Vitruvian Triathlon/British Middle Distance Chhampionships

12 September 2017 - By James Montgomery

On Saturday, 7 members of WRC took part in the Vitruvian middle distance triathlon. The distances involved are 1900 meters swim, 85kms bike and 21 kms run. Myself, last minute entrant Alex Stuckey, Andy Notley, Stuart Mills, Rachel Pearsons, Paul Hedger and Paul Chandler took on the event which was also the British Middle Distance Championships.

Overnight rain had cleared and the conditions were near perfect for the early 6:25 start. Rach was off in the first wave, followed by Andy in wave 2, Alex and Stuart in wave 3, Paul Hedger in wave 4 and myself and Paul Chandler in the last wave. The water wasn’t particularly cold at 17degC making for a good swim, although times were a little slower than expected seemingly due to the exit and re-entry at the halfway point. Putting in an excellent swim, Andy was the fastest, overtaking Rach in the process to exit the water first and get into T1 and out onto the bike.

The bike leg is an excellent course that, with a combination of climbs and good fast sections, has everything for the keen bike rider. The two lap course takes in the infamous Rutland Ripple as well as several other climbs. A few of us had issues with slow traffic on the climbs and a builders van and trailer reversing caused me to stop for several minutes. This failed into total insignificance when at the start of the second lap my front gear cable snapped, closely followed by the rear gear cable. There was no way I could continue, so it was game over and I headed back to the race centre. Meanwhile the others were still enjoying the warm sunny conditions and continued on their way towards T2, with Andy having put in a stunning 2 1/2 hour bike.

Then on to the run. Although it is practically flat, after the 85kms undulating bike leg it is still pretty tough. Stuart especially finding it tough having completed two 10 mile runs in the last 7 days following on from minimal running over 3 months due to injury, however this didn’t deter him too much from putting in a stonking run and althouugh he didn’t catch Andy due to the wave start times, still managed the fastest overall on the day. Andy was looking dead towards the end, but since he was heading for a sub-5 hour overall time in his first middle distance event, this was fully understandable. Next home was Staurt, then Alex, pleased with his sub-5hr 30 mins time and course PB, having passed Rach on the run who was next home and feelng queezy from gel overload, but very pleased with her finish time. With two still to finish the rain came down in biblical quantities, with Paul Chandler in his first middle triathlon finishing a few minutes ahead of multi-iron distance finisher Paul Hedger.

A great event, well organised and a great day’s racing, enjoyed by all (even me!).

James

Splits
Stuart
Swim: 39:21
Bike: 02:37:34
Run: 01:36:25
Overall: 04:57:06

Andy:
Swim: 34:26
Bike: 02:30:38
Run: 01:49:52
Overall: 04:58:08

Alex:
Swim: 41:54
Bike: 02:45:00
Run: 01:55:10
Overall: 05:27:38

Rach:
Swim: 47:51
Bike: 02:53:32
Run: 02:01:55
Overall: 05:49:39

Paul Chandler:
Swim: 01:04:35
Bike: 02:41:52
Run: 02:07:07
Overall: 06:04:41

Paul Hedger:
Swim: 57:55
Bike: 03:06:00
Run: 02:10:29
Overall: 06:24:25

James Montgomery:
Swim: 47:23
DNF due to mechanical on second lap of bike.