A Tough Flat Ely Triathlon

22 August 2017 - By James Montgomery

On Sunday I took part in the Monster Racing Ely Triathlon. There was a middle distance and Standard distance event on offer, I chose the standard distance as I was using this as prep for The Vitruvian triathlon in a few weeks’ time. Although touted as a Standard distance event, the leg lengths were slightly over distance at 44 kms for the bike and 12kms for the run.

Starting the 1500 meters swim at 7:30 in the Great Ouse, the combination of the narrow waterway and 150 competitors swimming meant the water was quite choppy until we all spread out a bit. I had been quite cold at the start and it took me a while to get into the swimming, but once going I had a decent swim to the finish, passing quite a few.

A reasonable T1 (for me…) and out onto the bike. The first 14 miles I covered in less than 38 minutes, then came the next 14 miles, across the flat fenland and into a relentless headwind, which was compounded by a poor road surface in many places. The road wasn’t pot-holed so much as collapsing due to subsidance and wouldn’t have looked out of a place on a mountain bike course! For about 5 miles I simply sat up and didn’t put much effort in as my body was being busted up, let alone what it was doing to my bike!! I was still pleased with finsh of the 44 kms leg up on my target time.

Then came the run. Huh! After the tough bike leg my legs were like jelly. The course was 4 laps around the city centre and Cathedral. Which sits on top of a hill. On the 4th lap, I was reduced to a mere shuffle up the hill, but was still passing many who were having a even worse time.

Looking back, I really enjoyed the event, I was definitely surprised how tough it was for a “flat” course and being quite local would make a good club event.

Splits:
1500 mtrs Swim/44 kms Bike/ 12 kms Run
Swim:    00:37:45 (included a 1 min 27 secs run to T1)
Bike:       01:25:52
Run:       00:56:41
Overall: 03:06:16

James