Teesdale Triathlon

… hot days, mad runs and my last triathlon of the year

Teesdale is on of my favourite races and I’ve done it every year since I took up triathlon, managing to improve slightly each year. So I was well up for this race and again looking for improvement. It’s a bit of an odd distance race with 500m / 28k / 7k (Swim / Bike / Run), with the swim being in a pool and both the bike and runs being those of a hilly, challenging nature.

Being a pool swim my start time was based on my swimming ability, and I was to be off at number 143, but I still went down to watch the early competitors (including my brother, who now has the triathlon bug) and to soak up the atmosphere on what is always a good race, and the sunny day made for a great day out.

Also seeing a mate, Keith, try to do a bike start with his shoes pre-attached to the bike, was entertaining to say the least with Keith becoming more closely acquainted to the tarmac ;o)

SWIM
My start time arrived. 11:23 and it was into the pool for an all out 20 lengths, I felt strong as I entered the water, I counted down the seconds 8.7. on with goggles 4.3.2.1 and off. I felt strong in the water but after 5 or 6 lengths thought I may be going a bit to hard, so slowed it up a bit, but still managed to exit the water in 9:03

T1
A much slicker affair this time, no wetsuit to deal with, so it was straight on with my helmet, and shoes, fast my number belt, grab a quick drink grab my bike and out of transition to the bike mount point in 1:12 … a much more acceptable time

BIKE
As I said Teesdale is a hilly bike ride but is very scenic, to, again I rode by a combination of HR and Cadence aiming to keep my HR up to about 160bpm and my Cadence at 90-95rpm, this time I had the added advantage of a working speedometer too so all was going well and I remembered to sip on my sports drink al the way round as by now it was very hot on the section that takes you down from the hills back to transition, I hit a head wind, and where I had been looking to average over 40mph for this section as was stuck to the low-to-mid 30s, but it would have been the same for every one. I was back to transition in 59:16

T2
This is normally the easiest of the 2 transitions but I made a fundamental mistake, in going down the wrong row to rack my bike and had to retrace my steps but still I was in, bike racked, helmet off shoes changed, grabbed my water bottle and out on to the run in 00:50.. I now felt i was on for a good time (for me anyway)

RUN
Teesdale is always a hard hilly race, but this year was just mad, an off road affair on trails and across farm fields, with the fits section taking me down a path that hardly had the head clearance and very rough under foot, resulting in me going over on my ankle, I managed to run this off but it had slowed me down and I need to be much more careful of where I put my feet. Next the run entered a series of very hilly farms fields and proceeded to take a rout that involved running up and down the steepest of the a number of times each. This continued for a number of fields then it was time to head to the finish … or so I thought, just as I approached the finish, the run emerged onto a rugby field, where I was instructed to run its length half a dozen time before finally making my way to the finish with a run time of 36:58 … as I said “A mad run route”


The race took me a total 1:47:21, exactly 10mins faster than last time and beating my brother and another couple of mates I was well pleased

IRONMAN GERMANY ... 322 DAYS AND COUNTING