Race Report - Turriff Triathlon

Full results are here.

I woke up feeling terrible. Overnight someone had replaced my right side with all the correct parts but from someone 3 inches shorter. I limped down the stairs and did my standard pre-race rollering and yoga sessions and started to feel a bit more human. On the drive out to Turriff I even had the heated seats on to try and keep everything warm and relaxed.

Registration was nice and calm but a bunch of extra rules made things a little more complicated than before. Nothing too difficult, and actually good practice for higher level races. And some minor changes to the course. T1 was slightly rerouted and the run was extended to be a true 5k distance.

I had packed absolutely everything, I even put two bikes in the car, partly for the potential weather conditions but also to test travelling with two bikes. This turned out to be a benefit as I spotted someone else with toe covers on their shoes and remembered mine were in the bottom of my enormous bag of cycling kit. I fitted them, clipped my shoes back on to the bike and then headed in for a long wait through the 4 slower heats. 

My swim started well. About five lengths in the two guys in front of me decided to switch places, but did it in such a smooth way that I didn't even have to break my tumble turn and one of them let me pass as well. The leading swimmer from our lane always goes out fast and he did so again this time. At lap 10 he caught me and I let him through, so smoothly that I only lost 3 seconds. The only other time I had to let someone pass was at lap 25, where I dropped another 3 seconds. For 34 of the 38 lengths I was getting little or no draft effect so that is basically a time trial swim. 

So I was out of the water in 12:36. Nearly 30 seconds faster than last year and only just outside my 12:28 750m PB despite being a 760m swim. 

T1 could have been improved. The run down to the transition area was good, but I was worried about how cold it was when I came out of the pool. I stopped to put socks on, based on the temperature it was a safety decision, but in turn I had the shoes mounted to the bike so I didn't have to put them on. Even with the longer distance to run I still came through T1 a couple of seconds faster than last year. 

Out on to the bike and I was feeling the cold. I managed to slip into my shoes within the first 20 metres on the bike. The route turns sharply uphill so I didn't get a chance to strap them on properly. I managed to work fairly well up the first hill despite being passed by a road bike. On the first flat and downhill section I flew past him and he disappeared out the back. 

I was struggling into the cold and wind and I still haven't come up with a style that allows me to climb on the bike, but especially on the TT bike. Over the top of the hill and I started to feel a bit more comfortable. The side wind was annoying for handling and I had to back of quite a lot into some of the more aggressive corners. On the return trip with the wind behind I had hoped to make some gains on the cyclist I had seen in front of me on the climbs. Somehow he was managing to find even more speed on the fast sections. 

Just as I dismounted for T2 I spotted one of my regular opponents exiting and decided he was my new target for today. I have never beaten him before and I know I am running better than ever. So my whole run was now just about closing that gap. 

As expected T2 was slick. Only the winner and my club mate managed quicker times, by 2 and 1 seconds respectively.

I planned to go out hard on the run, working up the hill for the first half and then letting the downhill carry me home. My legs had other ideas though. I was moving comfortably but not as fast as I would have liked. Running off the bike definitely changed my style to shorter strides with higher cadence, but this wasn't hurting my pace enough to try and force a style change on tight legs. By the turn I had the gap down to a handful of seconds. 

He knew I was coming and pushed to try and hold his lead on the downhill. By the mile to go marker I was passed him and couldn't hear his footsteps any more. I risked a glance backwards and could see the gap was comfortable now. I kept working hard enough to extend that gap but I wasn't taking any risks with a sprint finish. I was sitting 6th overall and second Vet. A much better result than I had expected. In hindsight the two places that I lost to Seniors from Heat 4 were probably within my range, and I could have probably snuck under the 20 minute 5k time. 

With second day hindsight it was better to have played safe and kept legs to train on today and through the week rather than having to recover all week for the sake of a few seconds and a couple of places against athletes who weren't even in my age-group.

The overall time looks disappointing but the longer T1, bad wind on the bike and longer run all account for chunks of that. Anything within my control and equally comparable to previous years was an improvement.  Judging against the times of my rivals, I seem to have gone about a minute faster by comparison.


Target check

Swim time was 12:36, well inside the 13 minute I targeted and even slightly inside the 12:40 I hoped for. 

Bike was much slower but that was mostly down to the weather. All bike times were slow.

I noted that the run course was short so I should get under 20 minutes. This year they fixed the length, so I only did 20:34, but the increased distance means I was actually faster paced than last year.

My 1:18:31 was 111.9% of the winners 1:10:10, well inside the 120% I had targeted.

I was 2nd Vet, nearly 2 minutes clear of 3rd place and 6 ahead of 4th. So comfortably on my 
podium target.