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Just another Manic Sunday
Tuesday 6th August 2013
Think one triathlon is hard? How about doing a double?! August 4th saw Phoenix athletes doing just that at the Wealdon Manic Triathlon.
Thank you to Colin Simpson for his report;
A few of us decided to give this new Triathlon a go. The event is a double triathlon; 300m swim, 11K bike, 3K run....then do it all again... (could also be done as a relay)
The venue is a private house with a small lake and whilst numbers were limited there are always a few fast guys and girls.
The swim was done in small waves of 10-15 in a warmish lake. Wetsuits were optional and most went for the ‘naked' option mainly because for the second swim you would probably have to go without a wetsuit (although apparently a couple of people did put it back on after their first run...mmm difficult). I decided to go with a wetsuit as did Bob Novis as practice for London but Roland Harrington didn't...much to his disappointment..... as I came out ahead of him!! Unfortunately he passed me up the 200m hill run to transition as I stopped to whip the wetsuit off. Bob was long gone...
The bike was an undulating 10.5K. It was a pretty fast course despite some poor road surfaces. Both Bob and Ro had similar splits (2nd and 4th best) with me a couple of minutes down.
The run was also undulating around the grounds. 2x1.5K, off road and rutted which proved awkward in places. I decided to take a wrong turn on the second lap...too busy thinking about that second swim without a wetsuit...but luckily was called back without losing too much time. Bob seemed to have a storming run (3rd fastest I believe) and Ro also ran well as we all completed our first triathlon.
Now the fun started.... another swim...shall I keep my trainers on for the 200m run down to the lake? No, better not, I will forget them...so I go barefoot and just grab hat and goggles and go for it. As I exit transition the marshal and I simultaneously notice that I still have my shades on - not great for swimming so back I go and take the opportunity to tidy my area ready for the bike/run later. Note I wasn't the only one to have problems of this type!!
The swim for me was much slower without a wetsuit and still in oxygen debt but Ro and Bob seemed to cope much better.
Onto the bike and I actually felt quite good and seemed to be going faster on the descent into Framfield but on the small climb to the village I got slower and that fateful bump bump happened as my rear tyre deflated... end of race for me so I walked back but decided to jog the run anyway to get my medal!!
Both Bob and Ro almost matched their earlier results on Bike and Run to secure 2nd and 10th places overall.....not bad for a couple of old vets.
This was a good fun race which, with a few tweaks, would be worth doing next year.
Full Results here (Swim includes run to transition, Bike includes both other transitions)