rr – crewkerne super sprint

Message posted by: ian d.

race: Crewkerne Super-Sprint

Where: Crewkerne, Somerset

Organiser: Tribor

Date: Sunday 4th July 2010

Course profile: undulating bike with a very sharp left hand turn before a long mile plus incline towards the end. Uphill inline run at the start, then flat off road through woodland before descending through a field thenback towards the aqua centre. Last 200m to finish slightly uphill on grass.

Distance: Super-Sprint – 250m swim+10.5Km bike+2.5 Km run

Closed Roads: no. Half the run off road.

Marshaling: Sign-posts and marshals, not all marshals bibbed which can be a little disconcerting when being directed by somebody who looks like they might be out of a casual stroll on a Sunday morning

Facilities: limited toilets & changing facilities; showers non segregated.

Technical: Chip timing

Freebies: Cotton teeshirt, water, banana.

Draft busters: none seen.

Up at 4.45 am, breakfast and off to Somerset at 5.30 am with wifelet Tracey and 10 year old daughter Charlotte for their first triathlons. T. has been really worried as she is convinced she hasn’t done enough training. C. hasn’t trained for it as we didn’t want her to feel any pressure about it – this should be just something she can do for fun in her otherwise busy singing/ballet/cubs/etc life.

At the venue we found just about the last parking space in Lidl next door to the Aqua Centre (parking in Waitrose also available I think) and registered fairly non painfully.

For a small tri it is excellently run, with chip timing and marking.

T. was off at 8:05 am in her wave, and I was off at 8.13am… I put us both down for 5:30 for the swim. We watched the earlier waves as I explained how it all worked to T. and C. C. was left watching as T. started her race and I went and waited for my wave to start and receive pool side briefing.

I’d said to T. before the race that with her 9 minute “advantage” in wave times I would be pushed to catch her all race, tho it would provide me with a race focus. She was of the opinion I would blat her on the bike… I wasn’t so sure. A 9 minute advantage over 13.25 Km total distance is a lot!

I was able to see T. finish her swim as I waited at poolside; she was stuck behind a woman that had overtaken her then slowed, though T. said she wouldn’t have finished much quicker anyway. I prepared for the swim, 3rd off in our lane of two (!) with a DNS second off. This would cost me 5 seconds (gasp!) as I found later! No swim warm-up permitted and we were eventually off at 8:14am.

Quickly into some rhythm, but my drop off in distance in swim training recently since AT70.3 is showing as i struggled with much technique, endurance or pace whatsoever. I’m not quick at the best of times but it was really dragging. I lost my swim cap on the penultimate pair of lengths and grabbed it – after two years of racing I would have thought I would have known if it was a penalty if I finish w/out a swim cap but I didn’t know! Consequently the final 40m or so was spent with a closed left hand not that it would have affected my time hugely. As I climbed out the lap counter said I needn’t have looked after it (lesson learned).

Swim + 50m run to T1 06:23. A little disappointed with that I must confess.

Chip timing at both ends of T1! F3 events take note!

T1 1:10 Not bad, considering I haven’t practiced transitions for a while. I was cycling in trainers with flat pedals as this is a SS. I noted T.’s bike and helmet were gone so her T1 training at home had obviously gone OK

Bike: Don’t let anyone EVER tell you a Super-Sprint is “easy”. I don’t think there was a flat bit on the course! My plan was to hammer the bike as best as I could, but the nature of the demandingly excellent bike course meant this wasn’t always so feasible! First bit was through Crewkerne itself, with Sunday morning traffic… I passed

#101, a girl, on the way out … to be faced shortly afterwards with a row of parked cars on the left, and a queue of traffic behind a lorry coming the other way in quite a narrow piece of road… I tried to slow to maintain momentum to try and time it to clear the parked cars after the queue had passed but to no avail… I was forced to a halt before starting from scratch again… and #101 came hurtling past me laughing at my predicament as she had missed the hold up. So that gave me a focus to attack (nice arse too!)

The course undulated a little before a straight section saw me being able to use my aerobars for the first time in the race and I blatted #101 along it… then started to climb again and passed a bloke whose chain came off as he changed down. Then as we crested I passed another guy that I’d been following for a short while. He must be the Mark Cavendish of climbers if I could gain on him uphill! Then a long downhill section and the speed wound up, but a very very sharp left hander at a T-junction onto the A30 was a bit of a heart stopper… the marshals shouted something which i thought was “STOP!” but turned out to be “slow down, careful!”… so I almost stopped then had to start again! It struck me that T. must be doing OK as I hadn’t seen her yet and we were on the final third of the bike, but on a straight stretch I saw her ahead… walking… Her bike had had two flats during the week and this was not looking good. I pulled past, and then over and whipped the puncture ki
t out as she walked up. She told me to race on, not to stop. there wasn’t far to the end, maybe 2 Km we thought, so rather uncomfortably I got back on my steed and left her walking. Meanwhile just in that minute spent slowing, stopping and starting again the three or four I’d passed came back past me – including #101!!! Then the final hill started… a mile or so of about 5% incline that just kept going, then a downhill into the town again. I don’t know Crewkerne at all so had no idea of the road surface or twists and turns… we hadn’t had time to recce the route either so I was riding blind so kept the brakes covered as I came through town. back into the aqua centre… Oh… I pulled #101 back before I entered town!

