It all started at the big TNT barbeque on Thursday night. After very little consideration it was decided that myself, Pippa and Andrew would do Rother Valley Triathlon on the Sunday along with Dave. Unfortunately at this late stage, online entries were closed but we were told that we could enter on the day if we were early enough. We still agreed to go ahead with the trip and train tickets were booked.
Saturday afternoon came around and the four of us met at the train station. Upon arrival to the platform, we were met with the news that our train had been delayed by over an hour. This was not the greatest start to our weekend! The train journey itself didn’t seem to take too long and after a short cycle from Doncaster station, we arrived at Dave’s house. Dave cooked us a very nice spag bol and we all got an early night in preparation for the long day ahead.
At 5am my alarm went off. We had just about enough time for some food before setting off for Rother Valley Country Park. I opted for a single banana in an attempt to keep my stomach calm during the race. We arrived at the country park at around 6am, half an hour before registration was due to open. The moment of truth had arrived and to our relief, we had all got placed in the race. We were all issued with a typical race pack (including race numbers ect), an event shirt, and the worst swimming cap I had ever worn. It was about the same quality as a balloon!
At around 8:20, myself and Andrew made our way to the start. We were allowed a few minutes to get used to the water. It was warm, almost too warm for someone used to swimming at Tynemouth! The start ‘horn’ went off and I tried to get a fast start. I felt slightly tight chested and got breathless fairly quickly. I slowed down a little and eventually got into a rythmn. I went around the first buoy very wide, I may have lost a little bit of time but at least I stayed out of the traffic. I then re-joined the ‘pack’ of swimmers and drafted people right to the exit. I finished in the middle of the pack in a respectable time of 12:52, a PB for 750m.
The swim-bike transition went fairly well. The wetsuit came off quickly and I already had my race number on. I slowly hobbled to the mount line, bare feet and gravel don’t go nicely together! I got on the bike and started peddling. It didn’t take me long to realise that I had made a pretty stupid mistake. I hadn’t left my bike shoes open on the bike. This made getting into my shoes very awkward and very slow! After around a minute and a half of faffing around, the shoes were on the bike leg had truly begun. I was almost immediately faced with a huge hill. I crawled up the hill onto ‘the loop’. Lap 1 of the loop felt very slow with frequent hills throwing me off my rythmn. Towards the end of lap 1 I was overtaken by someone else in Team Newcastle Tri kit, David Cole. Unfortunately for Dave, I soon re-took the ‘lead’ after his chain had come off. I felt much stronger on the second lap of the loop. I put this down to the fact that I had recovered from the big hill at the start and the fact that I had came into contact with a slower wave meaning I was frequently overtaking people making me feel faster. Dave overtook me for the second time towards the end of lap 2. The route back to transition from the loop was a fast downhill. I slipped out of my bike shoes early and span my legs in preparation for the run.
The bike – run transition is straight forwards and went smoothly with the exception of the gravel. I set off for the run at a pace I knew I could hold, with the intention of speeding up near the finish. The run seemed to go on forever! Having never ran the route before, it was tough to judge how far through the run you actually were. I got my first sight of the finish around 100m away from it and my ‘plan’ had been ruined. Despite that, my run was timed at 25:05, around 40 seconds off my current 5k pace. Not bad going at all!
Saturday afternoon came around and the four of us met at the train station. Upon arrival to the platform, we were met with the news that our train had been delayed by over an hour. This was not the greatest start to our weekend! The train journey itself didn’t seem to take too long and after a short cycle from Doncaster station, we arrived at Dave’s house. Dave cooked us a very nice spag bol and we all got an early night in preparation for the long day ahead.
At 5am my alarm went off. We had just about enough time for some food before setting off for Rother Valley Country Park. I opted for a single banana in an attempt to keep my stomach calm during the race. We arrived at the country park at around 6am, half an hour before registration was due to open. The moment of truth had arrived and to our relief, we had all got placed in the race. We were all issued with a typical race pack (including race numbers ect), an event shirt, and the worst swimming cap I had ever worn. It was about the same quality as a balloon!
At around 8:20, myself and Andrew made our way to the start. We were allowed a few minutes to get used to the water. It was warm, almost too warm for someone used to swimming at Tynemouth! The start ‘horn’ went off and I tried to get a fast start. I felt slightly tight chested and got breathless fairly quickly. I slowed down a little and eventually got into a rythmn. I went around the first buoy very wide, I may have lost a little bit of time but at least I stayed out of the traffic. I then re-joined the ‘pack’ of swimmers and drafted people right to the exit. I finished in the middle of the pack in a respectable time of 12:52, a PB for 750m.
The swim-bike transition went fairly well. The wetsuit came off quickly and I already had my race number on. I slowly hobbled to the mount line, bare feet and gravel don’t go nicely together! I got on the bike and started peddling. It didn’t take me long to realise that I had made a pretty stupid mistake. I hadn’t left my bike shoes open on the bike. This made getting into my shoes very awkward and very slow! After around a minute and a half of faffing around, the shoes were on the bike leg had truly begun. I was almost immediately faced with a huge hill. I crawled up the hill onto ‘the loop’. Lap 1 of the loop felt very slow with frequent hills throwing me off my rythmn. Towards the end of lap 1 I was overtaken by someone else in Team Newcastle Tri kit, David Cole. Unfortunately for Dave, I soon re-took the ‘lead’ after his chain had come off. I felt much stronger on the second lap of the loop. I put this down to the fact that I had recovered from the big hill at the start and the fact that I had came into contact with a slower wave meaning I was frequently overtaking people making me feel faster. Dave overtook me for the second time towards the end of lap 2. The route back to transition from the loop was a fast downhill. I slipped out of my bike shoes early and span my legs in preparation for the run.
The bike – run transition is straight forwards and went smoothly with the exception of the gravel. I set off for the run at a pace I knew I could hold, with the intention of speeding up near the finish. The run seemed to go on forever! Having never ran the route before, it was tough to judge how far through the run you actually were. I got my first sight of the finish around 100m away from it and my ‘plan’ had been ruined. Despite that, my run was timed at 25:05, around 40 seconds off my current 5k pace. Not bad going at all!