PRERACE BORE-LOGUE
So about a month ago i got a bit of a suprise in my inbox - "Your place has successfully been deferred to the 2022 Llanelli Sprint Triathlon". When on earth had i signed up for this? Turns out it was in 2020, i had completely forgotten about it THAT year, so was completely oblivious it been deferring away in the background without my knowledge. So, I guess that's a thing then!
Luckily I had been industriously training away for an an event later in the summer, which as it turns out, is cancelled (but that will be another race report.... or will it?). Since about August last year I have been training on the 80-20 program which i've been really enjoying, and while it's hard to say if i was feeling my best in any particular discipline, I've defnintely been the most balanced I've been across all sports since I got into this crazy sport.... which is nice.
One thing i really wanted to improve a lot on for my main event this year was my transitions, something I acted on by practising close to not at all - I had done a few drills while getting used to my tt bike out in Pembrey, but not enough for me to think "that's that transition problem sorted then" . This race had really snook up on my so i found myself doing a couple a practises the day before, enough for me to think I had a 75% chance of being okay on the day.
Otherwise preparations were not exactly ideal, I decided to suffer from insomnia for the week leading up, as well as my friend Carwyn being back home from working on the ship for a few months, meant maybe a BBQ or two many as well as accompanying drink or 4 more than i usually would (aspire to) have in a race lead up. On the other hand, a good showing at the 800m TT (shut up, Jack) and a decent practise tt spin on saturday as well as generally feeling good in the running lately had me cautiously optimistic.
Hey-ho, first race of the season (and my first triathlon in 3 years), lets just give it a go!
RACE DAY
Despite my friends Alex and Bee putting me up at their place in Llanelli the night before, i still had to set an alarm for 515am witha view to getting there for 6am. I had done most of the prerace prep at home and managed to set up relatively quickly in transition, though i was glad i had given myself 45 minutes to do so... as if i had arrived about 5miuntes later i probably would have had to park in Burry Port! I did some last minute checks, mapped out transition entry and exit points in my head, noted my bike as 3 racks from end about 3/4 up etc etc, and reluctantly left transtion, suffering the anitclimactical effect of being prepared, thinking i had forgotten something.
I luckily happened upon Simon and Helen, who put me to shame, having been parked there since 4am (that morning? the morning before? it would not have surprised me!). Myself and Simon were going to be in the same Wave - wave 3, so we got to have a chat about the course and expecatations before the race. Which was useful, as two crucial things had changed since i had done this last in 2016:
1. the swim was now clockwise rather than anti-clockwise
2. it was a 'beach start', rather than a floating swim start.
2 heats off and it was our turn. 5 minutes to get in an acclimatise, before we were ushered into the pen to start. There was just a 1 minute warning which I always find a bit unnerving, and it definitely didn't work in my favour this time. The gun went off and i had the reaction speed of a garden gnome, hesitating as the 100 competitiors around me darted into the sea, Simon already a couple of beautiful gazelle like strides ahead of me. I snapped out of it and bounded in, getting a bit of dolphining in and getting going.
I caught to Simon relatively quickly, but was not getting passed him to easily. I was caught between him and another guy to my right and as a result had a blinkered view of what was going on. I was getting properly pinballed between these two guys - Simon i can only apologise for any smacks punches or elbows you may have recieved from my side ... it wasn't me?
We rounded the first buoy (after the initial stright we were taking a right, a left then a right again to swim back drawing the big M in the docks) and the pinch at the buoy thinned things out a bit. The guy on my right was now on my left, and Simon was just behind.... but nobody else ahead. Oh wow, we were right at the front. i basically paced off the other guy for the rest of the course. There were times when i eased ahead, but i found it better to have the visual reference in front, and wasn't sure how i would pace myself at the front.
As we rounded the last buoy it was clear we were catching the stragglers of the wave ahead, and passed one or two in the final run-in to the beach. This following the leader strategy backfired slightly as he had led us onto the beach a little bit early, leaving us have to run around a barrier a little bit to get to transition. Just as I approached said barrier, I heard a marshall shout out "watch out-slippy". I immediatley converted my running style to tentative ballet prancer, just as a 6ft neoprene sack of spuds came crashing down beside me out of my left periphery. Very dramatic! Turns out this was Simon who had managed to stay on my toes for the rest of the swim, coming out of the water 3rd in wave - go Simon! I also saw my travelling supporter crew of Flo, Carwyn, Alex, Bee and Chiara, which was a great boost, but alo had me nearly crash into the barriers as i tried to find my wetsuit zip running into transition!
