Hart triathlon 2019

The hart triathlon is part of the Everyone Active Southeast Triathlon Series Championship. It feels like a rapidly evolving race with a number of new options for 2019 that include Aquabike, Aquathlon and Junior Aquathlon. This is in addition to the established Sprint/Supersprint (400m pool swim, 20k bike, 4.2k run) traditional event. I think it’s important to say up front that although the pricing varied based on when you entered, this was an extremely fairly priced race for the area.

The pool swim takes place in a spectacular and relatively new leisure center with a large spectator viewing area and café to keep supporters happy. I’ve never done a rolling start triathlon before but it seemed to work really well. Although swimmers had been given start times based on their expected swim slots, you could walk onto the poolside, receive a safety briefing then start your swim as soon as a swimmer exited the water. This meant anyone stressing about an overoptimistic projected swim time was able to address the issue by slipping in a few minutes early. I didn’t see too many people deciding to go later…

The safety briefing was concise and clear, and although we had to be asked to respect the traffic lights on a new piece of roadworks that had appeared in the last week a mile from the finish of the ride, the official clearly shared our anticipated frustration.

Lap counting helpers were friendly but no nonsense, getting each swimmer in and away as quickly as possible, with a coloured board held in front of you before you started the final two lengths.

The relaxed attitude around the swim was definitely a good thing as registration suffered from some significant queuing (15 minutes plus) and I have no idea where the car park volunteers were putting all the cars in the school over the road (although they were doing a great job of slotting them all in). It might be a good idea to make sure you allow some extra time to cover this, but other than a queue jumping maniac in the car park everyone seemed to be taking it all in their stride.

A nice extra at registration was a race series technical t shirt (especially given the relatively low cost to enter). There had been no swim hats in the race packs as these were being assigned as you entered the water and reclaimed as you exited, which is a more ecologically sensitive way of doing things. A really simple but nice touch was an extra number sticker proudly claiming ‘I’m supporting number …’ which I plastered over my delighted son.

Exiting the swim, you are faced with a short run across smooth tarmac to numbered racking in the transition area. Although there were clearly marked exits and entrances for all of transition, a lot of the action was focused down the bottom end (people coming in to rack, swimmers coming in and bikes going in and out). Discipline amongst those athletes wandering around probably could have been better despite regular yelling from the marshals.

Coming out of T1 there was a very sharp 150 degree bend 75 yards past the mount line – it was mentioned in the briefing but I did hear it caught at least one rider out. Quickly out of the leisure center car park (which was 100% dedicated to transition with a large area for spectating) we found ourselves onto the local roads for the ride proper. There are some astoundingly good sections on the ride, with only a single significant double summit hill at the 6k mark and some very fast, slightly downhill stretches just after that at about two thirds of the way around. It was one of those days were every racer was trying to decide whether to put on a jacket or gloves for the ride and actually, I don’t think there was a wrong answer. I decided not to, and while I was cold for the first half of the ride I don’t think it affected my performance.

Its not a closed road course and like most of our roads at the moment the surface is below what I’d consider to be an acceptable standard in some places with medium sized potholes, so attention was required for the first mile or two. The course also passes through some medium sized towns, and in Hartley Wintney in particular we were moving pretty fast. Although I was always aware I was sharing the highway with cars, it was never an issue and all the driving around me was considerate and helpful. The starts being based on swim times meant I felt the ride was actually closely levelled – I went past a few riders and had a couple come past me, but not too many which was good for safety as well.

I did of course get stopped at the temporary roadworks and decided to try to run them on the pavement, but with hindsight I would have been better off grabbing a drink and waiting clipped in for the lights to go my way again. At least I stayed upright and probably provided comedy value for the riders with more brains behind me.

We had heard that the road markers for the ride had been vandalised the night before, but by the time we got out on the course the team had straightened any issues out. There were enough marshals out there that I think it would have been difficult to get lost anyway, and on both ride and run they were well placed for visibility and smiling and engaged as I shot through towards the end of the day.

We rattled back into t2, and after a quick change of shoes took off on the run, around residential streets with only one significant road to be crossed and two marshals controlling the traffic with a warm and cheery attitude to allow us to pass unimpeded. The first half of the run is very gently uphill, allowing you to let your legs loose on the second half, before breaking back into the leisure center for a final 400m sprint around the car park cheered on by all the spectators.

There were a lot of brand new triathletes tackling this one and with this being close to home for a number of triathlon clubs there were at least three clubs with a significant presence which meant there was a good atmosphere throughout. Barney and I both set PBs and are feeling pretty pleased with how the season is shaping up at the moment.

This would be an excellent triathlon series to try out as a total triathlon novice with the next race coming up on the 14th July in Fareham.