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Monday 20 June 2016

Losing my triathlon cherry: The 2016 ITU World triathlon Leeds


Tweet me at @scott_leach and also donate to Bloodwise 

I'm in there, somewhere in the middle


Never done a triathlon before, so why not sign up for a world series one?

If proof were ever need that I am an idiot, then it was in abundant evidence in the sequence of events that led to me entering Waterloo lake in Roundhay park, at 07:24am last Sunday morning. I was wearing a brand new wet-suit that I had never swum in and had only briefly tried on twice, about to swim nearly a mile in open water for the first time, having not been swimming for around 2 years, at the start of my first ever triathlon.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Going back a few months I had been pretty excited when I heard that the world series triathlon was coming to Leeds, so I began googling to find out where exactly it would be. There was no information on that, but to my surprise, it turned out I could enter it. Why watch it if you could do it, I reasoned, whilst downing my beer?
An Olympic triathlon is one of the short ones, right? Doesn't take too long, only a 10k at the end.
By the time I got around to entering it had sold out, so instead I got a charity spot for Bloodwise. I don't usually like to take charity places as I know how much they cost the charities, instead I usually sign up first, then contact the charity to tell them I have my own place. In this instance I had to pledge to raise £400. If I reached £200 Bloodwise would send me a triathlon belt and if I made £400, they would send me a trisuit. I nearly decided to turn down the suit as I didn't want to cost the charity any money, but then I realise they order these things in huge bulk (There were 400 Bloodwise athletes in Leeds alone) so would get them pretty cheap and also, running and cycling round emblazoned with Bloodwise was excellent advertising for the charity.
After an initial facebook appeal had only garnered £100, I began to panic. How would I manage to raise £400!? I didn't think a full-Monty show in my local working man's club when earn much but then I came upon a genius idea- race photos! I often take race photos, usually when I am injured and they receive huge amounts of attention on facebook. If I could get just a few people to donate on the back of them, I might have a chance to hit my target. So off I went out to Ilkley moor for Rombald's Stride in February to photograph around 400 runners in freezing conditions completing the gruelling 22 mile route. I wrote about it here. It was a tough day but well over £100 rolled in for the charity! I had found my way to make money. Over the next few months I went out to a few races, some gaining more money than others, but I eventually hit the target with ease, then went way past it. Consequently, my trisuit arrived from Bloodwise. Unfortunately, the suit was way too small. I am a medium in absolutely everything else, so I found this odd. Even the replacement large was still a little too small, but it was ok and I squeezed my moobs in to it.


The Wheely Bit

A triathlon was probably always a bad idea for me for numerous reasons. For starters, I hate cycling, I find it boring and I really don't feel especially safe on the roads although I know that stats don't support that fear. However, I have a turbo trainer (One of those things you attach a bike to to make it in to an exercise bike) and I decided that I could do most of my training whilst watching HIIT videos on the internet which always seem to feature a suspiciously large amount if fit women in small lycra outfits. In the event, I barely managed to do any cycle training at all as I discovered that cycling brought on the nerve pain through my left foot that I have been struggling with for nearly a year. I hoped that working with a physio would cure it in enough time that I could get some good cycling in, but it never happened, so the little cycling I did was pretty uncomfortable. Once I had managed to cover the required 40k distance on my mountain bike on roughish terrain, with a 5k run afterwards, I pretty much left it there.
The world series triathlon apparently came with some funding for the area to promote the sport, so in the weeks prior to the event there were various free sessions set up on different aspects of tri.
I signed up for transition training at Leeds Beckett. To my amazement, this free session was with a coach from the national triathlon centre! The info I received there proved invaluable during the race. I was taught how to mount and dismount the bike and the rules of transition along with all sorts of tips.
I left the session with a large graze on my elbow and some large bruises on both legs from my first attempt at a flying mount that went wrong as I manged to jump a little too far.
I mentioned to some experienced triathletes that I was planning on using my mountain bike. They all confirmed that this was a terrible idea, not because I was trying to win the thing or was worried about my time, but that it was a bad idea to add 30 minutes to an already tough event and the extra effort that would involve. Luckily, my good friend Mark offered to lend me his road bike and I gratefully accepted. I went out a couple of times on it and practised mounting and dismounting a few times. It was definitely much faster and easier to get about on the roads than on my old mountain bike.
Annoyingly, on my first attempt at a flying mount on it, I managed to kick the pump clean off it, breaking the mounting bracket. A quick trip to outdoors for a replacement ensued.


