Report by Chris Wright
It's
on, Prince Bishops is on - yells my brother a couple of weeks prior to
race, they've sorted out a course the Police are happy with! So there
we were on a bright sunny morning peering out at Derwent water as we
waited in the registration queue. We had heard that someone's filled
the Prince Bishop triathlon course with hills, which we think is
awfully mean, but we were there never the less.
Anyway,
the pre race nerves weren’t there …. unusual. Even though this was our
first Olympic distance triathlon, am I getting used to this or oh...oh
there they are normality restored, nervous now look at all these exotic
bikes, god everyone looks fit, am I the only one here who likes beer
and curry!
It was an
open water start again and the weird golden orange glow of the water
kept my interest until the klaxon sounded and we were off. My intention
was to keep Rob in my sights the whole time, but within a hundred
meters I’d lost him in the throng, damn. Also the calm appearance of
the lake from the land was deceiving, in reality it was quite a choppy
affair. At least the water tasted all right, even though I was trying
to breath at the time. Out of the water, a short run up a bank into T1,
thank god my feet where numb because the gravel looked like it could
hurt. T1 was again a bit of a thick headed affair but at least I
remembered where my bike was.
On
to the bike and despite the forced changes to the route it still held
up it's reputation of being a hilly course, mostly up hill or at least
it felt like it. Looping around Slayley Hall after riding along a small
section of road which has to be the most pot holed in England, (mental
note see dentist, fillings loose). Then into the forest and down, then
up and up and more up , did I mention some more up. Oh wow someone's
written things on the road like in the tour de France, SLOW, well
that's kind of rude, I know its a hill but I think I'm doing ok. Then
down (finally) to an extremely sharp left turn before returning to the
main road for the start of the second longer loop. The marshalling was
excellent and virtually no traffic at least not enough to cause any
problems for me.
Most
of the Sun City lads (except Elliot) seemed to arrive into T2 within a
few seconds of each other. The run was a tough out and back affair, but
it gave you an opportunity to see everyone. As I headed out, Elliot
passed me well into his return leg and a good finish. As we ran up hill
(I spy a pattern here) the path changed to gravel for a short distance
a little while before the turn around point, after a short down hill (I
am sure it was longer when I ran up it) you guessed it, it was back to
more hills, before turning back on to the main road for the short
downhill run to the finish.
A
great day, a fantastic course (now that I've finished) and another good
Sun City attendance, it makes me think how tough Helvellyn will be in
September. Anyone up for some hill training?
Sun City Finished as follows
10 Elliot Gowland 02:23:30
47 Chris Wright 02:42:08
48 Rob Wright 02:42:25
77 Steve Williams 02:56:
83 Simon Tuck 03:01:25