Having lived in Milton Keynes for a fair old time, participating in the Big Cow Milton Keynes triathlon (also the standard distance age group championships) is a good excuse to go back up and meet up with some old friends. (I decided to register on the Saturday, thinking I'd have a bit of a lie in on the Sunday (race day). Unfortunately I cut things a bit fine and only managed to get to transition with 5 minutes to spare. Having been kicked out of transition I then realised that I didn't have my race chip; it was back in the car. Queue a frantic barefoot rush back to the car to get it, and then a mad dash back to the swim start with about 5 minutes to go before my wave started.
Now, as everyone at MSTC knows, the swim is definitely my Achilles heel and today was no different. I got a fair bit bashed about in the swim which had a technical 'W' route which made sighting quite critical. The back straight was directly into the sun which made sighting of the last buoy almost impossible until it was about 20 yards away.
A pedestrian T1 and off on the bike section. It was at this point that I had realised that I had cocked up my Garmin 310XT multisport mode - having forgotten to include transitions it thought I was now on the run rather than on the bike leg. The cycle was s short 39Km, although the course was quite undulating. This year the course was a single large loop, so only one trip up 'heartbreak hill' where it joins the A509 main road before looping back to Emberton. Entry back into T2 was interesting as I overshot the entrance slightly, turning back I got a tri bar up my bottom from the competitor behind me, I'm sure not quite the wind tunnel effect he was envisaging when he fitted them.
The run leg was the standard 3 lap loop of the lake with a drinks station at the start of each lap. Water or High 5 could be obtained, although when the kids that were helping were offering High 5's I had though they meant high 5 slaps rather than energy drinks. Doh!
Unfortunately no other MSTC members were at the race. It not being a BAR event I found it difficult to get motivated to push myself to the limit. It makes a big difference when racing against others for those coveted BAR points.
Results:
Finishing time of 02:22:57, position 161 out of about 470 starters.
Swim: 00:29:27
T1: 00:01:52
Bike: 01:07:26
T2: 00:01:06
Run: 00:43:08
Author: Anthony Grey