Photo by Debi Nicholson- amazingly she managed to spot me in the crowds!

The Wet Bit

I was a swimmer when I was at school but years of it eventually meant I very much fell out with it. As an adult I have never really liked swimming much and only really do it when injured and unable to run. I think it is the sensory deprivation that you experience in the pool that I don't like. Consequently I didn't really plan to do too much swim training, but I certainly planned to do some. In the end, the only bit I did was a half hour acclimatisation  in Waterloo lake a couple of weeks ago that involved very little actual swimming. 30 newbies flailing around in the small cordoned off area in front of the Lake house in borrowed wet-suits soon stirred up the 6 inches of  what-ever-the-hell-that-sludge-is-at-the-bottom and we were soon swimming in a green soup with floating bits. Not pleasant. It felt like that scene in trainspotting when he chases the drugs down the toilet.
And now I needed to buy acquire a wet-suit. I had been in a wet-suit maybe twice in my life and certainly didn't own one. I wasn't about to spend vast amounts on one either as I might never use it again. I bought a large size for £13 from Clas Ohlson, only to find out it was too small. I ordered another for £20 from t'interweb carefully studying the sizing guide before ordering. Again, no banana as it proved to be too small. I borrowed one from a friend, but couldn't even zip it up. I know wetsuits are meant to be tight, but this was ridiculous. And I mean, what is it with triathletes? Are they all total short-arses?! How could I, at just shy of 5 feet 11, be too tall for large wet-suits?! Third time lucky I got one from gooutdoors, this time I was able to try it on before purchase. But as I said, stupidly, the first time I would swim in it, would be on the day of the event.

The Feety Bit

Running wise I have now been carrying a very niggly injury since last August meaning on-and-off I have suffered tingly nerve pain (sometimes becoming sharp pain) through the middle toe of my left foot, so over the last few months, my usual 100+ miles a month running has dropped to 60-70.

All in all, training was not going well. Then, there was the organisation of the event.........
This confused look was pretty much my default look


I need to go where? When? How?

Information about the event was very slow coming out but eventually it emerged that there would be split transitions. So I learned, in most tri's transition, the start, finish and the registration are all in the same general vicinity. Not so with this one. The swim was to be in Roundhay and the run and finish in the city centre. It was already beginning to seem complicated. As the event got closer the seasoned triathletes pulled apart the plans for the race and highlighted numerous errors in the information provided. For instance, the run was stated to be 4 laps of the city centre in earlier communications but 5 in later emails. Transition 2 was originally planned to close at 14:30 until everyone pointed out that would make it impossible for us plebs competing in the open race to see the elites without retrieving then locking up your bike in the city centre, and how would anyone get a lock there to make sure the bike was secure? 5000 bikes of varying expense , many worth thousands of pounds scattered around the city was not a good idea....

I was lucky that I left it very late to read the finer details of the event as I avoided relying on incorrect early info, the final email contained information that seemed to be correct, or at least correct if everything had gone to plan, which it spectacularly didn't.
Everyone that has done a tri before, assured me that this level of complication was not usual for a tri and that if I could get through this, any other one would be a piece of the proverbial. In all seriousness, it was beginning to look so damned complicated that if I had not already raised hundreds of pounds for Bloodwise, I would probably have sacked it off.

