Posts Tagged ‘Womersley’

It feels like I have missed everything at the Blue Lagoon this year. Last year, I did my first open water triathlon at the Evolve sprint and was one of 30 athletes to do the quarter, too. This year, the May sprint and the August event had sold out, and the standard clashed with the Yorkshireman. Thankfully, there was a second sprint I was finally able to attend!

I went in not feeling fresh. I had picked up another cold, which would make this the 12th triathlon of the year for me, and 5th while having a cold. On top of that, race 11 was Sundowner Sprint, 24 hours beforehand. Still, I wasn’t looking to set a record time, I just wanted to have some fun.

The swim

The water was nice and warm but the swim was hard. I think I was tired going in. I took 21 minutes, compared to 18 minutes at Sundowner the day before, although it is possible the courses are different lengths. Other swimmers kept crossing in front of me with their can’t-sight-for-shit style.

I worked hard towards the end and came into T1 a little lightheaded again. I had to sit down to take my wetsuit off but still managed to get in and out in just over two minutes. I managed a scoot mount, too, but then couldn’t clip in for ages.

The bike

Allerthorpe has spoilt me: the pan flat roads and sweeping corners. Womersley is different. It is still mostly flat with only one real hill. However, there are sharp corners you have to slow down for and sprint back up to speed on the other side. And the wind was stronger. Sometimes constantly battering you, sometimes waiting for a gap in the trees to give you a surprise shove.

I managed to stay on the aero bars for most of the bike. I am coming around to the idea of wind. It slows anyone down who is not in the aero position. And those they have them are often too nervous to use them or will artificially limit their speed to whatever they feel comfortable with. These are all great chances for me to make some gains on the competition.

I averaged 30.8 kph. This is 3 kph slower than I managed the day before at Allerthorpe. My average power was similar: 214 Watts vs 216 Watts, so I assume the elevation accounts for the slower speed.

The run

I was not looking to set anything on fire on the run. So, I set off at a steady pace. By this point, the sun had come out and I was regretting locking my suncream in the car. Although, in my defence, it was lightly raining when I made that decision.

Naomi had finished by this point and Graeme was half a lap ahead of me on the cross so we kept crossing paths. They both gave me a high-5 on the way around, which was much welcome. But I also want to state, for the record, that they initiated these (just in case they pick up my cold!). I took a bath at the drink station on the final lap.

It would have been nice to get under 90 minutes, but as I came through the trail towards the finish line I could see I wouldn’t be managing that. In the end, I was 46 seconds over.

The result

I finished in:

1:30:46

That is just under 5 seconds quicker than when I did Evolve sprint last year. Given the 2018 event was only a 500-metre swim and the run was slightly shorter too, that seems like a respectable effort.

I finished a fair way beyond Naomi. But, in my defence, so did everyone else in the race. Here she is collecting her prize:

My spits were:

The times are all rounded to the nearest second in this post, so will not add up exactly to the total time. That was good enough for 36th out of 86 finishers. I got the 13th fastest bike split, tying for the position with Naomi who had the exact same time. My run was split was 29th, which seems okay for not going too deep. 11 people finished behind me on the swim.

Last week I was back in Womersely for the Evolve Quarter Triathlon. It’s described as a quarter, rather than a standard/Olympic distance because it’s based on a quarter of a full distance: that means 1,000 metres, 45 km bike and 10.5 km run.

The Blue Lagoon is a beautiful place to swim and made a great venue for the sprint race last month. Due to the warm weather, the water temperature was up to 23 degrees by the start of the race. At this temperature, it’s technically wetsuits banned according to British triathlon rules.

It was a mass start from deep water. As we set off, the entire field swam away from me. One other competitor soon slowed down, though, and I was able to overtake them and come out second-to-last out of the swim.

As we hit the bike, I stayed ahead for 15km before moving to the back of the race. But it wasn’t to last long as I passed two people, and later a further three. Overall, the bike went fantastic. I finished in under 1:35, with an average speed of 28.6 kph. This smashes my previous best pace of 27 kph at Wetherby Triathlon.

The roads were mostly quiet, with a few busy stretches. No stops required, and the road quality was consistently good. The maintenance engineers on the level crossing very kindly agreed to set up the traffic lights to allow the racers to come through without stopping.

Then came the run, though. After two hours of racing, it was 1:30pm in the afternoon, the sun was at its height, and a complete lack of breeze provided no wind chill from the 25-degree heat.

Despite applying suncream as I ran, my first kilometre was the fastest. After that, the heat got too intense and I was forced to drop the pace. As went on, I got slower and slower. Time and time again I was convinced that I needed to stop and walk. And time and time again I somehow found the strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

I made it to the aid station at 6 km and stopped to down two glasses of water and some energy drink. Off again I went, burping with the amount of liquid I had just consumed. Two kilometres later and a race support car offered me an orange juice, and I downed that, too.

In the end, my run split was 55 minutes. 7 minutes slower than normal. However, I passed the fast biker and three other people on the run, and, it turned out, someone who got lost, too. And even the guy who won said he was 9 minutes slower than normal and had to stop at the aid station, too.

In the end, I finished 20th out of 30, with a time of:

2:57:40

I was chuffed to be under three hours. Although it is a little different from standard distance, it seems comparable.

After the race, we cooled off in the shallows of the lagoon beach. Evolve events are awesome. Really friendly, a great team of marshalls and a beautiful location to race in. Not to be missed!

After visiting the Blue Lagoon for an open water swim a few weeks ago, I returned to compete in their sprint distance triathlon.

I got there one hour forty-five before the race, which was more than enough time to faff about. Despite warnings of rain, it was gloriously sunny. Too sunny in fact: despite the copious amounts of sport-specific suncream (at £8.50 per bottle) I applied, I still came away with sunburn.

54 of us took part, and I ended up about two-thirds down the rankings in 33rd. The swim went well: the water temperature had risen to a balmy 16.2 degrees C. That still feels really cold when you get in, but once you are swimming it is fine, and my hands were still mostly usable when we came out. I managed to avoid being last in the swim and things only went forward from there.

The bike course was two laps around some local roads. There were very quiet and I barely saw any cars. It’s a pretty flat course with only one real hill and no serious descending, so it suited me well. The run was a bit too warm but otherwise fine.

My official time was:

1:30:51.4

Here is a comparison between my time here and Skipton triathlon.

I put this in more because it looked interesting than that it is of any value. It’s very difficult to compare across venues as they all have different lengths. This was a 500-metre open water swim, vs the 400-metre pool swim at Skipton, but also the distance between getting out of the water and getting to my bike varies massively.

I’m fairly sure the run distance here was less than 5km as I’ve never run a 21:14 before. Skipton was also a lot hillier. But this table isn’t completely pointless. I’m pleased that my T1 time didn’t increase even though I had a wetsuit to take off this time.

It was my first race as a member of Hyde Park Harriers and it was a nice perk to be part of a club rather than hanging around like a total loner. Everyone was very friendly. A big thank you to Graeme for spotting me and Gill for bringing the bacon, and congratulations to Naomi for winning first place in the women’s category.

Next stop, Wetherby triathlon…