The downside of the run at this race is that on each lap you run up a ramp into the hall before exiting again. Firstly, Garmin doesn’t like this disappearing inside business and secondly, my legs don’t like that bloomin’ ramp. However, my body just about delivers the necessary and survives all 3 disciplines – what keeps me going to the end is the big glass of Erdinger which will be waiting for me at the finish line – and it is!
Official distances: 1500m, 37.5km/10.3km
Official chip time: 2:36:27
They change the courses each year so you can’t compare year-on-year but my pace was quicker for everything this year and my overall position was higher.
I can recommend this race. They have distances from Supersprint to Olympic plus and you get all types of athletes from absolute beginners to age-groupers and elites. Very friendly, well organised, closed roads – what more could you want?
