Race Report

Sorry it's a long report but hey, it was a long race so you can damn well read it all!

Hi guys, I know it's v. late to put a race report in for the double IM event I did last June, but ey, better late than never!

Please follow this link if you're interested. Similar to Hanno's double IM report of '08 it might take you a while to read on what happened in the 35+ hours of my mental and physical struggle at Avon on Tyrrell '11 (AT'11).

D.IM.UK'11 Race Report

Vravrona middle distance triathlon

Sunday morning I woke up at 6:30 am. It was already hot.

I had flown to Greece straight from work in the UK on Friday night.
Arriving home at 5 am local time. At 10:30 am Saturday I was sat in the
theatre watching my daughters school play. I went to bed at 11:30pm
after packing my transition bag and giving the bike a once over. Not
the best preperations for a race, so I had no expectations.

Saturday, with the bike checked in, I had dinner with my family at a seaside taverna. The requisite pasta. My daughter fed the ducks that came to see us and the stray cats got some bread soaked in olive oil too. I chose not to go to the official pasta party as it started at 8:30 and for my daughter thats bed time. Besides I like to rest the night before a race by lying in bed and reading. I was asleep by 9:30

The primary purpose of this race report is to assist others who are contemplating competing in this race in the future.

Pre-race
Transition area was spacious and well-located next to the lake. Set up the bike and kit, popped on wetsuit, and headed down to the lake.
No complaints about setup but I wish they did body marking pre-race as I feel it adds to the spirit of the event.

So it all started at 4:00am this morning when the alarm went off and I struggled out of bed in darkness. Dragged on my tri suit etc. and then a few slices of toast and jam were forced down, washed down with Gatorade. Tasty. Quickly loaded the car, not forgetting the track pump that I’d been awake for half the night worrying about forgetting. Still, I was looking forward to seeing how much I’d improved since last year, when it was my second ever triathlon (the club sprint at Radley being the first).

AM. Merchant Taylors' Olympic Triathlon (1500m/40km/10km) (http://www.triathlon-zone.com/events.html). HR152(164)

Swim 1500/22:52 ____ 1:32/100m, HR145(156)
T1. 1:33
Cycle 40km/1:08:55 __ 34.8km/h, HR151(162)
T2. 0:52
Run 10km/40:08 _____ 6:28min/mile, HR160(164)

Total: 2:14:23. 5th overall, 1st over 40 (Results http://www.racetimingsystems.com/public/results.aspx?raceid=1112)

Julien Lhomme 1st

Jim Griffiths 2nd

Friendly local race, well organised

Tough run route but relatively easy bike route in the Chilterns hills

http://www.hairylegs.org/Results/HairyLegs2010/tabid/240/Default.aspx

13 Finely honed athletes came to take part in the 2009 winter BaR yesterday morning over a 1 lap run, 2 lap bike, 2 lap run format.

After significant mental arithmetic the final positions are:

1. Julien 43.37

2. Ian 44.25

3. Fiona 45.47

4. Tom 46.51

5. Roberta 47.00

6. Clive 48.35

7. Andre 48.52

8. Allan 50.33

9. Philip 51.10

10. Martin 52.22

11. Al 54.30

12. Simon 54.47

13. Trudi 56.41

Thanks to all who competed and spectated.

The new website Duathlon247 was covering the recent London Duathlon, where I was racing in the elite wave. I had a reasonnably good race finishing 3rd. The very short format (5k run, 10k bike -yes only 10k- and 5k run) was a bit unusual and wasn't playing in my favor (bike leg too short and drafting format). I was in the lead pack until T2, having done most of the work on the bike and tried several times to break the 5 men group. But on the last run I wasn't fast enough to keep up with the leader and had to settle for third.