This is the third time I have taken on the London Triathlon and the second time at the Olympic distance. The great thing about this event is that it is local to me, meaning no hotels, no traveling and no extra cost! To be honest, I wasn’t overly looking forward to this event. I have struggled massively with motivating myself to train in the last few weeks since the Ironman. This is my fifth triathlon of the season and it is only July! I usually do 4 or 5, but they are spread out a little more than they have been this year. I’m questioning whether I will do another end of season event in September as holidays are near and August is out of the question.
The London Triathlon is organised by the same organiser who run the Blenheim event. It is held in the Royal Victoria Dock with the bike and run in the near vicinity. Again it is a very friendly novice triathlon offering lots of distances and a real opportunity to dip your toe into the world of triathlon.
My previous attempt at the Olympic distance here was back in 2015 – quite a warm day with an overall finish time of 3 hrs 8mins. I knew I would go quicker than this as I have progressed quite well since then. Like I have done in the past when reporting on events done previously, I will give you the breakdown comparison of each part.
This race was different in one major way – the weather! Scheduled showers were forecast, but no-one said about torrential rain! The bike segment was made particularly difficult with the downpour. There were certainly quite a few DNFs and a few people had suffered accidents. The course is not a particularly technical route, but it is littered with lots of cyclists that you do need to be careful of especially when it is wet!
It was also good to see a fellow East End Road Runner taking part (Mr Paul Dennis) and we managed to get racked together in transition.
Results:
Ok, here we go. The bit we all want to know. Below are my 2015 results:
And here my 2017 results:
Good ay! Swim nearly 3 1/2 mins quicker, T1 half a min quicker, bike quicker, T2 slower (due to me being so wet I needed to really dry my feet off) and the run – quicker again!
I was really pleased with it overall. Could I have gone even faster? Yes – certainly on the bike without the torrential rain. It also didn’t help that with over 500 competitors in my wave, it made the swim hard to find clear water. They split us into two sections, and unluckily I fell into the second one meaning I had to swim through the the first group who set off about 30 secs before us.
As always, it was great to have my support crew there who happened to get a little wet and cold also…
(my Mum)
Everything was rounded off with a great tapas meal to celebrate Mum’s birthday and of course oil myself with a few cerveza!
Now I can’t wait to have a proper rest! No training and two weeks lying by the pool or at the beach out in Spain. Knowing me, I will probably hire a bike for a few days no doubt!
tri.to.be.iron 