Bala Olympic Distance Triathlon

Sunday 17th September 2006

Report by Karen Corcoran

Pete and I had 2 main goals for 2006.  The first goal was to complete the Team Challenge and as everyone is probably aware it was testing, to say the least!  Having survived the Team Challenge, our second goal of Bala now appeared less dauntingAlthough Pete and I had done a number of races, Bala would be our first attempt at a standard distance triathlon.

The race was on Sunday 17th September, but we travelled to Bala on the Saturday, having booked in a B & B for the night.  Some hardier souls than Pete and I had decided to camp at a lovely site beside the lake.  I didn’t want to take any chances on the weather and thought we deserved an end of season treat so hastily arranged the B & B.  The weather on the Saturday was fantastic with glorious sunshine (probably because we had booked the B & B!), so we just hoped it didn’t change for the race.  Alex had been very organised and booked a table at a restaurant for the night before the race.  Dave, Ellie, Alex, Ian, Darren, Pete and I had an excellent meal and I found it quite difficult not to over indulge with the wine, but sense prevailed, until we saw someone being served chocolate fudge cake just as we were finishing our main course.

Although showers had been forecast fortunately the weather remained dry for the race.  The setting for the race beside the lake was idyllic with fantastic scenery.  There were over 500 competitors with 5 waves.  I was in the first wave at 9.30am with all the women.   Patrick, Darren, Alex and Ian in the second wave, followed by Howard, Dave and Kevin in the third wave.  Pete was in the last wave (he qualified for the wrinkly section this summer), which went off at 10.45am.

Although initially daunting looking at the distance to the furthest buoy, I found the swim OK.  Although due to the number in the water a little bumpy at times - whoever refers to women as the gentle sex obviously hasn’t experienced the open water swim of a triathlon!  Once out of the water I managed a fairly quick transition and mounted at the bottom of a slight incline, only to find my chain had come off.  As you can imagine I said “Oh dear” or words to that effect.

I managed to pull myself together and had a fairly good bike.   Due to my inexperience of the distance I was cautious not to go all out as I knew the run started with ‘The mother of all hills’ and didn’t want to risk “hitting the wall” and being unable to complete the race.  The bike route was relatively flat and due to little wind, felt much less than the 40k’s I had experienced previously.   All in all the bike route is excellent and I personally found it really interesting to be able to see the “professionals” flying towards me on their way back.

I arrived back in transition and still felt ok as I went out on the run.  Initially we ran cross country for the first kilometre before we hit the 45 degree incline.  The hill went on for a bit but nothing too difficult (Tuesday’s training sessions on High Street must have paid off!) I did feel good as I screamed past two people on the hill, mind you they were walking. Once at the top it was a long steady run for what seemed an eternity and once reaching the town it was a bit deceptive as we wound through the streets for what seemed an age. It was with great relief turning that last corner and seeing the finishing line looming 20 yards ahead.

 It was another good turnout from the club with 11 taking part in a very high class field. There were some really posh bikes there. I hadn’t seen so many solid wheels since I attended playtime in infants school. Everyone performed admirably with some excellent times and I also get to have the bragging rights in our household for the next 12 months. Pete seems to have just about forgiven me, he even let me have the t.v. remote for all of half hour last night!

In all, 482 competitors finished the event, the winning man was Paul Hawkins in a time of 1:57:08, with the winning woman, Rhian Davies, coming in at 2:10:57. Our relay team was 5th out of 12.

 

Results:

Pos	Name	Swim	Bike	Run	Total
53	David Astins	24:45	1:04:08	45:28	2:14:21
60	Patrick Martin	27:09	1:04:41	42:55	2:14:45
103	Kevin Hill	25:12	1:07:57	46:40	2:19:49
108	Darren Evans	25:25	1:06:46	48:13	2:20:24
145	Ian, Julia & Ellie	25:09	1:11:39	46:17	2:23:05
260	Alex Ilyat	32:18	1:11:17	49:23	2:32:58
374	Karen Corcoran	32:40	1:18:03	53:35	2:44:18
377	Peter Munn	33:12	1:17:04	54:20	2:44:36
397	Howard Williams	32:13	1:11:29	1:03:33	2:47:15

 

Full results can be seen at: http://www.ukresults.net/2006/balatri.html