Triathlon – darkside content…

Just done the Nearwater tri in St Mawes. Rather intimidating line up with a few quite well known people competing. Was a bit pants on the swim and came out about halfway or worse but had more joy on the road ride and run. Never raced it even cycle with anyone else on the road so expected to get left for dust but overtook a fair few and loved it! Run was hard work and hilly but bearable. 19th out of around 140 overall so pretty pleased. Just need to speed up on the swim. Goggles that I can see through would be a good start! Took them off eventually. Was one of six to swim – in the sea – in just shorts. Chilly.

Goggles that I can wee through would be a good start!

You’re wearing them in the wrong place….

Goggles that I can wee through would be a good start!

That might be your problem. Try wearing them on your head and over your eyes! 😉

EDIT: Damn my slow typing!

Goggles that I can wee through would be a good start!

i think thats a bit of a niche.

I’ve carried my entry over to next year for the event, I think I would have been bringing up the rear had I done it.

planning on doing a few more tri’s next summer and some long swimming events. I fancy the Padstow to Rock swim in july. I also like the idea of the Perranporth Tri but not sure I have the time to train enough for that…

Doh! Damn predictive text!

Jam – it was a good un. Some seriously exotic bikes there.

yeah. the bideford one I did had some pretty serious entrants.

I swam in my surfing wetsuit, a borrowed road bike and rode in my running shoes. One of the officials was horrified I didnt have a number belt, I’d never heard of one…

Ermm – what IS a number belt?
Swam in a surfing wetsuit on the last one and no wetsuit on this one. Got called mad several times. Legs a bit wobbly now!

Didn’t bother checking the swim position (about mid table) but 20th quickest rider (first ever road race) and 4th quickest runner.

Not too bad.

A few pics for you all to entertain you all – got to be worth some abuse?

Pointing at some fish:

Emerging from the water in a “velociraptor” stance…

Beginning of the run (final section after the swim then ride). Despite the smile, I felt sh1t at this point!

Awaits the rumbling avalanche of abuse…

cant see pics [work filter] but good effort. I would be happy to just survive the swim but could do the rest albeit slowly.

Cheers Junk! The swim was a bit grim TBH. Didn’t help that I used hopeless old goggles and couldn’t see a thing. Took them off eventually. An area to improve on a lot methinks.

elbow a bit low on stroke recovery – otherwise, awesome, well done etc

when i read “darkside” tri, i thought it was some sort of Moon based event

first ever road race

Not quite. This is road racing:

Triathlon is just timetrialling in a swimsuit and an inability to negotiate corners..!

Good result – well done..!

Ourman – maybe but there were some very “serious” bikes there – some very droolworthy. Very much enjoyed the ride – my favourite bit by far. Got me into road riding/racing a lot more.

Very hilly route but that helped – overtook a fair few on the climbs on my humble Allez with MTB SPDs.

The guy that won had an incredibly exotic Cervelo tri bike. All the gear and LOTS of idea!

Congrats, sounds like you put in a pretty good show first time out!

I did my first tri this summer, olympic distance at the London tri. Not too bad at the swim, pretty good on the bike (25 miles in 1’10’23 on a stock road bike, no tri bars etc) but sucked running having gone to hard on the bike seeing as that is my strongest discipline. Agreed that a tri is nothing like road racing, but it does give you a taste of the competetive bug. Go and enter a closed course crit if you can as that will give you a proper taste of RR. I get a far bigger buzz from even a local club crit than I did the tri.

Ourman – maybe

Definitely.

Road racing is bunch/massed start racing. First across the line wins.

Timetrialling is just you against the clock – otherwise known as the race of truth or by the French (in their usual disparaging way) as the English disease*.

Triathlon is a variation on timetrialling. Aero kit, no drafting, no racing tactics – just ride as hard as you can for that leg of the overall race.

*Road racing was banned on British roads in the early part of the 20th Century, so the only racing people could do was timetrialling, hence the continued use of codenames for courses, shouting your number as you cross the line (no-one wore numbers). Thankfully, we’ve dropped the black alpaca and dawn starts.

