‘Race Recap: Westonbirt Sprint Triathlon’
This race was rescheduled from May 2020, the weather forecast promised a warm, sunny day but when we arrived at Westonbirt it was cold and overcast! Luckily, it did start to warm up whilst I was on the bike leg, although because of the cold start I forgot to apply sunscreen, resulting in some pink shoulders by the end of the run!
My goal for this race was a sub-90-minute finish time.
Swim (400m) Run (1.6km)
About a week before race day, I had an email from the organisers saying that there was a fault with the pool at the swim venue and because of this, the swim would have to be cancelled and replaced with a run, making the event a Duathlon instead of a Triathlon. This threw me off a little as I can’t run 1.6km as fast as I can swim 400m but I tried not to let that affect me too much. I took it easy; I didn’t want to tire myself out for the rest of the race and ended up running into T1 after 8:27 minutes. Luckily, I had Dan there to cheer me on and to take photos, and hearing his voice at the end of the lap spurred me on a bit through transition.
T1
Managed T1 in 1:10 minutes. I didn’t have any trouble finding my bike but fumbled with my shoe change a little. I took a few seconds to grab a handful of Percy Pigs to fuel me through the bike leg – in hindsight though I think a smaller sweet would have been better as its tough to breathe and chew!
Bike (25km)
The bike course was mostly flat – only 111m of climbing with one mandatory foot down as the route re-joined the busy A433 towards the end. My goal was to keep the power down as try to maintain an average speed of as close to 30km per hour as possible. I managed an average speed of 28km per hour, with a top speed of 46km per hour, meaning that my finishing time was 47:32 minutes. My average speed would have been higher had I not had to slow for some horse riders and had I not got stuck in traffic! I did manage to pass a lot of the other competitors, with only 5 competitors passing me. I thank training with Dan for that as he’s a lot faster than me (he’s got proper power legs) and I’m always trying to keep up with him! My nutrition on the bike (as well as the Percy Pigs) was the ‘Complete Hydration Drink’ from Bulk Powders which contains maltodextrin, dextrose and fructose, with BCAA’s and electrolytes.
T2
Managed T2 in 1:04 minutes. Pre-race, I didn’t swap my laces for elastics so I wasted time tying my shoes. Grabbed another handful of Percy Pigs and tried not to choke again.
Run (5km)
By this point, the sun had really come out so it was very warm. There was a marshal with a hosepipe who created a shower to run through which was nice as that cooled me down a lot. My legs didn’t feel too bad after the bike effort, but I still felt like I was moving very slowly. The route was three laps of a 1.6km loop, passing underneath the shade of a few trees halfway. On laps one and two, I slowed to a sneaky walk underneath the trees (where none of the spectators could see), just for a bit of respite from the sun and to attempt to slow my heart rate a little bit. I decided to bypass the aid stations on each lap as I could feel the hydration drink that I had on the bike sloshing around in my stomach – not a comfortable experience. I ended up finishing the run in 27:50 minutes, meaning that my total race time was 86:29 minutes.
What’s next? A 1.4-mile swim from Bournemouth to Boscombe pier on July 4th!