Glorious muppetry

This is where I get to look back at my glory day of triathlon.  Trust me when I tell you that I can never do better than when I took part in the Warwickshire Fun Triathlon on 30th September 2012.  There was also some muppetry of course!

I had roped one of my brothers in this time as well, my friend Andy couldn't make this particular one.  David had gone the whole hog:  New bike, shoes, trainers etc so there was no advantage gained from equipment.  There was one area that I had the upper hand though, he was a very poor swimmer who hated to put his head in the water.  He had done some work on it but was still using a bit of head-up, gentle breast-stroke.  I say he was a poor swimmer because, despite still doing breast-stroke, he is now as fast with that as I am with my front crawl.

The whole family went up to Stafford the night before and we stayed in a Holiday Inn or some such hotel.  It was there that the Gonzo tendencies once again reared their ugly head.  David and I went through all of our equipment and laid it out ready.  Bike, cycling shoes, trainers, shorts, top, tracksuit, goggles......  Goggles?

I could picture them sitting nicely in my usual swimming bag at home.  I looked at my watch and tried to avoid looking at the smirking brother.  Where was I going to get goggles at 11.30 on a Saturday evening.  "There's a Tesco's over the road," mentioned a despairing Flissy who was spotting my mounting despair as I contemplated some of my own head-up breast-stroke.  Off I ran at race pace.

The lady at the desk in Tesco's gave me a withering gaze and then called over someone else.  then a further two staff members were called over and soon there was a whole team come to gather around the muppet.  The last lady saved me.  "I think we have a pair out the back."

Her rummaging produced a pair of cheap Zoggs in a battered old box.  I have no idea where she produced them from but her punishment was to get a massive hug and kiss on the cheek from me.  I could still hear them all laughing as I wandered out of the store.

The race itself went remarkably well.  A solid 200m snake swim followed by a silky smooth transition onto the bike.  A tough 23km ride through some positively dangerous roads in windy conditions.  Then a solid 2.5km run.  This triathlon malarky is easy!  David did really well in his first attempt and I could tell that there was going to be some serious competition from him and Andy in the future.

The amazing part of the whole thing is that my time of 72.52 minutes was the quickest of all in the 35 to 39 age group.  This is the first and last time I will ever 'win' a triathlon!  I was on cloud 9 and as soon as I got home I looked to squeeze another one in before the end of the season.  Little did I know that the Triathlon Muppet was getting ready to appear with a vengeance.......

Warwickshire Fun Triathlon muppet rating:  2 (forgotten goggles)

Triathlon Muppet