Race Report View

Triathlon season underway again. Two Bromley Veterans, Les Humphrey and myself, and two ex club members, Mike Abousselem and Katrina Patching competed. A bright and breezy day, in fact too breezy for comfort at times. Helen James was spectating and waiting none too patiently for the day she will be back after her broken hip episode.

My start time for the 400m swim in the Tonbridge School pool was 8am. The swim was slower than usual because I did not hear the timekeeper say go and lost a good few seconds. The same thing happened to Les. Though in the  end that few seconds was not going to make much difference. Transition was a bit more efficient this time and I clattered off in my new cleat specific shoes to the cycle start line. Cycling with cleat pedals is still very scary but you don’t usually have to stop in a triathlon.

But my chain came off at the bottom of a hill so I did have to get off the bike! I did not fall off the bike which is liable to happen with cleats! However the hills were neverending and steep, everytime you turned a corner there was another hill.  We had also been warned by triathletes and marshals in the know to be wary of Carters Hill, a very steep and bendy downhill. Here it was – steep and bendy but much shorter than I remembered. So all the worrying was for nothing.

The run was 5k around flat playing fields which I quite enjoyed despite gale force winds. Although the 5k time was acceptable I was disappointed with my overall time. The swim and cycle was much slower than last year. As can be seen from the times below Mike, Les and Katrina were infinitely more successful. Les was at least 10 minutes faster than last year which is excellent considering he will soon be 72. Congratulations to Mike and Katrina on their forthcoming [or maybe it has happened] marriage.