RAF Sprint Triathlon ChampionshipsPosted by Conehead on July 13th, 2009

The Black Bomber and Husslers bike, loitering outside the awards ceremony.

By Hussler.

Once me and Coneheadhad registered we got our kit ready and set up Transition. Everyone was chatting about the ‘new’ route, a change from previous years, which just ended up confusing everyone. In typical Military fashion the course descriptions where of road names and code words etc…. I was thinking I havent a clue what your all on about…. lol

I went for a quick 15 min run down to this ‘new’ part of the bike course and it wasnt that different from previous years and far easier than evryone was making out. I ran back jumped on the bike and did a 30min 2 up TT style warm up with another guy in my wave. I was in the last wave as the organisers had posted me with a 5:30 400m swim…. Something I can do but not at the moment….

I returned to Transition and set it all up in about 60s as the ride took longer than I thought! Then realised my goggles were with my parents who had come to watch! Sh*t I thought, only 2 mins until my wave set off!
Met my mum at the bike exit of Transition and legged it back to the pool. CH was already out on the bike by the time I got to the pool.

Off we went and quickly I was in last place in my wave, somewhere I knew I would be, I just concentrated on good tech as this was my aim with my swim being a little off at the moment. 6:12 and I was unracking my bike and on my way to smash the bike course up.

As I was last out of T1 I knew I had some work to do, but with the bike being my favoured leg I knew I would always be catching people, soon enough I had caught 3 or 4 people, I put the hammer down going out to the turn point as it was head wind. I kept telling myself this is where I will make my time up as on the way back with the wind behind everyone will be going fast.

I clocked 20:24 at the turn point…..I knew I would clock a sub 40 min by the time I got into T2 with the wind behind me I nailed it and caught everyone bar the guy who finished 2nd and the eventual winner.
T2 arrived in 38:04.

20s later I was out on the run, I could see the eventual winner around 100m in front of me, I knew I would never catch him as he is capable of a 16 min 5k so my aim was to keep him within sight. He caught the guy who eventually finished 2nd, I could see him too so I dug deep to try and catch him, by this point he was around 400m in front of me. Then I passed CH gong through the wooded area… He was saying he was finding the run hard. He was right, Every time I do a Sprint distance By the half way point of the run I always think give me a long distance race anyday!!! This run was all X-country barring the final 300m to the finish.

I could see the 2nd place guy in front of me, but he was just too far ahead to catch, if the run had been 7.5k I would deffo caught him.

I crossed the line with a run time of 18:49, not too bad… There was a long wait to see the results, the wave before mine was the one to watch as it had all the guys who had a chance of winning, when they told me their time I was thinking well I was quicker than that so I knew I was up there.

When the prize presentations came out It turned out that 1st, 2nd and 3rd all came from my wave!! And I was 3rd! I am well chuffed with that as I beat 3 or 4 guys who are world class athletes adn a former World IM champ!!

The day was topped off with my RAF Station (Cosford) winning the team prize in the inter station champs which were incorporated into the event too. I was told before the race it would be my result that would determine which team won it… turned out had I finished 4th then we wouldn’t have won!

Good start to the BCTTT team (even though it was a RAF race and we dont list teams as were all RAF triathlon members….) Still awaiting CH’s final position but we both did the team proud with our efforts!!

Note from Conehead – I’m came 32nd overall, but its the subject of  stewards inquiry!  The guy that came 12th overall had a swim+T1 of 7mins 45secs, I beat him out the swim, T1 and he didn’t catch me until the dismount at T2.  But somehow my swim + T1 time is 4 mins slower than him?!

Upshot is I did the 400m pool swim well under 6mins 30secs and was 2nd out thw wave, I would’ve been first but there was a sub 5min 30secs part dolphin in our wave.  I did the bike around 3 mins slower than Hussler, then practically walked the run with my ’sprint stitch’ from not controlling my breathing on the bike.  I probably did the 5km in 23-24mins as opposed to the usual 21mins. 

The reason I don’t know what any of my times are, is because of my shite RS800SD which sank to the bottom of the deep end of the pool.  The pin that holds the strap in somehow came out and the watch came off as soon as I pressed ’start’.  The other disaster was the Black Bomber on its side in transition with my stuff everywhere.

Trentham on 26th July….