500m swim / 19km bike / 7km run
Much Wenlock triathlon is it its 23rd year, being part of the Wenlock Olympian Games, the inspiration of the modern Olympics.
After posting my entry fee of £35 sometime in May, I was left to check the event website periodically, as I was told not to expect any correspondence.
I saw a list of confirmed entries after the deadline and with under a week before the event, I still couldn’t see my start time. I think I was looking for an additional document on the site, and it turned out to be an updated confirmed entries list that had my start time of 10:20am on.
On such a hot week I was dreading the heat I’d have to face on the day of the event and my wife suggested taking my running water bottle. I hadn’t used a water bottle on a run since I started running a couple of years ago. But the night before I filled it (almost to the top – allowing room for expansion) and put it in the freezer. The next day morning found me doing the exact the opposite of the morning of Chirk Triathlon, willing the temperature to drop, so my bleached bones wouldn’t litter the run course.
With Much Wenlock about 10 miles from my house, it should have been a very civilised trip to the venue. When arriving in good time, we were turned away from the leisure centre car park, being instructed to drive a mile or so up the road and use the park and ride. The only problem was that I wouldn’t be able to take my bike on the bus.
Spotting a car park half a mile away, I got my bike out of the car and with the help of my wife, got all my stuff to the venue. By now I was getting a little anxious, and it was only by luck that I found the smallest of gazebos, which despite any signage turned out to be the registration area.
Here I also found out that due to traffic lights being on the bike course, we’d take a 1km detour. The race officials were really friendly and helpfully pointed out all the ins and outs of transition as I racked my bike. For once the racks were high enough to put the saddle of my 62cm frame on!
With just enough time to visit the boy’s room, before I knew it I was in the pool being briefed. A little like Pavlov’s dog, after four triathlons I expected the procedure to be the same. First shock… we had to wear the timing chip on our left wrists! Second shock… we started in the deep end of the pool – something that I only realised as my feet never made it to the bottom! With only one other person in my lane, you’d had thought it would have been quite relaxed. Sadly my fellow competitor didn’t understand the concept of swimming clockwise and it took two collisions for him to finally get it!
My swim time was seconds below my guestimate for 20 lengths of breaststroke (I’m almost there with my crawl now!) and I was soon on my bike, leaving T1. After a gentle incline, I was speeding towards a few of the competitors I’d started the swim with and soon improved my position by five places. The detour took us along the roughest ‘road’ I think I’d been on and after nearly being taken out by a Land Rover I was back on a familiar road. It turned out that I’d unwittingly done the bike route, although in a slightly different order, the week before.
This was good in one respect, but bad in as much as I knew of the 15% hill that was to come. By now the heat was sapping me of all strength and once up the last hill, it was just a short ride downhill to T2. As I pushed my feet into a generously talcum powdered pair of trainers, my running bottle was unearthed and accompanied me out on the run.
Through a wood I went, overtaken by someone within minutes. I knew that in the heat, I had to take it slowly, but soon passed another runner. Down a hill, up a hill… all the time trying to stay in some shade. One sip of water, one squirt over my head. It was mostly an out and back affair, which meant that easy down would end up being a testing ascent. I slowly edged passed another person, then was passed by quite a fit looking runner. I hung onto this guy as best I could, knowing I was a mile away from the finish. The gap increased between us on a long downhill, but I gained on the flat. Soon we were crossing a field on a path made by tractor tracks. This was an ankle sprain waiting to happen. I emptied the last dregs of water into my mouth, before evolving into human / airplant hybrid… sucking any moisture I could from the atmosphere! Just ahead was the woods again and I could hear cheering crowds. At a stile I was meters behind the guy I was chasing and an official urged me on to overtake him. Putting everything I had into that long last sprint, I blazed past him looking every bit the athlete.
Sadly my lower than halfway position held the real truth, something which really disappointed me. Considering how the heat had taken its toll on me and that the water bottle saved the day, I’m now happy I finished. My legs felt stronger from the swim that in previous events, but I didn’t maintain my pace on the bike section.
With its challenging bike and run courses, I can thoroughly recommend this event. The atmosphere with other races going on at the same time gave the day a real buzz, which was great if you had supporters in tow!
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