Hartlepool Marina Triathlon - Results & Reflections

So today the official results for the Hartlepool  Marina Triathlon are out . . .

There were 90 finishers on the day, and I did:

• Swim - 84th; 23:01
• Bike - 65th - 41:59
• Run - 40th - 20:07
• Overall - 67th - 1:25:07

In a way, I’m a little disappointed - I finished just outside of the bottom quartile.

BUT . . . the swim time was around 10% longer than I’d have achieved if I’d swum in straight lines , I was swimming with an injured shoulder (the ridge of muscle across from my neck to the top of my collar bone feels bruised & sore today, but that’s OK compared with how it has been!), and my goal was only to finish this race.

Also, take a look at that run split. 20:07, having been on the go for 65 minutes before I even started running. If my goal of a 40 minute 10k isn’t within reach now, then it never will be.

I also think that the move from pool-based to open water racing has moved me up a league - even though it’s still only sprint distance. Compared with other races I’ve done on the last three years, far more of the field looked really seriously fit, almost every bike was either a dedicated time trial beast, or had been modified in some way from standard road bike configuration, and I only saw two mountain / hybrid bikes. So finishing lower down the rankings against stiffer competition kinda figures.

Put it this way. Genetically, I am not fast. I know this from when I was eleven, and we had the school inter-house cross-country race. Out of a field of 120, all with similar ‘training’ (running around the playground / rugby pitch, etc), I finished 95th-ish. What’s interesting is that in my fourth year at this school, aged 14, I opted to do cross-country for our games afternoon, in preference to rugby (I was too weedy, and kept getting stood on), or hockey (no hand-eye coordination). After two months of training, the inter-house cross country came up again. I finished 14th out of 120, last of the group who did cross country every week, but ahead of all but one of the rest of the field.

The lesson from this? Well, it looks like I’m at the back of the field again, but this time it’s a field of people who take their training reasonably seriously. So my 67th out of 90 yesterday, is a bit like the 14th out of 120 that I scored 27 years ago.

Finally, it was great to have Wife & Daughter there. And they seemed to really enjoy the event. Wife took some great photos with my digital camera, and hopefully I can persuade her to write down what she thought, and whether or not it justifies being a triathlon widow . . .

Filed under: Family, Goals, Injury, Triathlon