I have always fancied having a go at a triathlon and the perfect opportunity arose a couple of weeks back when a local race was being help in Ripponden. This was a pool triathlon with a 500m swim, 30km road bike and a 5 mile undulating run. I hadn’t practised either the bike or the swim, but knew I was in decent shape running wise. The event was staggered with athletes setting off anywhere between 9.00am and 11.00am. I was one of the last competitors to start at about 10.45. This enabled me to have a swimming lane to myself which was nice. I was pretty worried about the swim. I hadn’t swum competitively since I was about 14 and I assumed I would manage about 4 length before my arms dropped off. However, I was pleasantly surprised. I was swimming at a nice tempo, my breathing was good and still hitting some good tumble turns. After 22 length I had finished the swim and unfortunately I don’t possess any triathlon attire so I had to run into the changing rooms to get dry and changed before I could head up to get my bike. Overall the swim took me 8.16 but the transition took 3.58 compared with the fastest person that took a staggering 39 seconds !! I got on my bike and turned out of transition. I have toe clips on the bike as it’s a Halfords special and while I was messing about trying to get my feet in, my dad was shouting at me telling me ‘to get on with it’. A man had just set off on the bike before me and he had a tapered helmet and time trial bike so I was very surprised when I caught him just before the Turnpike pub. The bike course was undulating with a long pull up to Saddleworth before dropping down into the valley. We then climbed back up towards Scammonden dam before dropping down to Barkisland and then Ripponden before heading back to transition. In worked out fairly quickly that I was better at going uphill than anything else. As soon as we plateaued out, the gentlemen behind came flying past. He probably made me look pedestrian. The road started to rise again and I caught him back up. I prefer to climb out of the saddle but that’s just me. We started to descend and sure enough he came back past me and put some distance into me that I wouldn’t be able to make up. As we started the second climb there were competitors scatter all the way up due to the different start times so it was nice to be able to focus on them and give me a target to work off. I picked off around 6/7 before we hit the tops and then started to fly back towards the start. A slight problem occurred in that my helmet strap came off as I was descending so I had to stop and try get it back in. I wasn’t sure if I would be disqualified for a faulty helmet but I wasn’t going to pay to find out. I reached transition and was onto my strongest discipline. The run. I dismounted my bike and suddenly my legs went ridiculously weak. I could hardly stand. I started to run and my legs were buckling underneath me. I felt sure this is how I and my friends look as we stagger home from town on a Saturday night. It took me a good couple of miles before I felt even remotely decent. I wasn’t happy with the run at all. As I passed my dad he said I looked strong and that I looked to be flying but I certainly didn’t feel that way. I was passing people all the time which was good for confidence. As we hit Ryburn Reservoir that was the climbing out of the way. We start to drop back down to the finish and my legs were pulsing with pain. I had never experienced anything like it before. I struggled over the finish line closing out in 1hr 46mins 12seconds. My bike split was 1.02.50 which included transition 2 and my run split was 31.08 which was subsequently the fast run leg of the day which I was pleased with. Overall I finished 4th which I was happy with for my first attempt. It was an enjoyable experience which I would definitely do again.
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* Joe Crossfield Archives
August 2015
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