Registration and set-up

There were various ways you could go about the difficult logistics of this race, but as I had a start time of 07:24, it didn't seem practical to set up in the city centre in the morning then get to Roundhay for the start, so on Saturday (The day prior to the tri) I headed to the city to register. Problem being- I had to carry my borrowed bike in the back of my car as I couldn't drop it off at Roundhay first (You needed to register before you could get entry to T1 to rack your bike). I would need to leave it locked in the car, in Leeds city centre. Safe huh? I didn't want to take the risk of setting up the bike on Sunday morning as it would be too late to correct any mistakes and would require me getting up even earlier than the 05:30 I already planned.
Registration at the Rose Bowl (A univeristy building) was quick and easy and the volunteers were extremely helpful. Just to hammer home my "newbyness" I was surprised when I received a swim cap in my wave colour (Red) so I was glad I didn't buy one as I had been planning to. Apparently, being given a swim cap is totally usual in a triathlon. They gave me a black bag to take to the bike-run transition. This was a change to the initial plans where we were supposed to pick up all 3 bags we needed at registration. Now we would pick up the green kit bag on Sunday morning and the blue swim-to-bike bag when setting up the bike in Roundhay at T1.
I took the opportunity whilst in the city centre to make last minute purchases; some shot blocs and a bottle for the bike.
I felt sorry for those who didn't know Leeds as transition 2 was a good walk from registration and not simple. I know Leeds city centre well, and know the venue for T2 as I often park there, yet I still managed to walk the wrong way and end up back-tracking. There were no signs pointing the way at all.
As I was planning to cycle in my running shoes, all I dropped off at T2 was a tshirt- for in case I was cold and a cap in case it was very sunny. Then I headed back to my car, hoping all the glass was still in one piece (it was) and off to Roundhay to set up my bike.


In the race pack I picked up at registration was also a number of stickers with our race number on, which was confusing everyone, experienced or not. There was one large sticker, which everyone seemed to agree was to go around the seat post on your bike but then there was another large one and 3 small ones. Most people seemed to think that the other large one was to go across the front of your helmet, but no one was sure what to do with the small ones. Some thought it was maybe to go on the bags and others thought it was an alternative way to label your helmet. I went with the consensus and was left with the 3 small stickers unused as our numbers were written large on the bags in marker pen.

I found my wave (8) in the transition area (which was making a giant mess of the cricket pitch) and racked my bike. I really wasn't sure what I was doing so I looked around everyone else's set-up then I basically stuffed everything in to the kit bag and hung it off the handlebars as everyone else had done. I put my jacket at the bottom as I hoped I wouldn't need it then cursed that I had left my sunglasses at home so hoped that the small peak on my cycling cap would suffice if it turned out to be sunny. I seemed to be doing much less here than everyone else and I hoped I wasn't forgetting something important. I remembered to change the gear on the bike to ensure it was right when I set off up the large hill. Unfortunately I clicked the gears the wrong way and ended up starting in a high gear instead of low. D'oh!
After a quick walk down to the lake to spot the start with the large pontoon and the drop area for the green kit bags, I headed home to try to get some rest. Through nerves and whatever else, I didn't actually get to sleep until gone midnight.

Race Day

The alarm went at 05:30 and I grabbed a cup of ground coffee. 30 minutes later, we left the house. Sophia had decided she would drive me to Roundhay so she could watch me start, then drive to the city centre to see the finish. We would need to be there anyway as we had grandstand tickets to see the elites in the afternoon. The organisers had planned to transport all our left over gear from T1 to the city for us so we wouldn't need to return to Roundhay. This wasn't a good plan as a lot of people were leaving their cars at Roundhay so would only need to cary it back to Roundhay from whence it had come! (including their bike and a wet, heavy wet-suit). A simple choice of, "Drop bags left to have them remain in Roundhay and right for transport to the city centre" would have worked perfectly well and would have saved the organisers a lot of trouble transferring kit.

I squeezed in to my wet-suit then stuffed all my clothes, mobile phone, wallet etc in to the green kit bag which we were promised would take "up to 2 hours" to arrive in the city centre. Which seemed reasonable as the fastest amateur took over 2 hours to finish the Olympic tri, but of course, it didn't work out that way....

