I was heading back to Norway for a long weekend in Tønsberg to meet up with family and friends. I was hoping to get a session in the pool over the weekend. A quick search on the net gave me the opening hours for the local swimming pool – indicating that the local tri club would hold their open club championship on the Saturday. After a check that I could get hold of a bike, I sent in my registration. The intention was to take it easy and use it as a training session (holding back for the eastern regions masters championship to make sure I don't get too far behind Mark Nowell).
The event was a sprint in half Olympic 750m/20k/5k distance and there were 18 men and 4 women on the starting line. With two 25m pools in the same building we had a “mass” start. With swimming being my strongest event, I managed to be out of the pool in second place. Although, the weather was excellent for the time of year, sunny and around 15C, I chose to put on an extra layer for the bike leg.
After a very slow transition I started on the semi-rural bike route. The big thing with the bike route was that it went through several junctions and one very busy roundabout; -without a single marshal. In the pre-race briefing, we were asked to take it easy and observe the Highway Code. I wish they had told that to the cars trying to cut me up in the roundabout as well.
Someone once told me that it is important to drink at the start of the bike section. I always do as I’m told, so had my bottle out for a refreshing drink after ½ mile. The problem was to get the bottle back into the holder. In my struggle, I approached a junction and had to slow down. I tapped the brake, had a good follow through with my body going over the handlebars and landed belly down on the tarmac. How I ended up with only some scratches on my elbows, I’ll never figure out. It was not too hard to stick to my plan to take it easy after the early fall.
The run was surprisingly easy in a fairly hilly 2.5k out and back route. I only lost 3 places in the bike section, so I ended up with a half decent 5th overall. http://www.klubbinfo.no/tonsbergtri/apen-klubbmesterskap.html
The members of Toensberg Triathlonklubb were very welcoming and I was immensely impressed that several of them had done extremely well in the http://www.nxtri.com/