Inaugural Dereham Sprint Triathlon

A good turnout of Tri-Anglians at the inaugural East Dereham Sprint Tri. 

A traditional  early morning start, brekky, brush teeth load bike and set the satnav. What a treat. I got to go on the new theme park ride they call the A47. Swoops, dives, scary corners , but the tarmac was so smooooth. 

The whizzy weather AI monkeys had promised a chilly, wet day and they got it almost completely wrong. Cold at the start? Well,  it was during the race briefing which involved a tour of the venue and a demo of T1. I was glad to get back  into the Leisure centre and wait for the swims to start – and besides, I had things to do. After that the weather picked up – it was just like spring. 

 The swim was one of those queued-line-up-in-numerical-order jobbies, 30 second count down,  and then dodging under ropes till you hit the other side of the  pool and whoosh outdoors into T1. All going fine till you came off the mat and onto the tarmac which had been formed into that wonderful shingle beach texture so a bit of ooh-ahh down to my bike at the far end of the racking. They’ll have to get the A47 pleasure fairies to look at that.

The bike ride was an out and back route, pretty flat , well sign posted; as fast as advertised but nowhere near as dangerous as  the race the race brief suggested.  From my point of view all fairly quiet apart from the cyclists tearing towards me  on the opposite side of the road. 

I had a dreadful T2, messing about with my shoes and trying to get a gel opened but in the end decided there was no point hanging around so just got on with it. A Tri-Anglian ran past me on the way out of transition and sprang away. My leg’s don’t operate like that anymore  so just had to concentrate on the good old fashioned getting one foot in front of the other method – it’s progress and  always works in an emergency.  On the way back I spied that Tri-Anglian and he was getting closer to me and the further I went the closer he got.  My head said  – I can pass him back-, My legs said –  Nope.

Rolled into the finish – fixed grin, arms in the air and despair in the eyes. Medal, water, shower and changed. Back out in time for the prize giving. Ladies first:

So, up on the podium to collect a whizzy plaque – no speeches, then celebrated with a coffee and biscuit. Photos are currently undergoing scrutiny so no Grinners.