East Coast Triathlon 2012 - My first

The week that has seen me completing my first Triathlon. :-) Will give a review of this in a minute.

Also made the decision to train for The Outlaw Ironman distance Triathlon in 2014. Seems even more daunting after todays sprint distant Tri.

Off the back of the Ironman decision I have started an Ironman thread at Runners World website. You can pick up some great advice on the forums there.

Here's the link to my Fatman to Ironman thread.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/287319678021088/

Called myself SausageDog as a forum name, off the back of my wife saying I looked like a sausage the first time i donned the Lycra cycling gear.

Also set up a group on facebook. Thought we could get a load of people together who are starting the Ironman journey or midway through it to share experiences, offer support, have a giggle etc.

Here's the link to that. Its called 'The Ironman Journey' pop along and join please.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/287319678021088/

Training for this week, reduced it a bit due to the Tri today but missed a longer bike ride due to the appalling weather this week

Monday - 2.53 mile run
Wednesday - 1.03 mile swim
Friday - 12.07 mile Bike Ride
Saturday - 8.35 mile  Bike ride - just went to change my saddle for the Toupe , didn't like the Romin. However, got stitched up on the price as the Toupe should have been £20 cheaper. Not going to worry about it though. I'll let them keep the £20 for the advice i had been given. They will miss out on future business though.
Saturday - 1.19 mile walk
Sunday - East Coast Triathlon


Up at 5.30am this morning, i had packed my bags for the event on Saturday. Had a bowl of porridge & two slices of toast for breakfast, showered, packed the car & off we went to Great Yarmouth at 6.30am.
Arrived at the Marina Centre at 7am, had to pop in and get a parking pass, then carried on down to park the car. Half mile walk back to the Marina centre & time for my first Triathlon registration.

Even felt good having my number drawn on my shoulder :-) I had a scan round to see what everyone else was doing & how they were laying out their kit. Didn't understand why shoes were being put on top of the towel as surely that's an extra movement of kit in transition?? (Baxter systems thinking in triathlon)

So, laid out my shoes, put the towel on top of them ! Got my gels out ready to go into my back pocket in T1, helmet hung on bike with gloves & glasses. Stuck my Garmin in my bike shoe, didn't trust leaving it on the bike, sad, but you never know these days. All set, had a briefing then filed through to the pool. Learns so far. In future i will take flip flops to wear after i have set up in Transition & take a bottle of water through to the pool area.

I'd totally underestimated my swim time & was number 143, 5th from last so had a 2 hour wait before getting in the pool. Was chip timed so didn't really matter & glad i had underestimated. There were quite a few swimmers who had been rather optimistic with their swimming times & did get in the way of some of the fast boys.

we had 30 second starts, i caught the bloke in front of me by the 7th lap but he stopped at the end and let me through.

Was glad to get out the pool & head for my favourite discipline the bike. Had a really good bike ride, must have averaged close to 20mph & overtook a fair few others. One pain was getting stuck at some traffic lights which seemed to take an age to change. Apart from that, quite uneventful. Decent roads & loop though.

Back to Marina centre for T2. Person next to me had managed to rack their bike almost sideways so i had to lay mine down & move his before i could rack, bit annoying. Trainers on easily with the elastic laces, thanks for that tip Mark @ Tri-Anglia.

Really enjoyed the run, no leg pain, felt loads smoother & quicker than i have ever. Overtook at least 4 people.  I never manage to overtake people on runs!! In fact, I didn't get overtaken once which is quite astonishing. I probably would have done if  had estimated my swim time a bit quicker.

And that's it, bloody loved it and another fantastic well organised event by Active Outdoor Sport

http://www.activeoutdoorsport.co.uk/?p=2261

I'll add the times etc in later as they haven't come up on the website yet.

Here's a couple of pics by my trusty photographer Arleya Baxter

Swim done

Second Bike lap

Starting last lap, got stuck behind a clown on the roundabout

Hopefully my first of many Tri-athlon medals

Have fun, keep on training.

Remember, sponsorship for help for Heroes is appreciated. The link also shows the rest of my upcoming events for 2012.

http://www.bmycharity.com/clearseaz