Under Starter's Orders

There's nothing quite as twattish as a triathlon twat


We weren't given an opportunity to acclimatise to the water, so in we went, freezing cold, seconds before we were due to set off. Most advice tells you to use body glide or baby oil around your wrists, neck and ankles to avoid chaffing in the wet-suit so I had duly applied some baby oil. I wondered what sort of state I would be in at the end of this thing as my cheap wet-suit got its first outing.
In reality, the water wasn't as cold as I feared and we were soon off.

30 seconds in to the swim my right google filled up with water; they weren't tight enough. It really had been stupid to not get some swim practise in where I could have sorted a problem like this.
I carried on for a while with my right eye tight shut. I am a strong swimmer and knew it would be my best discipline of the 3,  but I really had no idea how long it would take me to cover 1500m in open water so I thought I would try to empty the goggle and tie it tighter. I tried 3 times over the course, but each time the goggle filled quickly and I gave up and swam one-eyed.
Around a minute in to the swim, I managed to take a large mouthful of water. I had always thought that I would be able to spit it out with no issues, but I swallowed it before I knew what had happened. Great, now I was likely to get cholera, typhoid and bubonic plague. (The organisers had assured us that the water had been tested and was fit for human consumption. You can actually see straight to the bottom of the lake at the sides so the water IS clear, but it's that 6 inches of sludge that I was worried about)

Unfortunately, the worst part of the swim was that the nerve pain in my foot started up almost as soon as I set off. Whether this was down to the cold of the water or the fact that swimming leaves you in a very "stretched out position" I am not sure. The cold also left me feeling quite breathless in the usual way you get when you are extremely cold, even though I only felt moderately cold. All that said, I seemed to be moving reasonably quickly and I regularly over took people, including those in different caps from other waves.
For the most part, the route of the swim was obvious, but when we arrived at the near end of the lake it was less obvious where we needed to turn and a lot of people managed to miss going around the two red marker bouys and some were sent back before the marshals apparently gave up on that as so many swimmers made the same mistake. I did the correct route, more by luck than anything and the pontoon eventually appeared. Looking at my result afterwards, I was surprised to have completed it in only 26 minutes, far quicker than I thought I would. I do suspect that swim was shorter than 1500m.


T-1000. Just kidding, that's the terminator, it's T1

There was a 400m run from the lake to the back of the bike racks where my bike was stored. The path was carpeted until the cricket pitch where the grass was bare and that was already starting to get muddy. I felt sorry for the 5000th person that would pass over that field by the end of the day.....
As I ran I waited to discover where I had chaffed. I could see people with red sores around their necks, but I seemed ok and so I remained. First swim in a brand new wetsuit and no issues. Result!

Having a bright yellow bike, it turns out, is very helpful as it stands out like a beacon on the racks. I now needed to make a quick decision, did I need my cycling jacket? No one else seemed to be bothering, so I decided not to put it on. I decided to dry my feet and put on socks, reasoning that as I was going to be in the same trainers for the bike and the run it was worth taking that extra time, especially as I would save time not swapping out of cycle shoes at T2. Then I put on my cycle gloves. And I have no idea why. I'd overheard someone saying that they were going to make sure they didn't forget their gloves. Afterwards I noticed no one else was wearing them and it had been a total waste of time. There was no way my hands would have been cold.

I sprinted off for the mount line holding the seat, not the handlebars, as I had been shown at transition training. Another 400m later and I exited the longest transition ever (so the triathlon experts informed me) I had trained to do a flying mount whilst still moving, but there seemed little point as it was such a steep hill straight out of transition. I jumped on and discovered that I was in a high gear. Quickly clicking down through the gears I eventually managed to set off.
T1 with the 1st few bikes in it


Once again I had no idea how long the cycle would take me, but I thought up to 90 minutes was possible. It took me a while to settle but soon I was zipping along over-taking lots of people and also being regularly over-taken, mainly by people on seriously top-end bikes.

