Race Report: Cheshire Sprint Triathlon 02/06/2013

The Cheshire Triathlon, has apparently been going for many years, and for me back at New Year, probably after a bottle of wine, I thought it would be good to try something different, and why not try a triathlon which I duly entered.

At the time it seemed like a good idea, but at times during my training, I wondered what I'd let myself in for. 

In short they require a lot of training, which for me would entail a 45 min swim, followed by a 30 minute bike ride and lastly a 20 minute run, all told it required a 2 hour training session, and after a long day at work, it wasn't something I relished. I went for the condensed version, a month of hard training and then go for it and see how I got on, and to be honest I thought that was enough.

Race day arrived, I registered, and made my way to the outdoor lido and located my borrowed bike In the 'transition zone' along with helmet and running shoes. The whole event is a bit overwhelming first time around, and you need to have your wits about you, thinking what bits of kit you need for each 'transition zone', the key thing is to allow plenty of time to get yourself organised. I then went to the lido and after a briefing, got myself in a queue, before entering the pool and being given my  go ahead to start the race. The swim bit was  just 16 lengths of the pool (500 mtrs), and I was relieved to see one or two people doing breast stroke, not that I did. The whole swim part was a bit of a dog fight, getting kicked and bashed about,but I felt as though I was overtaking more people than being overtaken. 

Swim over, I dashed out the pool, to the transition zone, tried to find my bike, not easy! Put on my running shoes and T shirt and set of  on a 20k bike ride, this is where things went disastrously wrong, after mile 3 I got a flat tyre! and had no option but to ride the remaining 10 miles on a flat tyre, not fast! I was tempted to do my Bradley Wiggins impression and throw my bike down in disgust! But after a £50 entry fee I was determined to get the finish. An hour later I reached the next transition zone and dumped the bike and started the run. The good thing about getting angry is that it fires you up, so I took out my frustration out on the running track, and overtook lots of people, probably 50 or so, and was never overtaken and finished in 1 hour 37mins.

A really enjoyable day which I would recommend to anyone who fancies something different.

My only  advice would be to take a spare inner tube!

For more information visit the fun2tri website.

Tony Taylor