It was spitting rain through the morning but never anything more than a few wee dots. But it was pretty windy, so I decided to leave socks with my bike shoes and leave my bike jacket and gloves at the pool exit.
The swim seemed like it should go well to start with. Everyone in my lane was similar speeds. Unfortunately that quickly got messy as everyone wanted to be out in front so there was lots of tapping and overtaking. The shorter pool made this even worse than it should have been. Honestly I should have fought my way to the front, having lapped the next fastest swimmer from my lane on Monday's time trial I knew I could lead that lane, but it was getting silly so I decided to let them fight it out and save my energy for the bike and run. So from less than 100m into the race I was already switched off from racing mode and just coasting. I let them all pass and just sat on the end of the queue getting a free ride.
My time was 15:36 but this includes the long run to transition. Garmin was misbehaving so I don't have my actual swim time, but last year it took me 2 mins to get from swim to T1 so assuming the same I probably swam about 13:30. 30 seconds or so faster than last year despite the faffing about at the start.
Now, I mentioned above that there was the odd spit of rain in the morning. This was not the reality when we exited the pool. It was absolutely pissing down. My bike jacket was wetter than I was. When I got to my bike I found my towel and socks were soaked through so I scrapped the socks and gave my feet a quick rub on the towel to take off some of the car park grit. Shoes on and then I grabbed my helmet. Quick lesson learned that my aero helmet doesn't have a lot of vents, so the puddle in it had gotten quite large before I tipped it over my face. I was now fed up with the whole idea.
Turriff definitely favours cyclists. The bike route is disproportionately long for a sprint race and is pretty much half way uphill and half way downhill. It was raining and cold for the whole of the climb. It even reached the point where I decided the wet gloves were a better option than the frozen fingers and pulled on my gloves while pedalling. A couple of times on the ride out I thought about just jacking it in for the day.
I was also having problems with my breathing. Seems the lurgie that is going around work is a chest infection. Was struggling to breathe all the way round on the bike. the wet roads and the traffic were not helping either. Some twat in a purple P-reg Range Rover came barrelling along the single track road on the wrong side and I had to swerve into the ditch to avoid being hit. That threw my confidence on the descents and I completely lost sight of the riders in front. Then a truck driver pulling out of RJ Milne's decided he needed both lanes so I had to stop and wait for him. Overall the ride felt pretty terrible, but 2 minutes quicker than last year so shouldn't really be complaining.
The last descent into T2 passes the outgoing runners and I was a bit disappointed by the size of the gaps that I was going to have to chase. This was soon to turn into a minor issue though. When I got to T2 there were lovely puddles inside my shoes, and with no socks on and the lock laces set tight I couldn't get my running shoes on. I almost pulled the plug again at this point.
I did finally manage to struggle into them and set of on the run with a wet squelch on every footstep. The wet insoles meant my right one had wrinkled up under my toes but it wasn't as bad as feeling like every step was in a puddle so I ignored it and carried on. The idea of trying to get my trainer off and on again to sort it out didn't appeal.
The gaps in front were too big for me to catch anyone but I kept working anyway in case the times from the other swim heats were catchable. I was caught by a girl (once upon a time that was unthinkable on a run section) and I clocked a slower time than last year, but this may not be comparable as the turn point is a bit random and I can't compare Garmin tracks. I felt like I was running better than last year so should probably be happier with it.
Here are my full set of results.
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I should be happy to go two minutes faster than last year. Looking at the results from both years the average times seem to be a minute slower for the weather as well so overall it was probably worth 3 minutes on last year. But I think that is probably a stretch. Trying to convince myself that going quicker at all on such a bad day was a success but not quite convincing myself.
All in:
Annoyed about the swim time, but had plenty to go faster. Will declare a faster swim next time and get in a better lane.
Frustrated with the weather on the ride, and with how much I lost my nerve after the idiot in the Range Rover.
Disappointed with my own failure to prepare for the weather. (I could have bagged all my clothes as a precaution against the weather without affecting my transition).
Next race:
Probably Knockburn Sprint Triathlon on June 9th.
Possibly Aberfeldy Sprint Triathlon on May 26th.
That report pretty much sums it up, and I too will never leave clothes and shoes exposed to the rain again!
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