A relaxed morning out in the sun!

Result: 3rd/246 overall
(S: 8th, T1: 1st, C: 3rd, T2: 15th, R: 6th)
Date: Sunday 30 June 2013
Format: 750m lake swim, 20km road bike, very short 5km trail run
Race website: http://www.trytri.co.uk/
Full results: Provisional Sprint Results from http://www.triandenter.com/
Photos: Paul Gooddy – PG Photographic and a Facebook album from Paul Campbell

This last month has been quite stressful, trying to grab a GB team spot for the London ITU Sprint Distance Triathlon World Championships. Nottingham and Bristol were amazing experiences, with huge, and hugely competitive, fields. They were the races I’d keyed the whole of the last 6+ months around. Each involved complicated logistics (and expense) to be there, and a lot of pre-race nerves. While they represent probably my best triathlon performances to date, ultimately I felt like I failed, missing an automatic qualification spot in M35-39 at Bristol by 38 seconds.

On the other hand, Eastleigh is local, I had free race entry (thanks to Sarah marshalling at the Winchester duathlon) and the race – and I – were extremely low key. Try Tri Events organisation on the day was much improved from last year. Bike in/out was safer, and the whole event seemed to run smoothly, even with twice as many entries as 2012. The sun shone, and Andy got a last minute entry too, so we had a good catch-up.

There were lots of people using today as their first open water race, but I knew there was going to be some serious competition too. Peter Campbell won here last year, and won again today, at a canter I think. I was still yawning when I got in for the swim, but managed to post 3rd fastest bike split @ 36.1 km/h (and, oh my goodness, fastest T1!) and an acceptable run on tired legs (3:55/km pace) to finish 3rd/246 overall, nearly 3.5 minutes quicker than last year, despite the slightly longer swim and the few metres added by the change in route at the NW corner of the run lap.

Anyway, a relaxed morning made a nice change from the last few races, in a weekend that also included Zac’s birthday party, the schools’ fair and a BBQ in the garden to finish!

All in all, a great way to finish the month. 🙂