Graham’s first triathlon of the season & first win!
Radley Good Friday Tri – 25 March 2016
This was my first race of the season & I have been looking forward to this for quite a long time now. The main objective of the race was to get back into the race scenario, check transitions were still OK & to enjoy the day.
The week running up to the race regarding taper & an easy week had to be slightly adjusted due to the race being on Good Friday. For this I got my best race bike down, dusted off & out for a couple of rides just to make sure that it was still OK. Luckily when we woke Friday at 4:45am, the rain had all blown through & as we drove up to Abingdon, it was looking like it would turn out to be a nice day.
We arrived at Radley College & enjoyed the hustle & bustle of registration, racking & pre-race stuff. It felt really good to be back in the swing of it.
I had an 8am swim start & was in the first swim wave. The swim was a 400mtr pool swim. The swim was OK with no untoward problems. The only issue was that I took it very cautiously exiting the pool as you had to walk (not run) on the wet tiles to get to transition.
Into T1 for quite a swift transition (I thought) so that bit still seems to be OK. Then out onto the 2 lap, 21K bike ride. The only issue with the bike was that the roads were still a bit wet as the sun hadn’t dried them out yet, so I was a bit cautious on the corners. There was one tricky descent through a village with some big old potholes. I got caught nearing the end of lap 1 but managed to hold him. I was working quite hard. We then got overtaken by another guy who disappeared – I just couldn’t keep up with him. The conditions, apart from the wet roads & potholes, were OK as the sun had now come out & it wasn’t too cold.
Into T2 for another swift(ish) transition. My toes were a little bit cold to get into the run shoes, but apart from that, not too bad.
Now out onto the run, which was a 2 lap, 5K run. This included tarmac, field, athletics track & the worst part, a hill in a farmers field which was very wet & muddy & very slippery (not good – I got my new run shoes all dirty!!!). As for the run itself, the bloke who I was racing with on the bike didn’t stay there for long as within the first couple of metres I overtook him & he was never to be seen again. It was a bit of a lonely 2 lap run because after that, I didn’t see anyone else until I got to the last 100mtrs of the athletics track where Coach 2 was shouting encouragement & running to the finish line with me (I was running so fast she couldn’t keep up with me !!!). Thank you Coach 2.
My splits are as follows:
Swim – 6:38 (14th)
T1 – 00:51 (3rd)
Bike – 38:40 (6th)
T2 – 00:58 (9th)
Run – 20:13 (18th)
Total time – 1:07:22 (6th overall – 1st in my age group)
Conclusion:
I was very pleased with the way the day went. My transitions still seemed to be in good shape. Yes, it was not the best quality field that I will be racing against this year, but as the first test for the year, I am very pleased. I am now looking forward to my next race.
Coach Note: Great to see South Central Academy Coach Laura Fenwick also take a podium place in the female open race.