Club Tri - Sunday 2 May 2010

Report by Huw Lewis

I first competed, if you pardon my liberal interpretation of the word, in the Club Triathlon in 2005 as an elderly rookie. Now five years on, and in a new pool without that annoying hill to get onto high street, I was ready to give it another go.

I lined up with the other less nippy swimmers for the first wave of the swim, but even so the start of the race caught me by surprise. Quite what I was expecting I don’t know, but when Alex said GO, my goggles were perched on my head and I was telling my lane sharer just how good some fellow club members are. No harm was done though, and within about four or five strokes I had the little blighters over my eyes. The rest of the swim was just fine, although getting out of the pool at the end of it was surprisingly tricky – It’s not something that I had practiced – as a lane 1 swimmer I generally use the ladder, which is much more dignified.

Usually after the swim I just get on the bike that’s left in transition, but this time there were plenty to choose from, mainly because half the swimmers were yet to start. However I decided to use the bike that I had brought with me, my brand new Boardman Road Team. It may not be Carbon, but I’m quite fond of it. The club tri’s bike course is fairly short, and not particularly hilly so I was reasonably confident of not having to get off and push. And indeed that was the case.

Arriving at transition (T2 as we hardened tri-athletes like to call it) I was very pleased indeed to spot my bright yellow daps immediately – my sincere thanks to whoever thoughtfully extracted them from the bag, kindly donated by Triexcercise, and placed them conveniently alongside it. I whipped off my bike shoes and slipped on my running shoes and instantly got cramp in my right calf. Fortunately the time-honoured practice of COR (carry on regardless) worked and I managed to set off and complete my run without further incident, apart from a blister caused by sockless running.

Throughout this time, at the front of the race, although due to the fact that I was in the first swim wave it was actually taking place behind me, there was a tremendous struggle for the lead between two depressingly young and unfeasibly quick athletes. At the start of the bike Luke (Cornish) held a 10 second lead over Jack (Lear), which was reduced to 4 seconds by the start of the run. Luke eventually managed to hold off this strong challenge to win by the very narrow margin of 7 seconds. Both were inside the course record, and both, clearly, have very bright futures in the sport. The ladies race also saw the record broken as Ellie stormed to victory.

All in all it was a great event, and many thanks are due to Alex, who organised it. I am also grateful to all the marshals, without whom it would not have been possible for the event to take place, for getting up so early on a Sunday morning - and for being so cheerful about it.

I’ll be back in 2015 and am on course to win in 2030.

For this year's results please click here

For the event page for the Club Tri please click here