Sunday June 12th, 2011 saw the annual Deva Triathlon take place in Chester. It’s very well established and seems to always get good write ups so I thought I’d set it as my first ‘a’ race of 2011.
Having only done shorter distances so fat this year, and actually only having done one other Olympic distance triathlon (Tatton Park in September ’10) I was surprised how calm and relaxed I was about the whole thing – especially as I’ve had nerves building up before each of the sprints I’ve done recently! Maybe it was something to do with having to get up at 5am to get there, or maybe i’ve just started to worry more about the Vitruvian (70.3) in September, and Olympic distances seem nothing in comparison – who knows.
Anyway, I digress. Arriving in Chester at about 6:30 I parked up and headed off n the 10-15 minute walk to registration. Important note about planning ahead – it’s knowing little details like this that can mean the difference between a stress free race build up and a whole load of unnecessary stress and panic. With plenty of time I went through the usual routine of registering, racking my bike kit preparing my kit in transition, going to the toilet several times and wrestling with the tri-suit in doing so.
It was my first open water swim of the year and only my 4th ever in a race so I had forgotten about how restrictive a wetsuit can feel – almost claustrophobic with a swim hat on too. Anyway, that was the least of my worries when I jumped into a 16 degree Celsius River Dee. Hard core swimmers will think that is almost tropical but not me. A usual I spent the first minute or so trying to catch my breath and calm my breathing before getting as acclimatised as possible. I did this by fully submerging my head in the water continuously until the race start. It seemed to work as I managed to get into a rhythm within a minute or so of starting. The first 5 minutes or so were as expected – people swimming over me, me swimming over people etc until it spaced out. I only got 1 proper smack to the face – an elbow right to the bridge of my nose. I expected to be bleeding but didn’t bother to check as there would be nothing I could have done about it anyway. By the time I got out of the water 1500m later I’d forgotten it had even happened!
Swim time 29:00. This was a good few minutes slower than I thought I could do – and I am not sure why as everything felt good about it. More practice I guess!
The run to transition was, well, a bitch. Up a short but ridiculously steep hill, into the field where the bikes were racked. I managed not to fall over or get cramp while taking my wetsuit off, which believe me is a massive bonus based on my experience.
Transition 1 was just over 2 minutes.
Heading out on to the 40km of country roads of the outskirts of Chester and North Wales was pleasant – I dare say enjoyable. I couldn’t help feel sorry for the guy I passed about 10 minutes in wrestling with a tub on his *very* expensive looking bike. You know when someone looks fast even when they’re not on their bike?… It started raining and got progressively heavier after about 20 minutes on the bike. That took away any notion of pleasantries! Coming back towards transition a police woman had stopped traffic to her right at a t-junction. In doing so however, made it look like she was pointing me to turn towards the traffic she had stopped. That of course wasn’t the case and she, and the accompanying marshall chose not to tell me and the other rider nearby until we had gone the wrong way and subsequently shouted back for clarification. After a sharp 180 degree turnaround, cramp in my calf and subsequently cutting the rider alongside me up (sorry to #124!), I was back in transition.
Bike time 1:09.48. Again, slightly disappointed with the time but it was a faster average speed than I’ve managed in any race so far this year so I’m not too disheartened!
The 10km run started as it always does – with my legs feeling like lead and refusing to work. Luckily I got over this pretty quickly, thanks in part to the guy a few metres in front of my who I used as a pacer until I couldn’t keep up with him any more. I got into my stride fairly quickly and while it felt slow it also felt comfortable. Coming back to transition to cross the line was a massive relief and I just wanted to see my time – I felt I’d given it everything I had so was hoping for a good time.
Run time 45:00. Really pleased with that as it felt a lot slower. The brick sessions in training must have worked!
Total time 2:27.38. That was 73rd overall (of just over 300) and 6th in my age group.
At first I was pretty disappointed as I was hoping for sub 2:25 (at least) but the more I thought about it the happier I was – I was able to take positives – my time on the run and, although slower than I was hoping for, the fact that it was my quickest ever average bike speed.
It was my first Chester Tri and I found it very well organised – a big thanks to all of the marshalls, volunteers and organisers for a well run event in what turned out to be pretty wet, miserable conditions!
Having rested up that afternoon the only thing left to do was find another local Olympic tri that had places and was in the next few weeks. So, my next race report will be from the Liverpool Olympic on June 26th, where I will be trying yet again to break 2:25!