As it turned out, the bike route in to the city was mostly downhill, which meant cycling back to Roundhay was quite hard work. However, by the time the third leg, back in to the city began, I knew the route and what I had to do, which was basically, hit it as hard as possible as I knew it was mainly downhill to the end. I began over-taking A LOT of people. I was swapping places with quite a few people, losing time on each uphill section then catching them on the flat parts and on the numerous downhills. I ended up having a battle with a woman in a triathlon trainers outfit and I set her as a target. We swapped places on quite a few occasions before I eventually pulled away from her.
At around ten miles in to the cycle my foot was beginning to be extremely painful. I tried stretching my leg out behind me on the downhills. Another cyclist pulled up along side me and laughing said, "I thought you were going to take off for a minute there"
I laughed too, "I wish I could, my bloody foot is killing me"
At one point I discovered that cycling with my toes took the pain away, but it didn't last long before it came back. I was just going to have to put up with it, and as I arrived back in the city centre I couldn't wait to get off the bike and start running.


T2- Revenge of the transition


Then came the hilarious part- I scared the crap out of a lot of people as I came up to T2......

I had been shown how to do a flying dismount and I fully planned to do this, especially as I was in my running trainers already. So here's what you do according to the national triathlon coaches: As you approach the dismount line (you need to get off BEFORE this line to avoid a penalty) you slow down to dismount speed. I then swing my right leg around the bike and bring it in between my left leg and the bike. You are then poised to with your left foot still on the peddle to jump off the bike whilst it is still moving and and hit the ground running.

The MOST important part here was: Slow Down To Dismount Speed!!!

I, however, came in at break-neck speed and as I had already swung my leg over the bike, I was in trouble. The way the brakes on my loan bike are configured, meant I couldn't really pull them as I would need to shift my hands on to the bottom of the drop-handle handlebars and I wasn't confident of doing that without falling off. I was too close to the dismount line to try to swing my leg back over the bike so I had no chance but to tough it out. I was going to have to just jump.
The dismount line approached and I went for it. I hit the ground at such speed that my knees buckled and I stumbled. The small crowd let out a big "Oooooo" but I recovered and took a a few more steps. Then I stumbled again and the crowd let out another large "Oooooooo!!" Both they, and myself were expecting a spectacular face-plant at any moment, but somehow I managed to recover yet again, however in the process the bike started to twist and fall. I managed to grab hold of the handlebars and straighten the bike, then I quickly switched my grip to the seat and I had made it. Amazingly, I was running along safely with the bike. The crowd had a moment of stunned silence unable to believe I had pulled it off,  before they gave out a cheer and I, of course, carried on running as if I had totally meant to do it, casually as you like, whilst inside I was thanking the Gods of triathlon for allowing me to survive.

I entered the rubble-strewn car park that is the site of the old international pool which was transition 2. The state of the ground didn't bother me as I was in my running trainers, but many people had issues as they were running barefoot through it with their cycle shoes still attached to their bikes.
I found my bike rack quickly and put the bike on seat first. Then I remembered the advice about putting it on handlebars first with the rack jammed in between the brake levers and the handlebars so I wasted precious seconds spinning the bike around. Then I struggled to stuff my helmet in to my bag hanging off the rack. I quickly decided I wouldn't need the tshirt or cap and off I went.


Run Fat Boy, Run

I took three steps away from the bike and on the third one a sharp pain shot through my foot that felt like I had been stabbed and I let out a yelp. At that point I actually wondered if I would be able to finish this thing or have to walk the 10k. The pain relented a little and I found I was able to run. To my surprise my legs didn't actually feel like to large blocks of wood like they had felt the few times I had run straight after cycling during training.
I had definitely been looking forward to the run, but wasn't excited about a 5 lap route. In the event though, it went a lot quicker than I was expecting, if only in my head, rather than on the watch. On my first lap I discovered there was small cheering section for Bloodwise situated on the Headrow and I would be passing them 5 times. I shouted to them that I want a Mexican wave. Eventually, on my 4th pass they did do a full Mexican wave!
The pain in my foot was pretty unpleasant as we looped around the short, undulating lap. 

For some reason, they had made the merge point the narrowest part of the lap, so each of the 5 times I past it, I was slowed down by congestion. 