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| Swim Exit, 2nd Out, Happy Brian |
T1 was relatively straight forward. Wetsuit off, helmet on, grab bike and out. Almost too quick - made me paranoid i forgot something. The downside of catching the stragglers from the previous wave was there was a bit of a traffic jam of people walking their bikes, taking their jolly good time 4-5 abreast, which was a little bit frustrating.... I jumped on bike a pedalled off. Slipped one foot into shoe, perfect. Slipped other foot.... nope! My shoes have a fancy pants boa release heel on them, to allow for better sliiping out of shoe at t2. Associated fancy cables were catching my yoes and preventing me slipping my feet in completely/ Took foot out and tried again, nope. Again - nope. Again, this time i pushed the whole back of shoe in. Dammit, had to stop and adjust. 30 seconds stop, sorted and away.
Finally got up into pace, and was nice to be picking off quite a few people, presumably still stragglers of the previous wave. I'm no kit snob, i don't expect everyone to have a tt bike or even clip-on aero bars, but I was perplexed by the amount of people riding on the hoods rather than the drops. One guy passed me, I tried to keep him in sight but he was gone quickly. He would be only one of two people that passed me on the bike. The 2nd bike that passed me did so just before the turn around point. I managed to keep him in sight this time. In fact we swapped postiions a few times on the way back - like we needed each other as a pacing reference.
From Burry Port, on the way back things got a bit pants. Cars that had overtaken us in good spots were catching up to the slower cyclists in bad spots. traffic queues were forming and there was nothing we could do about it. Nobody was in the wrong, just a situation of being in the race without closed roads (god knows they started early enough with a view to avoiding this as much as they could). The last 2km, at least, was very stop starty on the effort front which was frustrating, but hey ho we were all in the same boat.
Last corner to T2, fancy pants shoes had moment to shine. Release the heel, effortless slip out feet, off the bike and in. Sweet. All worth it. I ran in to transition, counted 3 racks in, ran my bike down to .... wait... where tf..... my shoes, what's going on?!
My kit was nowhere to be seen. I went up and down the rack, wondering what was going on. Nothing. I started picking up wetsuits, thinking they may have been hiding my shoes - what the hell was going on. Marshalls were trying to help asking questions but I was getting frazzled now. I was losing minutes here. I looked up again. I was 4th rack in - how the hell did this happen? The only think i could think was the last rack blended into the transition fencing in the background. I had done everything right, had mapped transition for myself had counted racks etc, my eyes had just failed me!!
I shook off the negative vibes pretty quickly - i was just relieved to have found my shit! T2 was nearly 3 minutes, should have been one. As i ran out of transition my support crew was there with their banners - proper boost - let's get the run done!!
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| Run Start, Shoes Found, Happy Brian |
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| My trusty supporters crew |
I saw Sian Williams just before the turnaround, about 1km ahead i reckoned. The turnaround would be a psychological boost i thought, but as soon as i did I felt the headwind. Yeesh. And the last 500m of path I had run had actually been slighlty downhill so i had to get over that. Man this was tough... but my legs kept moving, which was the important thing! I battled on, not catching people with great regularity anymore, but crucially not getting passed. In fact i think only one person passed me the whole run. Another climb over railway hill, and the drop the otherside gave some momentum for that last km to finish. I aimed to catch one last runner about 100m ahead of me, and just about managed before getting to the finish line, with no sprint left in my legs.
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| Race Finish, Happy Brian |
There was a finishers medal, which was a nice surpise and a lovely addition to the Brian Shrine, and I caught up with Helen after, as well as seeing Kevin and Carolyn who i'm not sure i'd seen since the 255 triathlon last year (ahem, race report still pending). I got back to my supporters crew, and time for reflection. There were a few things to be happy about, a few things to be unhappy about. But at the end of the day, that's what this event was for me - so all in all a good day!
Total time: 1:24:54, 43/287 overall
Swim: 30th
T1: 42nd
Bike: 37th
T2: 285th (:D)
Run: 60th
Llanelli Sprint Triathlon 2022 Results
Also shout out to Simon Lindley, who smashed the swim yesterday, as well as Sian Williams and Catherine Marks, as well as anyone else from the club who took part, all of whom I am sure did very well!
