Where: Windsor
When: 14th June 2015
Organiser: Human Race
Course details: River swim in the Thames, flat ish bikes course, 3 lap run in and around Windsor
Distance(s): 1.5km / 40km / 10km
Marshalling: Yes
Facilities: Lots of portaloos, lots of opportunities to spend money on gels and assorted triathlon essentials
Technical: Chip timing
Freebies: Technical t shirt, Edingerfrei tent,
My Race:
Well this must be the 473rd Windsor Race report but here we go...
As I have previously written I have rather lost my Tri mojo. I spent 2009 – 2013 working up to Iron distance – emotionally/psychologically/spiritually/whatever as much as anything – and since September 2013 have struggled with injury and time and commitment and work and travelling for work, and goodness knows what. I read recently in Triathlete Europe that one didn’t need to do Iron distance to validate oneself as a triathlete. Well I definitely did. And since then I have felt like a fraud as I have all the kit, and have bumbled round plenty of tris in the last 6 or 7 years but still feel like I have no clue what I am doing. So I approached Windsor with some trepidation. Support at home has dwindled somewhat as the children are all at school now and there are a thousand and one things that need doing at the weekends that should take precedence over training; so this is the first event that I have done since April last year. I am a bit heavier than I was, and I seem to be slower and struggle with recovery after big runs or bikes – a sign of age I guess.
So after lots of negotiation about who was going to have the car and what time various children were going to be dropped off and what time I promised to be back from racking and registration etc I set off with a chum for the drive round the M25 to Windsor. This must be 5th time, I think, of taking part. They have made some changes to the course and to transition, but it is still as much of a ball ache as ever having to register and rack the day before. It was fine; usual nonsense but no dramas. Felt good to be there with the sense of occasion and anticipation. My chum said that he really enjoyed being “surrounded by like-minded people, people who wanted to just be a little bit better”, which really resonated with me. Got home in time for the school summer fair too, so all was well.
I got up at about 5 the next morning to drive up, having packed almost everything that I own into the car. Having not done a tri for so long I had apparently forgotten what kit I needed. I shovelled down some oats and banana and took off on the racetrack that the M25 resembles at that time of the morning. Got to Windsor in good time and bumbled around in transition, sorting the bike out and unpacking all the crap that I had brought, deciding what nutrition to take, etc etc. Utterly ridiculous. I had discovered the day before that much of the gels and energy bars had passed their best before dates, which I was not too fussed about until I ate a Cif peanut butter bar that was only a couple of months out of date and almost puked. I am embarrassed to admit how indecisive I was about it all.
I realised that I had not worn my wetsuit since Henley, so I had the joy of trying that on in the bedroom on Friday night. That was fun. Whoever at BlueSeventy decided to put the zip upside down on the old Helix was bonkers. On one occasion only have I managed to make it work and inevitably I have to ask someone else in transition to help me do it up. The perils of buying untried-on ex-rental wetsuits online I suppose. Anyway, I found some nice fellow who kindly zipped me up as it were, and pottered down to the new swim start, which is about a ten minute walk away. The new swim route gives you about 2/3 of it downstream, and then round a buoy and back to the exit, so I stayed in the middle where possible to make the most of the current. The water was especially brown and evil looking after the heavy rain 36 hours before but hey ho, in I splashed and off we went. It has been well documented in these pages how poor a swimmer I am. I have good intentions and had a bit of coaching last year. My front crawl is economical if not fast but since we moved offices at work I now have a 10+ minute walk to the pool, and once you factor in getting changed at each end and showering it is harder to get a decent length swim in at lunchtimes, so my swimming is not as good as it might be but better than it has been in the past. My sighting is crap though. I found myself settling eventually into a slow and steady stroke at the back of my wave, trying to sight every 2 or 3 strokes but wandering all over the river. But it was ok. I splashed around in 35 mins. Overtook a few people which has never happened before so maybe they were even slower than usual because I was no faster than I ever seem to be. Had some hassles getting out of the water on a very slippery set of steps and then embarked upon the flippin’ long run all the way along the side of transition to an entrance right at the far end. Whose idea was that? It makes no sense at all. Why not put the entry as close to the swim as you can. Anyway….did that and then spent far too long f**king and farting about with my kit, before grabbing the bike and running out to the new start point. Again, this is a comically long way from transition. I suggest carrying shoes and running to the mounting bit rather than clip-clopping along as I did for 500 metres in bike shoes.
Onto the steed, and off I went.
I bought a new bike from Bridgtown fairly recently; a Trek Domane 5 series, which replaces my seemingly ubiquitous Madone 3.1. The Domane has a slightly bigger geometry so fits my 6’6” lanky awkwardness a bit better and is very comfortable. My previous best average speed in Windsor was 29.8kmh and I wanted to beat that. So I went out at a decent clip. For those of you who have not done Windsor it is pretty flat course, around fairly pleasant lanes mostly. It is coned off around certain junctions and roundabouts but not closed roads apart from Drift road which is a ten k out and back section in the middle. There was a serious looking fellow in a pointy helmet (i.e. he looked like he knew what he was doing) and I decided that would try to track him. The bike felt glorious. Very smooth and comfortable and I just hammered along. It really felt ok, and we were setting a good pace. I was feeling a bit paranoid about spacing and not wanting to be drafting, but I was in one of the latter waves and things were bunched up in places, so when we came to two slow moving horse boxes, winding through the narrow lanes it just got worse. A few people took some insanely reckless risks getting past them but I was not one of them. It was a bit crap, being stuck behind these two big lorries, weaving through the lanes, but I just thought ‘oh well, there goes my bike split’…not a lot I could do about it and I was not going to risk my neck. The lorries seemed to be following the bike course, but after maybe ten minutes behind them we went left and they carried on and I got the pedals down again, and then left onto Drift Road. Ah, how I’d missed it, with its mild undulations that feel like hills after such a flat course. Hammered along…had a bakewell tart flavoured gel (I shit you not), managed to stay focussed (again, a problem for me as I usually let my mind wander). Loved it. Absolutely loved it. Just felt good. Averaged 32.8kmh according to the Garmin.
Bike dismount into T2 is unchanged from previous years and I was a fair bit quicker than T1. Got told off by a marshal because I had undone the clip on my helmet strap before I racked my bike, and she threatened me with a 10 minute penalty. Little bit OTT given that I was standing right by where I was racking but there you are. I dutifully did it up, racked my bike and undid the strap again; and did not get the penalty. But again, the exit onto the run was hard to find but after a bit of wandering about I managed to get myself out onto the run course. 3 laps, up to the castle, sharp turn; they have changed it so that you don’t run over the bridge onto Eton High Street, just run further up the Datchet Road…which is ok. Not as picturesque but a run’s a run. It was drizzling a bit by then, and my hip flexors were sore, but what can I say? Managed to drag some energy for the last half lap for a decent finish. And that was that. Coffee and a bacon sandwich and a pint of Erdingerfrei and home for 1pm.
Swim: 35.16
T1: 8.20 (I know, I know)
Bike: 1.13.04
T2: 3.11
Run: 48.02
Total: 2.47.55