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.

Sounds good Hollywood. Shame there doesn't seem to be many events like that round here that I could roll up to, swim breast stroke very slowly and then ride round on my heavy mountain bike.

I'd love to do a tri, but I'm a rubbish swimmer so would struggle big style!!

I'm already doing Richmond half because of you, are you trying to ruin my life???