Thames Turbo Triathlons... are really good fun!
If you live in London and are looking for a short, well-organised, friendly, pool-based triathlon then I definitely recommend them.
For a beginner, you'll be glad to know:
- From a show of hands it looked like 50% of race 1 this year were at their first ever triathlon.
- The swim is well planned so that you get to swim with people about the same speed as you. There a whole section of the race where people do breast stroke and there are people who take 20 minutes to swim the 400m.
- There are lots of people who turn up with non-optimal bikes (including shopper bikes and heavy full suspension mountain bikes) and the course is marshalled for all of the cyclists no matter how long it takes you.
- The run is made really special by some excellent marshalling - the marshalls have cheat sheets and cheer people on by name.
- The bacon sandwiches in the cafe are top class!
I'm not quite a beginner - I did one tri last year and I've also got a nice shiny racing bike already. But I did my second triathlon and my first Thames Turbo one last Monday - here's my report...
5:30 am - alarm goes off - time to get up and go - so early for a bank holiday - even though I live less than 2 miles from the start.
<Lots of thumb twiddling and toilet queuing>
8:30 am - the race starts...
Swim - Start strong, take a risk on the first turn and go for the complicated but fast option of tumble turning under the ropes - to my relief it works perfectly. Then I catch the bloke in front (15 seconds up) and he doesn't let me past at the next turn so I have to battle past him instead (ggggrrrr). Over the next 8 lengths catch and pass a further 4 peeps - so allegedly I'm 1:15 up by end of swim.
Swim split - 426m - 6:55 - just under target pace - the others were just going slow... or maybe the sight of me in lycra put them off?
Transition 1 - 1:54 - get a nice sit down to put my shoes and socks on (the elites could learn from me...) - get some bad stares from some of the peeps who I've just swum over (sorry, but you should have let me past!)
Cycle - try to start fast - down to Hampton Court - see a funny traffic queue with several irate cyclists behind it... the cars have stopped to let some ducks cross the road... head down to Sunbury - lucky at the first lights - half-lucky at the temporary lights - they do a comedy routine of changing to red for 2 seconds, waiting for me to stop, then immediately changing back to green. Just past Shepperton roundabout spot Puffin Bertie come out to add some support - thx. Then find myself behind a milk float with cars coming the other way - wastes a few seconds... Then turnaround at the next roundabout and find the way home much faster - something to do with the wind?
Cycle split - 21km - 39:58 - get a lift on the last 3 minutes of the cycle as I do my utmost to catch and overtake a speedy looking cyclist... Overall though I think I maybe overtake 5 cyclists and get overtaken by 7? Average speed 20.3 mph - not fast, not slow?
Non compete zone - 6:18 - I've got seven minutes "spare" to make it back to the pool... so I take a nice gentle ride, stop to do up my shoelace, then panic that maybe I'll overrun the non-compete time. Get overtaken by loads of competitors here - but it doesn't matter :-)
Transition 2 - 0:38 - easy - although I know one day I'll forget to take my helmet off.
Run - 5km - 22:36 - for the first time since 7am the sun comes out and it feels really warm. This run is around my "home patch" - it includes a bit of my Monday night club run, and the paths I've used for running since 1996. I run as hard as I can - but can feel the bike leg behind me - and also there's yesterday's 13 miler... Time is 1:30 slower than Saturday's 5km race. Overtake 3 peeps, get overtaken by 3 peeps. Get loads of support from Shiraz and from BPTT crew - also the marshall's are excellent - several of them have printouts of the race numbers - they cheer everyone on by name - a really nice touch. Ends with sprint for the line - lose the sprint against log legged bloke - clearly that's cheating... and also think I might have strained something... but flapjack and coffee help repair that.
My pictures from the event are
on flickr.
