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The Karcher Corby Sprint (400m/17.5mi/4.8k) was my second tri, and the first I've done with a pool based swim. I was secretly relieved that I wouldn't have to mess with a wetsuit as my T1 at Nicetri Sprint was spent wriggling around on the ground like a dying fish and it wasn't pretty.
Driving up to Corby it quickly became clear that the weather was doing its worst. The car was swaying to and fro in strong gusts and downpour after downpour almost made me envy Hayley, who'd be sensibly sitting indoors sipping coffee while I was out on the bike. To conclude the weather bit we both got soaked walking, then running, then sprinting to registration.
The great thing with pool starts is that if your start time is late enough, you can put your feet up and pass judgment on others who are slogging it out in the pool. I wasn't starting til 8.10 or so, which gave me almost an hour to be a spectator after I'd set up in transition. As the time got nearer, I went poolside to wait my turn while the swimmers got faster and faster. Eventually Nottingham Uni's tri team invaded the empty part of the pool for a warmup which was more like a haka - lots of arm circles with far too much sustained eye contact, and noisy sprints trying to kick up a tidal wave in the pool or something. I really shouldn't laugh now since one of these guys finished ahead of me but it was some good comic relief.
8.09...8.10 and I'm in the water waiting for the starter to let me go. I kept telling myself "smash it but don't go out too hard" but only the first part of that really stuck. Almost caught my 30sec man at the first 100 and passed him after he touched the wall at 150. After he fell back it suddenly hit me that I'd gone out way too hard. At 200 I picked up someone's ankle chip and chucked it back poolside (how do you not notice losing your chip?!), still feeling OK. After that I faded, should have slowed down more but when you're not using your arms during the rest of the race why bother? The last 100 was painful. Usually I breathe to both sides: it balances me out and keeps my stroke relatively smooth. Here I was too winded to do that and as a result my stroke was just about as smooth as my chat up lines. Definitely need to work on pacing!
The run to T1 was significantly faster than my wonky shuffle at Nicetri Sprint, maybe not having a wetsuit does help! Find bike, helmet on, Garmin on, bike shoes on, unrack bike, run to bike out, mount, sprint towards the open road...damn there's a car coming. Skid to a halt, dangerously close to crashing out before I've even started. The start of the bike course was mostly flat/downhill so rather fast. Seeing the dozens of cyclists spread out on the road before me was a bit like a carrot on a stick but I was careful not to start out too fast. Eased up going down that steep hill with the speed camera, got passed here by others I'd overtaken on the flat, need to work on my handling, that was embarassing.
After that the course ramps up steeply, and by that I mean you get a battering of sharp hills punctuated by short, twisty, poorly surfaced descents and all that doesn't end until you get to the start of lap 2 where it begins anew. Went out really hard thinking "how hilly can it be around here?", passed dozens of cyclists including some with numbers close to mine (good sign), and then the second lap started and legs got a "bit" tight. So this time I spun up the bigger hills in the small ring to save my legs for the run and lost my pacing a bit. I was still overtaking loads of people, some of whom had numbers close to mine but I'd faded a bit and the guy who ended up winning passed me going up the last climb. Once I'd dropped out of the draft zone I let him pace me back to transition, it's strange how having someone else pacing you makes it easier even when there's no physical benefit since you're not drafting. I only averaged about 20mph but as I later found it it was the 4th bike time, that's how hard the course was!
There was only one other bike near my spot in transition - the leader's - so I knew I was doing well. After a small faff getting my shoes tied up (need to buy elastic laces), went out for the 3-lap run, determined to do surgically-precise pacing for the first two laps. By the end of the first lap I was feeling great, pace bang on, in fact I even smiled at Hayley who was waiting by the finish. Lap 2 was starting to hurt a bit, what made it better was getting passed by this guy near the finish: he sprints by, slows down again and asks "it's a 2 lap course right?". "No mate we've got one more to go". "Dash it all..." and a loud groan. Didn't see him again after that! Lap 3 was hard but so is the end of any race. Getting passed by some 50-year-old and his daughter was not an ego boost but their numbers were really far away from mine so as far as overall time went, they were way down, at least that's how my brain was rationalizing it!
After the mandatory near-puking sprint finish, I got my stuff out of transition ASAP and we headed to Costa for a post-race recovery beverage. Comparing my times to previous years' results it dawned on me that I might have got on the podium or won my age category, but by then it was too late to go back. It was only later that afternoon when the results went up that I saw it: 1st in age category, 4th overall. Note to self: Must hang around for presentations! Fortunately the organizer was kind enough to mail me the prize.
So lessons learned...
First, don't go out too hard on the swim! Next time I'll try to do a progressive swim where each 100 is slightly faster than the previous one.
Second, if you can't recon the bike route, use the OS maps feature in Bing. If you know where the hills are you can pace yourself a lot better.
Third, improve transition times...somehow. My transition times when added up were about 60 seconds slower than the leaders. Elastic laces, shoes already on bike, who knows but I need to figure it out and fast because I might have just snuck onto the podium had I got my transitions figured out.
Finally, and yes I'm repeating myself, hang around for presentations!!
