Race Report: British Paratriathlon Championships

By Chris Goodwin

Subject: British Paratriathlon Championships, Sprint distance at Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham, 22 August 2010

After losing my European Champion title this year by only 38 seconds to an excellent performance by Iain Dawson at Athlone in July I was doubly keen to retain my British Champion title at a rematch at the National Water Sport Centre at Nottingham.  The venue seemed ideal to me as the cycle and run around the edge of the 2km boating lake is totally flat and allows good views of anyone you are pursuing.

Setting up was a little hasty as Alex, my guide, had been delayed on his journey but it is good to know that setting up is possible in a split T1 and T2 in less  than forty minutes.  The paratri wave was due to set off a few minutes after the female wave of the Nottingham triathlon and as we swam the hundred yards or  so to the start line the women's wave started unnoticed by myself.  What I did notice was weed.  Big clumps of it were floating in the water and it didn't  take long for a small clump to get caught in the tether strung between Alex's and my knee.  I cleared this weed as we waited for the off.

My tactic for the race was, unsurprisingly, to try and draft Iain and his guide in the swim hopefully removing the 1 minute gain he took on me at Athlone. Right from the start I swam hard and hoped that Alex was going to be able to get us into position. I have no idea if this tactic was successful.  Clumps of weed were everywhere and were so thick at times it felt like I was pulling myself over the weed rather than swimming.  Inevitably, more weed caught on the swim tether.  I did a few funny leg kicks to try and remove it and I thought I had been successful.  What actually happened was it simply slid down to Alex's end of the tether.  Having said that, I had decided that it was probably better to haul a bit of weed around rather than stop frequently to clear the line and Alex seems to have made the same decision. 

The swim seemed to take a long time.  A 750m swim should have  taken us around 13 minutes or so, but in the end it was nearly 18 minutes.  When we came to the exit ramp we pulled out a lump of weed the size of a large medicine ball.  We had been swimming with a parachute behind us nearly all the way around. Undeterred and unaware that this swim time was dramatically slower than for others, we carried on into T1 and we were soon off around the lake.

For the most part the bike stage was uneventful.  We steadily overtook some of the women athletes and on the side of the lake with a following wind managed to maintain 30mph.  My heart sank though when the cry came from behind of "On your right" and Iain and his guide overtook us at some speed.  It didn't seem possible that we'd done a faster swim than them, and this was confirmed shortly when they slid into T2 when we had another lap to go.  I was something like 7min30s behind them - an unbeatable lead.

I have to say at this point the fire slackened a little inside me.  I was far from giving up but perhaps I went at 99% effort, not 100%.  When we did get to T2 my troubles were compounded with the insoles of my "go faster" racing flats scrunching up when I put my damp foot in.  Once running though I felt pretty good.  The following wind made the outward journey feel easy and by the time we came to the turning point after 2.5km I had found my running legs.

We crossed the finishing line to great cheers from the many supporters at the grandstand.  I was disappointed though, particularly as my wife and two young children had come to support me and I hadn't given them anything to cheer about.  I had trained long and hard over the last year and this was one of the a list races on my calendar.  I had looked forward with excitement and nervousness at the prospect of a close race for first.  All thwarted by lake weed.  In the end I came in third in the male visually impaired (TRI6) category about 6 minutes off the lead and also behind Haseeb Ahmed who had an excellent race.

The brightest part of the weekend had come the day before spectating the National Relay Championships.  This was great to watch and must be the best way for anyone to start in triathlon.  It looked immense fun and carried out in a very friendly atmosphere.  Breaststrokers mingled with the best and it must be great to have a cup of tea between disciplines.  So don't just train, do a relay triathlon.  It will be a day you never forget.

Next is the Paratriathlon World Championships in Budapest on 11 September where I am looking forward to a male TRI6 category race with athletes from across the world.

Comments

[Julian McCarthy]

Chris, as always, a pleasure to read your reports. 30mph sounds impressive on that course. I agree, the lake was a bit weedy, but not too bad, and I think the tether added an extra problem to deal with.

The rucked up shoe problem is solvable with 2 solutions: one, use talc in the shoes. I do this for both cycling and running shoes and it works a treat. The other one is to use a small piece of double sided tape under the insole to keep it in place.....

I look forward to having a chat with you about my patented T1/2 methods!

Julian