WRC Weekend Triathlon Action

11 June 2018 - By James Montgomery

Saturday 9th June

A 2 day corporate event at the Volvo Ocean Race in Cardiff sounds like great fun but was hardly ideal preparation for Andy Notley’s first Olympic tri of the year, although it did mean he got drive past the venue on the way home!

After the usual early start for a bowl of porridge & negotiating the quiet streets of Eton, Andy’s wave started at 7:15, in the pleasantly warm waters of Dorney rowing lake.

Andy was soon feeling the effects of no swim-specific training and quickly ended up swimming alone and behind the lead pack of athletes, howevr, still managed to exit the water in 14th place.

Out of T1 and on to the bike which he was really looking forward to, the race blurb promising a ‘flat & fast’ route, and it didn’t disappoint! Despite a slight side-on breeze, the 8 laps up & down the lake were brilliant fun, with plenty of athletes to aim for in the distance and averaging 22+mph, gaining a few places, finishing the leg in 8th place overall.

Not his strongest discipline, Andy was  dreading the run, especially as it was a 2 lap route from one end of the lake to the other, so how far you have left to go is always visible! That didn’t seem to deter Andy who put in a fine run section to cross the finishing line in stunning time of 2hrs 15mins, coming in 13th place overall and 7th in his age group.

Swim:    00:26:33
Bike:      01:03:42
Run:       00:43:40
Overall: 02:15:19

Sunday 10th June
Further afield up North, were Carina Taylor and Lee Blake, taking part in the ITU WTS Standard distance Age Group race in Leeds.

All was good then until Lee was informed his swim leg would only be 750m due to fog on lake. Meanwhile Carina was waiting for her wave to start to then be told the ladies will do full swim off 1500m!

There was a long uphill run to T1 and then again another 400 meters to run to the bike mount. The bike leg was a little short at 36.2km but a good course with only one big hill back to transition at Roundhay Park before another long run in transition frokm the bike dismount before setting out on the run.

Total time for Carina was 2 hrs 59mins 11 secs with Lee’s total time of 2hrs 32mins 06secs refelcting the shorter swim course.

Splits:
Carina:
Swim:     00:28:37
Bike:       01:24:34
Run:       00:54:33
Overall:  02:59:12

Splits:
Lee:
Swim:      00:16:26
Bike:        01:12:58
Run:        00:49:49
Overall:  02:32:39

Equally as far away, but in the opposite direction, Rachel Pearsons was taking part in the Costwold 113 event near Cirencester as part of her build-up to Ironman Vichy later in the year. This was a middle distance event with 1.9km swim, 90kms bike and 21 kms run sections.

Another event effected by the weather with mist over lake delaying the start by 90 minutes. This is more than annoying as it can have massive repercussions later on in terms of correct nutrition. Still, in to the swim and Rachel exited the water after only 41 minutes and was still feeling pretty good and up for the bike section.

Out on to the 2 lap reasonably flat and fast course, with only a single hill of note that is climbed twice. Rachel Stormed through the bike leg and at this point was on to beat her time from last year. It was all down to the run.

Feeling good on the mixed surface route, until just around the 3kms mark when she hit a tree stump and went over on her ankle. Unfortunately, that was race over for Rachel. A good samaritan helped her to the next marshall point, but she was left understandably gutted by the incident. Thankfully this race wasn’t Rachel’s main focus for the year and there were still positives to take from the day.

Splits:
Swim: 00:41:16
Bike: 02:49:34