I did a sprint triathlon this week as I wished to have a lake race in addition to sea races, so that I could know how I perform differently. My ideal race would be an Olympic distance race, with a lake swim, flat bike and flat run, but unfortunately I couldn’t find any accessible options which could fit into my calendar, with some races held on a time of day when no trains run at all for me to get there. As a result, I registered for a weekday evening race which I could guarantee transport, but it would also mean that I could only do a sprint instead of an Olympic distance race.

Bike problem again

Whenever I get a problem with my bike it is always before a race. This time, my bike was stolen from the underground parking of my apartment block. I was probably careless in locking it, forgot to insert the frame and wheel together into the stand. The whole frame and the back wheel were gone, leaving only the front wheel, my helmet and the lock intact. (Later on, I found out that another road bike in the garage had a front wheel missing as well, with the frame locked intact.)

The problem was found out when I intended to commute to a swimming pool by bicycle, two days before the race! It was so urgent that I started to look for another one while I was taking the bus to the swimming pool, and ended up getting to Hanwell to buy one from a seller on Facebook Marketplace for £70 (discounted from £90) immediately after my swim. The seller claimed that it was recently serviced, and the bike was, in fact, looked clean and shiny, and the gear was smooth as well. He said that I was lucky to get this because there were about 50 people showing interest in the bike, but they were all booked to view it the morning afterwards.

The bike is a Dawes Giro 300. After I paid for it, I rode it immediately to Chiswick in order to brought it home. However, once I got on the bike, I found it not perfect for my need, as the wheels were so thick, unlike the previous one I used to.

The next day (1 day before the race), I rode it to Halfords (Croydon Windmill Road) to buy some accessories, and decided to replace the wheels as well. The technician was busy and referred me to Purley Way so I eventually went there. I then found out that the rear inner tube needed replacement as well, and when the technican inspected the bike, he found out that the brake pads had to be replaced as well, and eventually the cost of service, including replacing two wheels to 700/23, the brake pads, and the inner tube, was greater than what I paid for the bike itself. Another problem I found out that was the plug at the end the right handlebar was missing, but Halfords did not stock these and couldn’t replace that for me.

I collected the bike early afternoon on race day after servicing. Just as I left Halfords (Purley Way), near Croydon Airport, and started riding back to Croydon, there was a near miss as a car nearly turned into me while making a left turn into Wing Yip Supermarket (next to Halfords). Luckily I had just started riding so I was slow, and the ground was dry, so no crash happened, but that near miss really tested the braking ability of my new wheels, and I returned a middle finger to the car. As there was still some time left, I got some food from a supermarket and went home before heading to the race.

However, the missing handlebar end plug was really a problem. While I was on the train from East Croydon to Clapham Junction, I checked the BTF regulation and it really requires that the tube ends be plugged. It would be a real shame if I ended up being denied racing if I couldn’t sort it out, but fortunately it was weekday afternoon so shops in Windsor were open. Once I arrived at Windsor, I headed to a bike shop, and luckily they did have those plugs for sale so I bought one immediately, now my shiny “new” bike was totally race ready. I saw another near miss as well, another bike was trying to continue on Barry Avenue by turning right at the junction of Goswell Road and nearly got hit by an oncoming car in the opposite direction.

After I got my bike ready, the navigation software guided me to cross the Thames on the bridge to Slough, then follow the Thames path to the race venue, but that was not a nice route as it the Thames path was uneven and, in some places, rocky, so it was hard to ride 700/23 wheels on it.

The race

The sprint race was scheduled to start at 18:30. It was such a pity that the water temperature was 21.8°C. If it reached 22.0°C, wetsuits would be forbidden. The swim course is shown below. In this race, mass start was used. However, it was the most crowded course I have ever done as there was little space between the buoys and the shore, and I swam into dozens of people throughout the whole course.

My Garmin watch registered 720 m for the 750 m swim course. I completed the swim in 14 minutes, 28 seconds, the 35th person out of the water among 206 recorded participants (23rd / 132 among males), and entered T1, where I spent 2 minutes and 24 seconds, which was a bit slower than I expected as I was grasping for air after going hard in my swim, and also I decided to put on my socks as well after getting blister running without them in my last triathlon.

The bike course was 4 laps of 4.67 km, totalling 18.68 km (as measured by the map), which my Garmin watch measured exactly as well. I took about 10 and a half minutes per lap, with official time 42 minutes and 17 seconds for the whole bike segment, 181st out of 205 (125th / 131 among males). (There was a glitch in the timing system that a time was missing for one participant.) I entered T2, consumed my bottle of sports drink, and headed straight out to the run, taking 1 minutes and 21 seconds there.

The run course was 2 laps of 2.5 km, totalling 5 km, which my Garmin measured 5.05 km. I was trying to hold 11 km/h for the run, started off at about 11.8 km/h, but eventually my speed dropped to about 10.2 km/h in the outgoing part of the second lap. The wind was blowing in the return direction on the bike and run course so after I turned back, my speed would become faster. On the return segment of my second lap, I started at 12 km/h with the wind and accelerated all the way to the finish, with the 5th km taking only 4 minutes and 31 seconds. My run time was 26 minutes and 29 seconds, 117th / 203 recorded times (90th / 131 among males).

My overall result was 1:27:02, 132nd / 205 finishers, and 102nd / 133 among males. The difference in bikes (my previous stolen one was a Raleigh Airlite 100) didn’t matter much, both were similar entry-level road bikes, and my ranking was still not good compared to previous triathlons. Therefore I believe that swim training is useless in triathlons.