Last night I popped down to Eastleigh for my first ever aquathlon, with an exorbitant £8.50 entry fee. It’s a series, last Thursdays in the month and this was the third of 5 races.

Result: 3rd/34
Date: Thursday 26 July 2012
Format: 750m lake swim, 5km trail/grass run
Race website: http://www.trytri.co.uk/
Full results: http://www.trytri.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/JULY-AQUA-TIMES.pdf

All the races in the series are nominally 750m swim/5 km run, though the swim was more like 850-900m this time (other competitors reported it has got longer each time so far, as they put the turn buoys closer and closer to the edges of the lake and move the start further back round the lake).

There were just over 40 people there to race, and all very low key and friendly. The water was warm and about 1/3 of the field went without wetsuits, so I did too. This very much being a training race for me, I also decided to try running sockless for the first time.

We’d had the same hilariously incomprehensible race briefing as at the Eastleigh tri, with confusion as to whether the swim would be anti-clockwise or clockwise even. Anyway… The swim start was the usual carnage particularly with the first turn buoy close to the edge, but I got round near the front. Main lesson from the 2.5 lap swim is that drafting actually works – I got onto someone’s feet at the end of the first lap and could feel my effort reduced until I decided to go past about a lap later.

The run course was the same as the Eastleigh tri. With no wetsuit and no socks the transition was quick, and I was able to get moving fast. I was passing other people reasonably regularly but hard to tell how I was doing because a few had only done a 400m swim. Anyway, managed to stick to my pace and a bit surprised my run split was no better than at the tri. Still 18:30 for 5k isn’t bad (a few hundred metres short according to my map, so perhaps 4:00 /km pace). Main thing is that sockless was fine, good to know.

I finished third or fourth I think. The guy who was second swam straight to the second buoy on the swim, but that wouldn’t have closed the gap much, I didn’t see either him or the lad who won at all on the run, they were miles in front! Talked to the winner – he was about 18, there with his mum and dad, and has a sub-16 minute PB for 5k!!

That’s it. Would be up for doing the next two in the series. Next Wednesday is one of the Yateley 10k, next real race is probably Concorde tri on Sunday 19 August.

(Turns out I was 3rd/34. Results just up at http://www.trytri.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/JULY-AQUA-TIMES.pdf.)