The Gullane Beach Triathlon
Saturday was my second "real" triathlon at Gullane, in East Lothian. It's a standard (or Olympic) distance tri, of a 1.5k swim in the sea, a 42k bike (a couple of kilometres long) and a 10k run (which is a touch short).
It's meant to be pretty tough for the distance, since the swim can be rough in the sea, depending on the tides and the wind, the bike is on rolling roads with a couple of sharp climbs and the run has some steep ascents and uneven surfaces to contend with.
I was hoping for a calm sea, since, although I feel my swimming is improving a lot in the last few weeks, I wasn't sure how I'd cope with difficult conditions. Unfortunately, the sea was a bit choppy and the direction of the course was reversed which put the direction of the waves against my most comfortable breathing side. I'm working hard on breathing to both sides but my left side feels awkward and I haven't got to the point where I can really use it.
At 9am on Saturday morning, the piper played us into the water. Although the water was cold (just 13 degrees) I never noticed the temperature, since I was too busy just trying to get some air - it seemed every time I came up for air a wave came over my head and I swallowed sea water (which isn't pleasant). About 5 minutes into the swim, I think I let it beat me and my stroke went to pot. I couldn't see the turn buoys and I was swimming off course. The swim consists of 2 laps, so eventually I was back on land, with it all to do again. I hadn't started my watch, so I didn't know how long it had taken me but I knew I was right at the back of the field. The second lap wasn't much better - I'd pretty much decided just to try to get round without trying too hard. In hindsight, I should have buckled down and tried to enjoy it a bit more but without any experience of swimming in a pretty choppy sea, there wasn't much more I could do at the time. Next time, I'll know better.
Transition was a bit slow, since there was 300m of concrete path up to my bike but soon enough, I was on the road doing my favourite part of the event. The first 15 minutes on the bike come with sore legs after they aren't used much during the swim and they take a while to warm up. I tried to bear this in mind as I ramped up the speed. I passed a lot of people on the bike - every one of them a better swimmer than I had been. It was a little frustrating but I've got a fair amount of improvement to come yet as far as my swimming is concerned. The bike course was fun and suited me. I was under the impression that it was going to be harder than it was but the climbs were generally short and the road conditions were more or less decent. I only got passed by 2 riders at the beginning of the course and no-one came past me after that, so I think I was riding ok.
Through Gullane and I'm back in transition putting on my runners. The run course starts up a stiff grassy bank, goes through a close (an alleyway) and then up an even steeper road to a gate and back down again. My legs and lungs were screaming at me and I was passed by a few quicker runners. Again, it takes me about 10-15 minutes before I'm happy running after riding, so I gritted my teeth and got on with it. After a short tarmac section, it's back onto another climb along the side of the golf course and then the path flattens out back past transition before a short out and back and another lap. Lap 2, I started running much better and caught and passed a few more folks. Soon enough, I was on the finishing straight and had someone nipping at my heels, so I put on a bit of a sprint and finished in just under 2 hours 46 minutes.
My time was probably about 10 minutes slower than I would have hoped but I'm pretty certain, without benefit of the splits in front of me, that it was all lost on the swim. I was looking at a 30 minute swim (I swim about that speed or faster in a lake and the pool), a 1:15 bike (which I think I was close to) and a 45 minute run (I think I did about 47, so close enough for me). My transitions weren't too quick either, particularly the first one where I was still shell-shocked from the sea.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with my day. I biked and ran to my expectations but let the sea beat me. I know I can swim better than that, so I've got nowhere to go but upwards. I didn't have a bad day because of a lack of training or preparation - just a little bit of a lack of experience.
My next triathlon is Helvellyn on the 9th of September. It's a 1600m lake swim which will suit me better, followed by a very hilly 38 mile bike and a run up Helvellyn. I'm hoping to do well and I feel confident in my abilities. I need to get some more hill running done though.
