Clacton Triathlon 2007

Five Tri-Anglia members attended the 2007 Clacton Triathlon and all finished within the top half of the finishers.  Oliver Milk was the best placed Tri-Anglia member finishing second overall and Martin Stacey continues a heavy season of triathlon racing despite an injury preventing him from any form of run training.  Below are reports from Nicki Hawkes and Jonathan Tyrrell.

Nicki Hawkes Report

With a race briefing of 6.25, the 4.00 start from Lowestoft was not good. It did however mean that there was no traffic on the roads and we were able to reach Clacton by 5.30. We were by no means the first to arrive and the car park was steadily filling up, as was registration. Goody bag consisted of the usual pen, leaflets, long sleeved t-shirt and a LARGE drinks bottle :-). 

Conditions seemed good – very still, a bit cool, and no sign of rain. After a couple of issues with bike tyres and valves, we finally managed to set up in transition and listen to the race briefing. I was in the 2nd wave going off at 7.20 with Mark (Newnham) a few waves behind. 

Having watched the first swimmers set off, it was obvious there was a strong tide that you would have to battle against should you not get the line to the first buoy correct. By this time the wind had started to increase and so had the waves, which meant sighting was not that easy. We both had excellent swims, with good transitions on to the bike. 

The bike course at Clacton is two laps of a course that has a couple of hills and one steep downhill with two sharp bends. Mark decided not to go over the timing mat at the start of the bike but did a u-turn in the road at a roundabout instead – much to the dismay of the poor driver behind him!! 

So – bike course successfully completed –then comes the dreaded run! This is straight out and back with a steep slope at the start and a pier that never seems to get any closer. The return leg is on the lower promenade aiming for a pylon that also seems to get further away the more you look at it. Up a steep sandy/stony slope – sharp left hand turn and you have the finish line in sight. 

Clacton is an excellent event suitable for fast times and is increasing entries from 200 to 300 for next year. 

And the good conditions, despite a bit of a breeze on the bike, helped us post times of 2hr 9mins (Mark) and 2hr 26mins myself. An excellent way to finish a long season of racing.

Nicki Hawkes

Jonathan Tyrrell's Report

As the alarm went off at 4am Sunday morning I wondered if Will Hall was home from his birthday night out or not. The Clacton Triathlon has an early start with registration starting at 5am and ending at 6:20, hence the early alarm. Everything was loaded in the car the previous night so I ate my breakfast and I was off on a journey which took just over an hour, it would have taken a lot less if I had known where the speed cameras were on the A12. 

I'd taken part in this event last year and, due to the sea being too rough, it was turned into a Duathlon. The sea conditions were described as being perfect by the race director although, when I was setting up in Transition I thought that the sea looked a little on the choppy side of perfect!! The swim start is a good 15 minutes walk away from Transition although a numbered bag for any shoes is supplied in the goodie bag which is then taken back to Transition on a trailor for you to pick up at the end. 

The swim was the first time that I had swum in the sea for a long time and I wasn't sure how I would get on. I found it very difficult to sight the buoys due to the waves and at one stage I found myself swimming out to sea rather than along the coast! Constantly having a mouth full of salt water was also off putting so I found it difficult to concentrate on my stroke. I couldn't see anyone else around me and I was convinced that I was well behind the others in my wave. I came out of the sea, looking more like Orca the whale than Daniel Craig, I later discovered that it was my quickest swim of the season even if it was tide assisted. 

Due to the state of the road there is a non-timed section for half a mile at the start and at the end of the bike leg, so I took this opportunity to take on plenty of water to get the sea water taste out of my mouth. The route is two loops on undulating main roads which were pretty free of traffic and I managed to catch and pass a few people who had started on the bike ahead of me. At the end of the bike I took advantage of the non-timed section again to rest my legs while trying to avoid the pot holes. 

The run is flat, out along the top of the sea cliffs to a pier where you turn round and then return along the bottom of the cliffs. I was taking this easy as I am recovering from a calf strain so I thought that I would just have a nice gentle jog. This plan seemed to go wrong as I finished in a season fastest 46 minutes with an overall time of 2hrs 28mins which I was pleased with as that's my fastest Olympic Triathlon time. 

I hope to enter this event next year, although I think that I'll need to practice my sea swimming first! 

Jonathan Tyrrell

Tri-Anglia Member Results

Full results can be found on the Clacton Triathlon Website

Page created: 4th September 2007. Last updated: 18th September 2007.