Race Report - 220 Triathlon Evening Series

Sprint Triathlon - 750 Swim, 20Km Bike, 5Km Run

Today I had my last triathlon before the week off with my wife and daughter on the cruise.  It was an afternoon triathlon and it was great in the sense that the sun was not on our face the whole way.  On a negative note, the cross winds were massive on the bike leg and it really slowed everyone down.  

It was a small event so not much to say really.  I took it as a practice session and I ended up getting a PB, wooo hooo!! Hurray! Nothing to brag about, but hey, a minute is a minute!

As soon as I arrived I registered and entered the transition area to rack my bike. I got there at 5:45pm and had no time to take proper photos of the event, so apologies for the lack of visual content. As I enter the transition area I set up my bike and I see the first wave go to the Swim Entry area.  It was a small wave so I was expecting mine to be the same (about 80 people or so).  And so it was, my wave was about the same number of people and I was happy as that meant not too many punches on the massive swim start.

Transition was small compared with other events.

We get to the edge of the water to get our briefing and off we go to the start.  There were a few brave souls with no wet suit and one guy even swam with no wet suit and no goggles! Anyway, My swim, as always, was the slowest of all three and where I got the worst overall and age group result.

OFFICIAL SWIM TIME: 18m:00

Transition was crap, but at least I was under the 3:00 mark.  It was a short run from the swim to the transition area.

OFFICIAL T1 TIME: 02m:33s

The bike leg was a bit tougher than I had expected, but I suppose my legs were still a bit tired from the 105Km from a few days ago.  Nevertheless, I went for it hard right out of T1 and was going to push it all the way, or at least my legs failed me.  Happily they didn't and I was able to push hard.  Like I said at the start, cross winds were tough to battle with but luckily I am now getting really low on my aero bars which made my life much easier.  I must have passed about 20 people and only got passed by 4 guys with pretty cool bikes.  The cherry on the top for the bike leg was me passing a guy with an Argon18 bike and another one with a Specialized Expert, one of my two options for my next bike (along with the Planet X Exocet). Soon the bike leg was over and it was time for T2.

OFFICIAL BIKE TIME:  36m:38s

T2 was smooth and quick. Best T2 time ever.

OFFICIAL T2 TIME: 50s

The run was a two lap out and back course along the lake.  I had a bit of cramping on my left calf but I shook it off before too long.  I only got passed by a guy wearing full Ironman gear so I was not too upset about that (I assumed he had done a few Ironmans).

I must have passed about 10 people and soon it was over.

OFFICIAL RUN TIME: 22m:12s

Now im going to take some time off and go on a cruise with my wife and daughters.  Im sure there will be some running and riding on the ship, but I will do my best to spend more time in the pool than in the gym.

Here are some standings compared to my age group and to the whole pool or participants.

LEG             TIME                MALE AGE GROUP                 OVERALL
Swim           18m:00s                      18/34                                      140/202
Bike             36m:38s                      15/34                                       74/202
Run              22m:12s                      15/34                                      61/202