Ed raced the Beaver middle distance Triathlon on Saturday 29th May, finishing 5th in age group in 4:40:44. His splits were: Swim 31:51, Bike 2:26:22, Run 1:36:43
Race report:
The drive out to Beloir castle for the Beaver middle distance tri was daunting with rain hammering the windows of the car and the prospect of 5 hours of running, swimmimg and cycling doing little to lighten the mood.
The little beaver race (Olympic distance) was run first and we were greeted by hordes of cold triathletes advising us to ensure we have something warm for the bike... on investigation, I had forgotten both my arm warmers and gloves.... not a great start!
The race had an unusual start in the shallow Belvoir castle lake. Unusual in that it was so silty the water was actually black in certain points.
My swim progressed unremarkably (aside from only getting in the water 10 seconds before the start) and I exited into T1 all ready for the cycle.
The cycle course was technical and really did not play to my strengths. Due to a recent knee injury getting out the saddle on the bike is tough and anything that involves downhills has me reduced to a nervous wreck with very tired fingers from constantly grabbing the brakes. Needless to say, my bike leg was less than outstanding.
..and onto the run (the fun part)....
It’s always a pleasure leaving the bike behind and heading out onto my strongest discipline. Passing quite a few people I really enjoyed the run leg... the only downside was its length. While keeping a very keen eye on my Garmin, I was really disappointed to see the 21.1km barrier past with still the biggest hill of the course to go and 10 minutes of running left. I briefly debated staging a sit down protest to mark my frustration to the race organisers, but instead opted to plough on.
All in all, a great days racing... (made even more so, but pipping my brother to the line by 2 minutes!!)
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