Ourman – fair enough, I know nowt about it really. Just enjoyed the buzz of overtaking people, especially those with all the kit, on climbs and the general speed. Only averaged 17.5mph (ish) but it was hilly, backroady and in some places, bumpy. Think the 15 miles took me 48m 23s. Touched 40mph at one point – a personal record!

Number belt is just an elastic belt that you can pin your number to – because you don’t want it under your wetsuit (put it on in transition after your swim) and because you should have the number on the back for the cycle then on the front for the run.

Good work though, that’s a nice result.

Well done Matt, bet that water was bloody cold

ourman, drafting is now allowed in triathlons, so its like an individually timed road race

matt…………….awesome 8)

ourman, drafting is now allowed in triathlons, so its like an individually timed road race

Really? When did this change happen?

quite a few years ago

They advised us not to draft for safety reasons but that didn’t stop a few cycling very close behind others.

Idave – only in professional draft legal triathlons, a very tiny minority of the sport.

All amateur triathlon and all long distance tri (at any level) is still supposed to be draft illegal although that doesn’t stop a lot giving it a good go!

This was taken at the Clearwater 70.3 worlds in 2006 – I spat my dummy and cruised the course. Didn’t travel 4000 miles to be beaten by a bunch of cheats! Drafting is meant to incur a time penalty for first offence then a DQ but when there a hundreds doing it, a bit difficult to marshal!

I fancy a tri some day, once I have figured out how to run and not embarrass myself. However I fancy road racing more. Need to figure out how to get into that.

now you may or may not believe this………….but i competed about 10 triathlon’s in the late 80’s/early 90’s too.
i even had a physique back then that did not look too bad in a tri-suit……… 8)
i have a load of old photo’s that i keep meaning to get scanned so i can post em up.

Well done and a good effort.

Just waiting for someone to come along and point out whetehr they think it’s coincidence that the church and the butchery are in the same direction (your “smiling” pic. 🙂

have a load of old photo’s that i keep meaning to get scanned photoshopped so i can post em up.

Fixed it for you 😉

Well done Mat. If you’re near enough take a look at the St Ives tri for next year, I did that a couple of years ago and it nearly killed me! Put about 40 minutes on my (then) usual olympic distance time.

My mate won it, I came last (although there were about 40 DNFs IIRC). Admittedly I hadn’t trained much but it still would have hurt.

All amateur triathlon and all long distance tri (at any level) is still supposed to be draft illegal although that doesn’t stop a lot giving it a good go

I can imagine nothing more terrifying than a bunch of triathlopes, all on the aero bars, riding at close quarters in a bunch.

FFS when Man Tri were riding at the (Manchester) track last winter, the first four in the line managed to take eachother out..!

cough cough rule 42

Cheers Tony – I did consider that one and plan to do it next year. I think!

Perranporth tri is another one I’d like to have a go at.

Well done to your mate too!!

Hat’s off to you. That is an AWESOME result. I’m mad to do a tri next year sometime but I’m so shite at swimming I’d be getting onto my bike when everyone is starting the run. I mean…really really shite. Does a floaty swimmy wetsuit help sinkers like me?

Dd – cheers! It sorts of helps in that they have some bouyancy and you stay warm but they do make your legs a bit more floaty which I find annoying.

TBH I found swimming in a very crowded sea quite tricky and struggled to get into a rhythm. Annoying because I can swim okay when on my own. Even if you’re slow though, give it a go. Only avoid if you might actually drown! It definitely knackers you out a lot for the cycle though.

Only avoid if you might actually drown!

That might be my problem 🙂

Mat – I used to try to get to the outside for the swim and dodge the melee, you take a slightly longer route but can get into a much better rhythm which IME works out faster and less tiring. I’m not the best swimmer and didn’t enjoy getting elbows and legs in the face while everyone tries to swim over each other!

I’ve been told that even if you are only halfway okay on a bike you’ll piss all over everyone in a tri. They are apparently all rubbish.

This came from my roadie cyclist mate who wins triathlons not infrequently.

Well done Matt, that swim looked cold….

This is why proper roadies HATE being compared with try-athletes, remember these are elite pros who are paid to practice at this stuff: