Muppet on the rise

I must confess to sitting here feeling a bit of a warm glow.  Yes, some of it is to do with a bit too much sun on bank holiday Monday but the majority is based around a job well done.  The Tonbridge Sprint Triathlon has been completed and I am struggling to think of a single piece of muppetry!

My brother David and my friend Andy were both competing as well.  Another friend, Stefan, was in a later wave than us but we would be there to see him finish.  In the last race at Andover (where my muppet rating had gone through the roof), Andy had proved to be the dark horse and stormed to a two minute margin ahead of myself and David.  All of our training leading up to this race seemed to have gone well and there were definitely less moans about aches and pains.  As usual we were each trying to boost each other up to be the favourite.

A really nice touch about this event was that you could put other people's names in when you registered.  This meant, unusually for a pool based triathlon, you could start very close together with friends and family.  This would lead to a great race, particularly between Andy and me.  It also added to the tension somewhat as we all lined up on the side of the pool next to each other.

I was off first.  I settled into what I thought was a nice rhythm but still have the problem of an adrenaline rush at the start which means I set off at jet propelled speed and then suffer through the second half of the swim.  I am hoping that this will rectify itself when I perform at longer distances and settle in for a more steady pace.

Coming out of the swim I ran towards transition and noticed that Andy was close behind.  He is a stronger swimmer than me so it was no surprise, I just didn't know how long he had started after me.  Amazingly I got number belt, shoes, glasses and helmet on with no problem and was out and running with my bike to mount and get away.  It would be David who was the muppet this time, running around transition looking for his lost bike.  It turned out that two gents were stood having a nice chat right in front of it!

The first half of the cycle was quite tough.  There were three fairly major climbs, one of which saw me in the lowest possible gear I could use.  I started to feel quite sick and am thinking that I don't need the performance gel consumed before the event.  The sugary gloop seems to sit on my stomach as soon as I take it.

As I reached the end of the third climb a voice came from my right.  "Good morning young man," said Andy as he pedalled past.  I dug in and tucked in behind him (at least seven metres of course, no drafting allowed).  I was determined that he wouldn't cycle away from me.  Steep descents followed and I continued to track behind Andy considering my next move.

With about 2km to go he went through a junction and the marshall stopped me to let three cars past.  Determined not to lose touch I accelerated fast to catch him.  Realising I was carrying a lot of speed it seemed foolish to slow down again so I went past, leaving a suitable comment behind as I did.  Hence I carried the lead into transition 2 and out onto the run (via another remarkably smooth change).  Andy was still doggedly hanging on behind me and I couldn't resist glances back over my shoulder.

Luckily I managed to get my tactics right.  I took the first lap of the run fairly easily and tried to push on during the second lap.  As I came into the finish amidst encouragement of family and friends I looked back.  Andy was about 300m behind me and struggling to keep going.  It would now all depend on how long after me he had started in the swim.

It turned out that I beat him by around 40 seconds and David, who had found his bike by then, by about 5 minutes.  I had also finished in the top third of all the competitors (109th), which I am extremely chuffed about.  Things are definitely looking up.  Only now I am considering the small matter of my first open water triathlon on May 25th at Dorney Lake, plenty of opportunities for muppetry when you throw a wetsuit into the equation.

Tonbridge triathlon Muppet rating:  0!

Triathlon Muppet