July’s been an intentionally unstructured month, but I thought I’d better squeeze in one low-key race, so back to Eastleigh for an evening in the sun.

Result: 2nd/20
Date: Thursday 25 July 2013
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/2011/10/July-Aquathlon-Results.pdf (amazing that, uploading the results nearly two years early!)

It’s exactly a year since my first Eastleigh Aquathlon. Some how I’ve also let two slip by since the first one of the 2013 series. May and June were a bit busy!

It was nice to be back. Charli, Ben and the rest of the Try Tri gang are very friendly. A lot of the regular crowd were present, including super swimmer Laura Fenwick, who won last month’s aquathlon. The water was at least 25 °C so it was wetsuits off – probably a good thing for my training, as I’ve barely been in a pool this year so have done almost all my swimming in the wetsuit. Concorde Triathlon is around the corner, and I don’t think I’ll be wearing a wetsuit at Bradfield!

I surged to the front off the start, waited for Laura to zoom past and tried to draft – not a chance! I took one poor line across the shallows on the back straight of the first lap but otherwise sighted well. Another lady swimmer overtook me as well, so I was 3rd out of the water in 12:30, something like a minute and a half slower than in April, but two minutes quicker than last July… I can only say the buoy positions are somewhat variable at Eastleigh!

Anyway, transition was done with in 14 seconds, so I was out on the run in 2nd. The run course was the same as always, i.e. different than last time. Yes, on this visit we didn’t do the zigzag at the northwest corner of the lap to run down the railway platform. It keeps things interesting… but what with the variable swim course, does make it rather hard to compare times!

I started chasing Laura down, but it took until well into the second lap before I caught her, at which point Daniel Ferguson came past. I didn’t have the guts to pick it up, so that was that. Run split was 18:22, course was a bit shorter than three months ago, so pace about the same, 3:52 /km.

I’ll try to be back at Eastleigh for the August one, a couple of weeks before I take on the Aquathlon World Championships!