Winchester Triathlon

Part 2 of operation “Squeeze as many Triathlons into the end of the season post Covid lockdown” saw me line up for the Winchester Triathlon. A new race for me and a quite different experience from last weeks New Forest Tri, interesting to see the different approaches of different organisers on how to run a Covid 19 era triathlon (Still not a race…. 😊)

A slightly more civilised 5:45am alarm this week saw me bounce out of the door full of vim, vigour and bagels. A quick 30min drive over to Winchester to the venue at Kings School, just outside of the centre of Winchester, and on a worryingly busy road for 6:30 in the morning! As I was in the first wave to go off at 8am parking was not a problem and after 5 minutes of indecision over tyre pressure (I know, I know….), I was ready to head over to transition. Having registered the day before I didn’t need to head through registration which made things a bit simpler. Slightly different than the norm, transition was down a long tree straight tree lined avenue with racks on either side. No limitations to numbers per rack this week so things were a little bit closer in transition and it was down to us athletes to make sure we kept a good social distance. A quick (Socially distanced) briefing in the sports hall and through to the pool area which is where things started to feel a lot different from my last pool Tri. No spectators were allowed in the pool area so it had a bit of an eerily quiet feel, not helped by the spectators peering in at us from outside the windows making me feel slightly like a penguin in a zoo enclosure. Athletes were taken wave by wave into the pool area and lined up in hat colour order with instructions to wait on the poolside until it was your turn to get in the water and go. A bit confusing but I’d already planned to take the swim relatively easily, the idea being to get to T1 in slightly less of a breathless mess than usual.

Mr Pink Hat in my lane jumped in as the first one off and was given a ready steady go. 10 seconds later and the Blue hats (me) get the shout to go. As usual my pre-race plan to take it easy went out the window and I was on the toes of Mr Pink Hat within 2 lengths! Fortunately there were only 2 of us in the lane so I was able to overtake but had to push on pretty hard to get it done. This, followed by a turn, and then my first breath into a random wave which meant inhaling water rather than air, led to instant panic as the primeval part of my brain takes over and just tells me to stop being so stupid and stop for some more air!  Didn’t really manage to get my heart rate back under control for the rest of the swim and thrashed around like a crazy person for the next 10 lengths. Took me until a few lengths to go to steady things down and finished with a 6:30 for the 400m swim, a bit slower than the 6:15 I was hoping to do but still not terrible. A quick waddle to the pool door and out into the cold air (bloody freezing for August!) and a run down the lovely red carpet laid out for us and into T1.

Thankfully T1 was much better this week than last (the absence of a wetsuit probably helped), only a quick fumble trying to get a gel into my back pocket to slow me down a little bit but otherwise all good. The worlds longest transition meant it was quite a run down to bike out, with a quick run across the road where the marshals did a great job stopping cars. Managed to successfully get my feet into the shoes post mount line this time, albeit with a bit of faffing, and off onto the bike leg.

A relatively flat start, followed by a left turn, a quick rise and then a good long descent to get breathing back under control. Managed to pull back a couple of people on the first descent  however, unfortunately, what goes down must come up, and there were hills awaiting us…. I actually quite enjoyed the bike course, although there was genuinely very very little flat on the entire loop. I think “rolling” would probably be the best description, although there were a couple of proper cheeky hills in there to get over. Spent most of the first lap exchanging places with a lady from Farnham Tri (I think) and a chap on a Cannondale bike. Basically, I would go past them on the downhills and they would come prancing past me as soon as we went uphill again (Im not really built for climbing 😊). This went on for most of the first lap and the first half of the second lap before I lost touch up the longest of the hills and struggled to catch back up. Still, a relatively incident free ride over a course with a  fair bit of gravel and mud on the road, and only a bit of pain from my troublesome back which didn’t really interfere too much. Lost a good 20 secs at a set of traffic lights at the end of the 2nd lap which was bloody annoying but what can you do…

Into T2, lobbed the bike at the rack only for it to fall off and come back at me, so tried again much more carefully, then fumbled to get the shoes on. Nothing major but a few seconds lost which always annoys me. Never quite sure how the legs will feel when I got off the bike and was pleasantly surprised that the calves didn’t instantly cramp as they sometimes can (Im hoping my new regime of pre race electrolyte loading has banished this for good but we’ll see…). Run out followed the same route as bike out, across the road (still being well marshalled) and into a 2 loop 5k, half on pavement and half on grass. As with the bike course there were very few flat sections on the run and I really struggled with the uphills, especially a longish uphill section prior to a 180deg turn into the field. First lap through I struggled, 2nd lap through the marshals were doing their best not to laugh at how dreadful I looked. Fortunately it was followed by a swift downhill to recover, but then straight into a short steep uphill chute up onto the playing fields that burned the calves and the glutes something terrible. The legs actually felt quite good after lap 1 and I managed to keep some good pace through most of lap 2. Was slightly slowed overtaking a random runner out on his Monday morning jog only to find himself in the middle of a race he didn’t seem to be expecting along a single track piece of path. Fortunately he pretty quickly jumped out of the way to let me past as I went flying past down the hill, only to end up shuffling up the next uphill like an old man with him following close behind and probably tutting about stupid triathletes under his breath. A few ups and downs later and it was time for a heroic sprint under the finish arch, and a less heroic few minutes trying to get my breath back. The pre wrapped medal and water were ready for me to pick up to avoid Marshalls getting to close, and I even remembered to take my timing chip off and hand it to the waiting Marshal.

Overall, a really well marshalled event in quite a difficult location. Really impressed with the organisation and a really good event. Very chuffed to finish 7th overall and 1st in the 40+ category. What a pity it wasn’t a race………