The summer racing season is now over and as they say in the TV series Game of Thrones, winter is coming.
Before my end of season break (which I hardly felt I had earned or needed after not racing much this year) there was time for just a few more outings: –
24th September – Never Castle Relay: Jill and I teamed up with Mr Tom Levy to take on the super sprint race at Hever Castle – part of a massive weekend of triathlon in Kent. Tom did the swim, I did the hilly 20k bike and Jill completed the challenging run showing strong form. We finished mid-table in a competitive field which was good. I had a terrible bike leg though and was stuck in heavy traffic moving very, very slowly for large parts of the route and almost didn’t make it back in time for my second event.
24th September – Never Castle 1 mile swim: Having made it to the start with only minutes to spare after a quick change into my wetsuit the one mile swim was underway. Tom had agreed to guide me, although we’d not done any practise. Things we going well until after a few hundred metres the tether came off when doing a sharp turn. We just carried on swimming as close together as possible and following everyone els, which worked out OK. We finished in the top 10 which was surprisingly good but boy was that water murky!
30th September – Norwich ABC 10 mile time trial: I probably shouldn’t have ridden this having had a sickness bug earlier in the week (probably from the Hever swim…). I had absolutely nothing to give and could only manage a 26 minute ride – some way off my PB of 22:40 despite great conditions. Still I spent some time riding my bike in the sunshine so it’s all good.
1st October: Tri-Harder Hill Climb: I thought I’d ride this for a bit of fun and support Tri-Harder in this inaugural event. Despite a bit of rain and my decidedly poor form, it was a fun event to participate in. Suprising the hill was actually 1 mile in length – pretty good for Norfolk! With a good turnout of riders and still feeling lethargic I think I finished in a fairly lowly position but it was nice to get a few more miles in and then eat cake!
So that’s it for another season – roll on 2018!
Iain