August Bank holiday held the Annual sprint relays at Nottinghams Holme pier point, a great venue for spectating as the entire event takes place around the regatta boating lake with a 750m open water swim 3 anticlockwise loops of the path around the lake (15km) and a final 5km clockwise run, with the relay format 4 people are needed each competing all sections of the triathlon I was the first man off once finishing the swim my dutys were to tag the second man (Glenn Bonner) who would tag the 3rd (Martin Ball) and finally onto the 4th (Ross McGregor), who would pass the batton ( a colourful rubber band in this case) to me to start my cycle leg.
The Swim start was hectic as usual, with us starting in the water as opposed to a beach style start. There was a lot of confusion as to when the start would actually be and several people drifting passed the start line, all of a sudden out of the blue the siren sounded and the entire field exploded into action. My race plan was to treat each leg of the triathlon as a separate race with the knowledge that there would be some rest after each section of my race was completed, so I gave it my all in the swim breathing heavily and swimming hard from the first 25m I managed to get myself towards the front of the field always looking for fast feet to hang onto to help my progress in the water, I left the water in the top quarter of the pack and was pleased with my efforts, I left the other 3 to carry on the swim dutys while I removed my wetsuit, gathered my breath took on fluids and got ready for the bike leg
, The swim leg continued with places swopping around all the time, I knew my teammates would be giving as much effort and determination towards the end goal as myself, It made it easy to get fired up for the bike leg having the added pressure of a team to compete for and to once again treat it as a bike race rather than a leg of a triathlon.
The bike leg was the first time I really got to appreciate the support from the spectators, fellow team mates and members of Louth tri club I was really pleased with the bike leg, performing faultlessly throughout ,with the circuit being closed to traffic and only having the bikes on the course I could concentrate more on putting the power down and keeping myself out of the wind rather than worrying aboit otjer traffic and road features. once again I managed to claw forward some places including Lincoln Triathlons male A team who had a strong line up, I knew we were progressing well when I passed them early on but wasnt about to rest, I knew if we wanted to finish on the podium the hard work had to continue.
As the other 3 teammates continued I prepared myself for the run, although 5km is shorter than the distance I usually race at (10km) I find it much more intense as the mental and physical strain on your body is high running at a speeds much faster than I would usually race at, I was once again pleased with my performance. I couldn't of asked for more from myself on race day and all the training hours that had gone in had paid off and luck being on our side for no mishaps or mechanicals to happen, I could now partly relax and cheer on my other team mates willing them on and praying for a podium position.
With there being several different races being ran at the same time, it was difficult to judge Whereabouts in the standings we were as other competitors started crossing the line, when Ross came down the finishing chute little did we know after over 3hours of racing how close the finish would be.
We all packed our kit away and waited for the final competitors to finish the race, once everyone had finished the awards could be handed out, We had done it, we managed second place in Triathlon England Club relay championships! With less than 50seconds between ourselfs first and 3rd place! ,none of this could of been achieved without the hard work put in by the entire team, Now we collectively know what we all have to do next year to turn that silver Into a gold.
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