Bike – 10.5 Km – 27:52 Given the stop for Tracey, the minor hold up at the traffic early on and the undulating nature of the course I was happy enough with that – I could potentially knock two minutes off that I reckon in the future with no stops etc.

T2 – 0:30 – hardly anything to do except rack my bike and drop the helmet…

Run: I found it hard! First section is out of town back up the gentle incline we’d come down into town, along a narrow pavement – and it was warm even though it was still before 9 am! Couldn’t get the legs turning over quickly enough so just leant into the slope and pushed up it. My experiences at AT70.3 had shown me I was actually capable of quick a decent lick (for me) off the bike even when feeling tired so I wasn’t overly worried… my battery in my footpod was dead so I had no speed feedback at all. Then a right turn as the road dropped down away from the A30 slightly and into a footpath through woods… we’d been warned of a tree down over the path at highish head height but at 5′7″ it wasn’t a concern for me! A marshal sans bib that looked like somebody out for a stroll directed me down a field with some very insecure footing back towards the aqua centre and I was closing on a couple of runners before me. A left turn came up – the pavement turned left inside an open ga
te, and the road also turned left through it, but there was no indication whether there may have been an obstruction twixt pavement and road after it, so i followed the other two the “long way” round on the road… note to self for 2011… the pavement is clear to go around the corner!! Then into the recreation field and the last 200m to the finish line., Dreams of the finish line sprint were shattered though as it was uphill on grass to the finish!

Run: 13:16 – not bad overall… I’ve not done any pace work on my running at all, so I’ll take an extrapolated 26:32 5Km time!

Overall: 00:49:11 104th out of 150, AG (40-49) position 35th out of 40.

My self timed HRM time showed me as 5 seconds FASTER than that… so I am wondering if I went down as starting 5 seconds earlier in the pool, when the no-show should have gone. As 3rd off we’d been told to start on the 3rd whistle, even though i was only the 2nd in the lane. No biggy of course…

Back in transition after the race T’s bike was still not racked and I began to get concerned. That 2 Km to the end of the bike we had thought it was, was more like 3.5Km I had later realised, but as I went over to a marshal to check all was OK, T. arrived at dismount pushing her bike to a huge cheer from the marshals there. The marshal I spoke to told me they had sent a broom wagon out for her, but she had refused it saying she wanted to finish come what may. Top Girl!

I watched her run out – she asked me to run with her but as I had already finished the race that would have been pace making/external help so I couldn’t of course. Anyhow, this was HER race not mine I saw others leave afterwards, and come in before she had got back and I was starting to get concerned again, but she came through the recreation fields’ gates and push through to the line – T. IS a triathlete and I made sure EVERYBODY know it as she crossed the line with an IM style call “Tracey from Devizes, Wiltshire, YOU ARE A TRIATHLETE!!” Much to her embarrassment!

Her times are not important because she only wanted to finish and do it, and the puncture (which actually turned out to be a ripped tyre!) makes any timings meaningless… but I’d say that my synopsis that I’d be pushed to catch her might well have been correct. She feels she has unfinished business at Crewkerne so we will be back next year!!!

And onto C.’s race… we had something to eat as her race wasn’t to start until noon, and it was barely 9:30 by now! Registration was a bit of a pain, but once done we got her bike into transition with her gear, and we watched the U8’s wave go off so C. could get the hang of how it all fitted together. Then it was her turn. I don’t know how I didn’t cry as she set off… swimming smoothly and gracefully (far better than me!) her swim went well… we got outside in time for her to watch her through t1 – the clock stops for the children at transition for safety reasons as it happens which is a bit of boon! – and off she set on the bike. Now… though C. is 10 years old, she was racing in the U11-U12 AG, as she will be 11 in November and AGs are based on 31st December age. She had 3 x 600m loops of the bike to cycle, on grass… and she struggled bless her. Her bike is lovely, but weighs the proverbial ton, and the grass was hard work for her. In the end she couldn’t manage to f
inish, it was too hard for her (she is tiny as well) and it was a tearful C. that DNF’d bless her. I feel somewhat guilty for suggesting it to her, and not doing any “training” because I wanted her to enjoy it and not be under any pressure… but it was too much for her on the day. Not helped by me finding out later her back brake was rubbing Some OJ and chocolate croissants perked her up, as well as a happy 3 legged dog, and we went back to friends locally afterwards who sang her praises (of course!) and she cheered up soon afterwards.

So… a mixed bag for the Didds’ household, but two new triathletes in the world! I just need to find C. a lighter bike.

T. had the bug though… she is really serious about finding more races now! What have I done??!!!!

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