Another year, another New Year’s Day Triathlon! Rachel, Will and I lined-up for this year’s event, eagerly supported by a number of Carnethies dotted around the park. Anthony Hemmings was also there in a relay team, finally getting back to running after a long break with injury. The NYD tri is always a good fun event, and is a welcome distraction from the usual NYD routine of visiting the rellies, or just crying my way through a hangover. A niggling calf injury ensured that I was well rested before the event, having only run once since the start of December (at the pub run, obviously), with zero swimming and practically no cycling. However, on a positive note, my enhanced paunch made me slightly more aerodynamic on the bike, I think, and provided greater momentum on the downhills. I hoped that the pros and cons would balance themselves out over the race.
The 400m swim (8 lengths of the Commie) was the first hurdle. Swimmers start at 10s intervals, starting from the slowest estimated time to the fastest. I should’ve started among people of a similar speed to me but:
- My estimated time was guessed, based on a level of fitness that I’ve never had. Luck too, I was really relying on more luck.
- Unfortunately I was too busy dicking around in the diving pool when I was supposed to start, missing my start time. With a flurry of apologies I was allowed to start later, but that meant I had to swim with people that were considerably faster than me. Bah!
So, my swim was really a tiring procession of faster swimmers that would swim around, under and occasionally over me. Also, I forgot how long a 50m length is, it’s really long when you’ve not been swimming for a while. Ahead of me, Rachel was pulling away and already in transition. Behind me, Will was catching me at a great pace. I was certainly glad to get out of the pool.
The cycle proved a little better. Three laps of Queens Drive was the next hurdle, around 12 miles in total. The mild weather and light wind was good for the cycle, and meant that people didn’t freeze too much on the way round. I wore a jacket but I think I was pretty overdressed, with some even racing in just a tri-suit. Eoin, Aisling, Mark, Ryan and Nicola were all cheering us on, with various others giving a shout as we passed. A great Carnethy support! By the third lap I just caught Rachel and no more, and again Will was chasing me down a little further back.
Finally the run! I got out of transition just ahead of Rachel, but knew that it would only be a matter of time before she would bound past. Sure enough, on the climb from St Mary’s Loch she caught me, passed me, chewed me up, then dropped me like a stone! She disappeared out of sight within a couple of minutes. Will was gaining, but he ran out of tarmac – I was certainly grateful that there was only a single lap of the seat to contend with. It was a hollow victory, as he started much later and so he beat me by a good margin….as did Rachel!
A great event, and a great start to 2019!
Scores on the doors: Will placed highest (32nd), next Rachel (40th, 8th female) who also posted the fasted female run time (nice!), and finally myself (43rd). With 370 finishers, it was a good result for us all!
Jim