London Triathlon 2005

James, Paddy, Ange, Mike and I did the London Triathlon. Lots of pain and agony. See more after the jump...

Triathlon

Thanks!!
Thanks to everyone who sponsored me for the triathlon. I raised over £900 for the various charities, a figure I never hoped to acheive!

Did it!!
On what was possibly the hottest day of the year, four friends and I set off to London to take part in the Michelob London Triathlon. Despite the appalling traffic, we all arrived in time to register and get ready for event along with around 5000 other people, all with bicycles, wetsuits and other kit. The ExCeL building barely held us all, but we managed to get organised, and after the 1st group went off, James, Mike and I prepared ourselves for our race. (Paddy and Angie were in later groups). A quick last minute panic when James realised he'd forgotten his swimming cap number meant that we all got split up, but we all made it out to the first event...

Swim

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this event, since I hadn't actually practiced in my wetsuit and had only swum in the nice warm clean water of a swimming pool, but the wetsuit kept me very warm, and the water, while murky, didn't have any shopping trolleys or filth in it, which was a pleasant surprise. The group all dutifully bobbed in the water doing a few choruses of oggy, oggy, oggy waiting for the airhorn to start us, and either jostling for a place near the start, or in my case near the back so I wouldn't get kicked in the face while everyone overtook me.
The horn went, and all 500 bodies started thrashing their way up to a giant Michelob bottle in the distance. Had it been filled with beer, I might have swum faster, since exhaustion set in pretty quickly, but I kept my breast-stroke, and after losing most of the field, I think I gained on a few who started with crawl and quickly exhausted themselves. Luckily a glance over my shoulder revealed that I wasn't coming last, so I kept up my manageable pace aiming for the beer bottle. It was slightly galling to see the leaders coming back after I had only done 2/3 of the outwards lap, but not entirely surprising. A stitch set in at the half way mark, which did little to raise my optimism. The return lap wasn't too bad - at least the end was in sight, and by now the pack was so split up that I was just swimming along on my own. And after 21 minutes (not bad!) I hauled myself out of the far end (where Vic, Martine, Andy and Kate were cheering), stripped off my wetsuit, goggles and swimming cap and headed into the transition area (T1).

Cycle

T1 took 6 minutes - a little long when the average is about 3, but I hadn't laid out my clothes like the pros and thought I deserved a quick breather as I pulled on my socks and drank another pint of Lucozade. Then I pushed my bike over to the exit, jumped on and cycled into the 30°C heat. I thought this would be the easiest part of the race, but it didn't turn out to be. The course was two laps, and each lap had a couple of hills which slowed me right down, and since I was trying to rehydrate on the downhills, I still couldn't get my speed up. After a while the top guys in the group behind me started to catch up, effortlessly racing past on their razor thin bikes, and then on lap 2 overtaken by Paddy - albeit on his lap 1. He cycled beside me for a few moments giving me encouragement, before being instructed to move on when the marshal thought we were "draughting" (slip-streaming - as if!!). Heading back into transition for T2, the supporters were out cheering me on again, which raised the spirit when my body was almost finished. Cycle time - 59 mins.

Run

T2 was a bit more impressive - 3 mins, but there was no changing clothes, so I just had to drop my bike off, rehydrate and run out again, but I treated myself to a little walk in the shade before heading out again. By now, I was so tired and ready to pass out in the shade of the nearest bush, but instead just slowed down and walked every now and again when I couldn't keep going. Again it was good to see Vic and the others cheering me round on the first lap, but somewhat dispiriting to see James and Mike with them, knowing that I had another lap and a half ahead of me. Half way round the course, there was a drinks area, and miraculously my pain and exhaustion was eclipsed by the nausea induced by an "isotonic gel" offered by one of the drinks people. I've never put something so vile in my mouth. Luckily I could wash the taste it out with a couple of cups of water and restart. Finally, after almost 30 mins I approached the end, and stopping for a quick breath 300m before the end, I was overtaken by Paddy again (on his 1st lap, luckily), who was a little surprised to see me standing so close to the end, but pushed me on into the building, and as he set off for his last lap, I collapsed though the finish line, to receive my medal and be near-carried outside by Vic.
A few minutes standing in the shade, a few bottles of water, a bagel, and a mouthful of Mars bar and I was almost back together again, and we watched Paddy and then Angie finish their groups. Results for the five of us were:

Who	Position	Time
James	262	01:24:32
Mike	273	01:24:48
Angie	411 (womens)	01:36:33
Paddy	799	01:39:21
Digby	1009	02:04:04

Full results here: http://www.thelondontriathlon.com/04pages/results.shtml
Well, you can't win 'em all - roll on next time!!