On Sunday 9th September I'd entered the Northampton Classic tri at Grendon Lakes just east of Northampton. Not wanting to stay overnight, I had to rise at 4:30, and drive for 2 hours to get there in time to register. The upside was I arrived wide awake, and in plenty of time to walk down to the lake and watch a speedboat setting up the buoys so I knew exactly where to go (for a change).
In wave 3, we got in with time to warm up to find the lake was pleasantly warm, better than Whitlingham, but more weedy. I managed to swim with the pack up to the first turn, then got pushed wide on the exit, so ended up swimming solo the rest of the swim. The weed was a great help, as I was able to pull myself along for sections! At the exit I was pleasantly surprised with my first sub 30 min race swim. there was quite a long run to T1, but my bike was right by the bike out so I was quickly on the way.
The cycle was great. Down the access road to the lake, over a couple of speed humps then out right onto the road, with about a mile until the village of Grendon with the only noticeable hill. Over the top, and it was easy and undulating but quite technical so I didn't get any consistent speed up. After a couple of cattle grids, we were out onto the main A roads where a higher speed could be maintained. Eventually we turned back towards the start, and I got stuck behind a tractor who was stuck behind a slower bike. eventually it turned off and I was back up to speed, then back onto Grendon Hill. Left at the top this time, and onto a new smaller loop back to the start. Coming into T2 I got my feet out of the shoes ready, then clipped the back of my shoe on the road, taking a big chunk out of the back!
T2 was quick and I was straight out onto the 3 lap mostly grassy/off road run. I had a great tussle with another guy in the G age group, who I later realised had been within seconds of me the whole race. We kept passing each other, then at the last drink point, there was about 500m to go, so I sped up and thought I'd lost him, but the last 100m to the finish had 4 90 degree turns and he got past me! Never mind I was elated at my first sub 2:30 tri..... (2:28:09).
I believe Andy Walpole was also there and finished something like 18th earning himself an Age Group Qualifer place for next year.
Starting a bit later was good as I don't like starting too early as for some reason my body would rather be in a bed than a lake at 6am. So 8:30 we set off and the swim was ok apart from a bloke constantly tapping my feet which was too annoying but did make me swim faster in the last 400m to get away from him. My times haven't been recorded for the swim or bike but my one loyal supporter (girlfriend Jess) shouted out 21 min which meant it was slightly short being a P.B by a minute but I was more interested in places and felt I was up there but a lot of work still had to be done.
One thing which was harsh was the run from the swim to transition it was on gravel and about 500m of running which was really painful so you just had to shuffle as fast as you could and bit your lip. If you do the race make sure you have some flip flops when you come out the swim.
Gauging the transition area I could tell I was about 10th out of the water. The bike started off pretty poorly especially when my chain came off on the first hill and i had to go back down to jump the chain back on and by this time the two lads who were with me were long gone. It took me 15 miles to over take the lads I was on the hill with, but when i went past him it gave me a little buzz to push hard for the last few miles.
Coming onto the run I new I had been running well with a P.B in the Wroxham 5k so I decided to go out fast. My girlfriend told me I was 8th in my age group and that the lads in the distance looked to be tiring. I passed a TFN boy which always spurs me on and I managed to get a good pace going and slowly picking the other boys off until I was in 5th place and the top 4 automatically qualify. I could see the 4th place person about 10 seconds in front of me with 400m to go and made a dash for it and with the finish being twisty didn't help unfortunately I got within 2 seconds of him but ran out of road. I collapsed on the ground threw my breakfast up and was gutted thinking that I had missed out by such a narrow margin. It wasn't until I looked on the BTA web site that I was the second qualifier with the other boys already having places or not taking their slot. I would have rather have came 4th but I'll take that. I felt that I had my strongest run of the year even though it was 3 minutes slower than Dambuster!! Work that one out!!! I had the 5th fastest run time which was pleasing especially with the Round Norfolk Relay coming up.
Overall time was 2:03:07 18th overall 5th Age Group
It's always pleasing to get a slot for a next year race so it will keep me motivated having that goal in mind. Think I need to work on swimming for the World Champs so hopefully I can improve for next year. Any tips John I am all ears??!! I'm moving to Kent but will still race for Tri-Anglia and will back some weekends so I am sure I will see the regulars at races.
| Pos | # | Name | Cat | Cat Pos | Club | Swim | Bike | Run | Total Time |
| 18 | 145 | Andy Walpole | M25-29 | 5 | Tri-Anglia | 0:38:07 | 2:03:07 | ||
| 204 | 261 | Iain Johnson | M35-39 | 32 | Tri-Anglia | 0:29:23 | 1:11:06 | 0:47:39 | 2:28:09 |