The route took us through the grandstand they had set up in millennium square and unbeknown to me, Sophia was in the stand taking photos. She had done amazingly well to get photos of me coming out of the swim. I say amazing as there were obviously dozens of us in red swimming caps and pretty much nothing else to identify us.

The run was also congested and I needed to weave in and out of lots of much slower runners before I was able to go down the finish tunnel at the 5th pass. I gave it a bit of a sprint to make sure the runner next to me didn't ruin my finish photos (Seriously!)
The marshal with the medals tried to hand it to me and as always, I insisted that they did it properly and put it over my head for me. The marshals all found this pretty funny and with a smile, my medal was placed around my neck. 


The Aftermath

The timing chip attached to my ankle that had the event looking like a mass prison break recorded each section of the race and here's my results:

I came 521st out of 2200ish athletes in 2 hours 32. I have to say I am pretty pleased with that, all things considered. Not surprisingly, my best result was the swim where I finished 433rd. But the incredible thing was my T2 time- 10th overall! I say incredible considering that I messed around with racking the bike and struggled with getting the helmet in the bag. I am sure that my 10th place had lots to do with me already being in my running trainers and lots of the people who had used bike shoes struggling to run in the rubble. And of course, my ridiculous entrance to the transition area.

After the finish the worst problems were to come. The area directly after the finish was tiny and soon filled up with finishers as- unbelievably- we were unable to leave this area because we needed to cross the running track that was now full with hundreds of runners. A few finishers at a time were able to sprint between athletes trying to complete their runs.

After the finish area were were offered a lump of stale bread, half a brown banana and an orange quarter. Triathletes, apparently, are used to much better than this and probably have a right to expect better considering the cost of these events.
Erdinger provided pints of alcohol free lager which I have to admit was pretty tasty, then we ran in to the most major problem of the day...

I arrived at the baggage pick-up to a very large crowd and discovered that the first 1800 bags had arrived as expected, but that the next lot were delayed. At this point, over 3 hours had elapsed since I had dropped off my green bag in Roundhay, so the promised 2 hours had been greatly exceeded.
Most people were taking this bad news in pretty good spirits. It certainly wasn't the poor volunteers fault behind the counter and I really felt for them doing a tough job.

So now, I was stranded in the city centre, in nothing but a triathlon suit, with no phone, no money, no clothing and no way to contact Sophia to tell her where I was. I was unaware that she had seen me finish so I didn't know if she was worried about me or not.

I decided to make the most of it and I headed off to the Bloodwise cheering section and I spent some time chatting and cheering on the other Bloodwise runners.

Half an hour or so later I headed back to the bag drop to find it in just as much chaos. I was incredibly lucky to get my bag back at this point, many other people were not so lucky. So now I had a phone, I was able to contact Sophia and was able to put on some warmer clothing. The organisers were very lucky it was a warm day, otherwise they might have had a hypothermia epidemic on their hands. As it was, I had started to get chilly, so was glad to get a sweat shirt on.

My blue bag with my wet-suit etc in it still hadn't arrived so I would need to return to the bag drop once again, later on to get that too.

I enjoyed a gorgeous sausage sandwich in a bar before heading back to the grandstand and thoroughly enjoying the wonderful atmosphere as the elites showed us how it should be done. Jorgenson put in an amazing run to make up more than two minutes deficit from the bike to win the ladies and the Brownlee brothers dominated the men's race from the minute they donned their running shoes.


All in all it was a fantastic day, the open race that I took part in was on a great route and I would have enjoyed it very much if it hadn't been for the foot pain and I am now very much looking forward to entering another once I have had some physio.
The elite races went off without hitch and the crowds made it an incredible event.


The complaints and ramifications of all the poor parts of the organisation of this race will no doubt rumble on for a long time. Reading the complaints from experienced triathletes, it turns out that every time British Triathlon organise an event, it tends to turn out this way! So now I know whose events to avoid.
All that said, I still managed to enjoy the event and yes, I will do another triathlon.
A week later and I still have a numb toe on my left foot, but otherwise, no damage done, and now I can't stop looking at nice road bikes to buy.....

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