I completely forgot to write a report about Inverurie Triathlon and I have been so busy that I have taken a while to write about the Bikeless Beastie as well. but right now, I am sat in Norwich airport again with a couple of hours to kill before I get to fly home so I can take the chance to catch up with this, and a rash of others that I have missed.
Last year the Scottish Aquathon Champs were held at Knockburn Loch, right outside Banchory and less than 30 miles from my house. It seemed rude not to at least take part, and I came away with a medal and a good enough performance to justify selection for Team GB and a trip to Bratislava.
I hadn't planned to race this year's champs but as the season has developed I have not really been making much progress on the bike, and I had nothing better to do that weekend so I entered this year's Scottish Aquathon Champs which were in Loch Lomond, not quite next door.
I tried to convince Mrs M that a weekend in Glasgow would be fun, and I might just pop out for a bit on the Saturday morning, but she was having none of it. She made a good case that we just can't afford it at the minute. And on the back of that I had to agree and while I was already committed to the entry fee I could still minimise costs elsewhere by camping out rather than spending on a hotel. Handy since there wasn't a sub-£130 / night hotel within 50 miles.
Then I went to the Scottish Sprint Champs at Monikie. Following that I was somewhat unimpressed about the level of Scottish Champs organisation and seriously considered not going to the Aquathon. About a week out I decided I really should at least go and try to defend my medal and if I could get a decent race in I could think about a 2018 ETU qualifier as well. I expected the field to be tougher with it being a central belt race meaning the travel wouldn't deter as many people as the trip to Banchory might have.
I drove down the night before, planning to stop and camp about 2/3rds of the way at about Stirling. Instead the weather was driech and I drove on until I reached the course and found a nice quiet spot there instead and got my head down for the night. I slept surprisingly well and woke in time for the first arrivals at the course. I had a couple of cold butteries and lukewarm tea for breakfast and then wandered down to get registered.
The ground around the start was a bit soft as the rain had soaked in a bit, so I did a little bit of a recce of the run start and found it went immediately onto a hard path. I headed back to sign-in and set up my transition. OK, just left my shoes where I could find them as that is all there is to an Aquathon transition, but I was nice and early and I managed to pick a spot where I would be able to find them easily once it got busier.
I then headed down to the water to check the temperature (not warm, but not terrible) and then headed back to the car for a bit of a stretch and to get my wetsuit on. I then wandered back down to the start and by now it was getting quite busy so I chatted to a few random people before the official briefing, ad then headed down to the start.
We were given the opportunity to get in and do a bit of a swim warm-up but we were 20 minutes from the race start so I decided it wasn't worth going in and getting cold yet. That turned out to be a great call as with about 10 minutes to go the organisers decided that they should do a headcount of everyone going in to the water so pulled everyone back out and made them stand on the quayside freezing and wet while they counted them back in one at a time. There was a lot of shivering and grumbling as people filtered back in to the water. this time I left it until about two-thirds of the competitors were in before going in and doing a short warm-up, and ensuring that I came back to the front of the pack as the start countdown ticked round.
A deep water start to the swim suited me as it got everyone nicely spread out at the start and avoided all the nonsense fighting as everyone charges to be at the front of land starts. I had a nice space slightly to the right of center. The first buoy was about 200m out, but it is jut a marker, with the main turn buoy at about 350m marking an almost U-turn. This meant everyone was nicely spread out by the time we got to anything resembling a tight turn, and there was plenty of space to get round without any fighting.
At this point I started looking at who was around me. Mostly similar colour caps but a couple of ladies caps in and around. No real packs forming that I could draft off but there were some solo swimmers. I actually thought I was maybe taking it a little too easy at this point and pushed on so I never really got any good draft effect through the race. Towards the end of the race I realised the current had pushed me further in to the bank than I was aiming so I had to take a bit of a turn to get back out to the end of the jetty for the water exit. should have been sighting better after the third buoy.
Out of the water in 12:09. I think it was slightly short judging by how I swam but I will take it.
There is then a fairly long uphill transition which meant plenty of time to get half out of my suit and to pocket my goggles, earplugs and swim cap.
In to transition and it was still fairly cluttered with shoes. I managed to step out of my suit on the second attempt, after my left ankle snagged a bit on the timing chip. Got my shoes on at the second attempt, after nearly toppling when I put my foot into a soft swampy bit. Two girls passed me in transition but I was out and into my running fairly quickly.
The run starts with a short downhill and then heads along the loch-side, then into two loops at the top before coming back along the lochside path. It is fairly flat along that path and I easily passed both girls and started setting my sights on each athlete in front of me in turn. I managed to get a couple of younger guys before turning off the trail and into a park section which turned out to be mostly grass but with the odd soggy section. I hadn't recced this far and in hindsight that was a small mistake as there were definite gains to be had by choosing the right lines and taking a couple of corners correctly. The course then turned back onto tarmac and uphill towards Balloch Castle. It wasn't much of a hill but it gave a good view of the competitors for about 150m in front and some of those coming back down the last section of the hill after a U-turn and turning back towards lap 2.
As I approached the U-turn I could see a couple of guys ahead who looked to be in my age-group. They both looked to be running fairly comfortably but I took a note of the gaps to them knowing that I would see them again at this point on the next lap with about 1km to go.
After rounding the turn I noticed that one of the girls was still behind me. Apparently after I had passed her she decided to use me as her pacemaker for the run and was using me to drag her past all the other girls. I say 'girls' but she was a GB international age-grouper and first veteran lady so that is maybe a poor choice of words.
There is then a downhill and a turn back on to the second lap. Just at this point the overall race leader came whizzing past, having taken almost a mile out of me. I had seen him at the U-turn and was expecting him to pass but it was still fairly ridiculous how fast he went past me.
The two age-group guys I was chasing were out of sight again but I figured since they had been out of sight on the previous lap I might still be closing on them. Back through the park and I took much better lines on the corners and picked of two places but they were obviously not in my age-group again. As I turned back on to the road and towards the U-turn I could only see on of the vets in front of me and at the turn he was exactly the same distance ahead as he had been on the previous lap. I couldn't decide if it was more frustrating that the other guy had gone into the distance or that this one was just dangling a little out of reach.
I struggled a bit on the uphill section to the U-turn and when I turned the girl from the previous lap was still tucked in behind me. As we made the turn back on to the trail to head along the lochside I could see a Senior and a lady (turns out first lady) just ahead and I realised that I had enough left in my legs to pick up for a long sprint for home. It took me about half the distance to catch the lady but the senior heard me coming and started his own kick. As we turned up the hill and in to the park for the last 100m to the finish he was still about 10 meters ahead but I decided he was catchable and went in to a flat sprint. This was not reminiscent of my previous sprinting form and actually nowadays a flat sprint turns out to be just inside 6 minute mile pace, and only for about 100m, but it was enough to overhaul him just before the line.
I finished 4th Vet, with last year's winner being out in front of the two I was chasing. Turns out I had been closing on the bronze medallist and while I closed 24 seconds on him during the run (and 3 seconds in transition) I had given him a headstart of 66 seconds out of the swim.
I actually finished closer to the winner than last year, (2:36 down against 3:21 last year) but in fourth place this year, missing out on a podium spot. The times should be enough to justify a place at next year's ETU champs, but might not, depends who else applies this time.
I am pretty happy with how I raced, and I really enjoyed the course. It was challenging but not
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