My first taste of triathlon

I thought I'd right a report on my experience of my first triathlon to let you know about more about me...

Foremark Hall Triathlon 8/7/12

400m swim, 20km bike and 5km run

Arrival

I had no idea what to expect in my first taste of triathlon or what sort of time I'd finish in. On my way there I felt very nervous not only because I had no idea what to expect but also because of the obscene amount I'd eaten at Pizza Hut the night before and the subsequent pain in my stomach. I was worried about being late as my mum was driving me down and she has literally never been on time for anything in her life. As expected, we were late. This meant that I missed the race briefing before my start time which made me worry even more. Luckily registration was easy to find, registering was simple and so was racking my bike and finding the pool. I got ready and listened to the pool briefing which was nice and simple and they repeated it to make sure we knew what was going on. All good so far.

The Race

My wave consisted of me and four middle-aged women. Instead of feeling confident I'd beat them I was worried as I thought the swim would be my worst leg. Happily, I absolutley smashed the swim and got out almost confused about how I'd gone so quickly, I even started to doubt my ability to count to 16 but everything about the swim felt faster than normal. Transition wasn't quite as fast. I'd done nothing towards training for the so called 4th discipline of triathlon and both transitions took me ages! The bike leg started off badly as after about 2 minutes last nights Pizza Hut popped back up to say hello. This also resulted in everyone that I' beaten out of the pool passing me. I rolled round the bike leg slowly and got in for the run. This meant my legs still felt fine going into the run and I ran pretty consistantly all the way round going passed many people I'd noticed passing me on the bike. Sadly my stomach wouldn't let me push myself anymore on the last lap of the race and I crossed the line in 1:25:16.

My thoughts

I was really unhappy with my time as I knew I could of done a lot better. I was really pleased with the swim but the bike was awful and the run could of been improved. Also sitting down in transition was probably an indication I wasn't gonna get through T1 and 2 quickly. I might not have much to compare it to but I thought the race was really well organised. It was easy to find everything I needed and all corners of the bike and even some of the run leg had officials to help you find your way and everyone was encouraging. It was a great day, just a shame I came 146th! I've always wanted to be the winner when it comes to sport so next time I'm going to come back much quicker and have a crack at the age group winning time. It was also nice to make the most of the free post-race massage. It was at that point I found out that half the crowd seemed to be focusing on our new puppy rather than the race but o well.

For anyone that cares here's my splits so you can see just how bad my bike leg and transitions were.

Pos	#	Name		Cat	Club	Gun Time
146	116	Ed Brindley	M	20-24		01:25:16

Splits

	Athlete			RACE MIN	RACE AVG	RACE MAX
Swim	00:07:09			00:05:02	00:09:33	00:28:17
T1	00:02:47			00:00:33	00:01:47	00:05:09
Cycle	00:49:27			00:32:29	00:46:22	01:20:25
T2	00:01:21			00:00:54	00:01:37	00:03:29
Run	00:24:30			00:16:30	00:27:42	10:10:42