Ringwood Brewery Triathlon 2019

Barney: Riverside Lakes Campsite, 28th April 5:34 am

Stu and I had managed to get a pass for the early season Ringwood Brewery Triathlon – an Olympic (ish) distance race by turning it into a two family camping trip just down the road. The alarm had gone off at 5:30 am, waking the entire rest of my family in the tent we were sharing.

Having quietly pulled on my trisuit I was planning my next moves carefully in order to get out of the tent as quietly as possible. Our bikes and bags had been packed on and in the car the night before and breakfast was laid out. Before I managed to move any further the leaky air beam in the living room area of the tent gave up a gallant fight against gravity and deposited that half of the tent on my head. I found myself pumping (quietly) and swearing (quietly) in equal measures to get it reinflated before I left the site.

Waking the family and then leaving them with a crippled tent did not feel like a good idea; hopefully this collapse was not a sign of things to come for todays event.

Stu: Ringwood Leisure Center, 28th April 6:30 am

While I’d slept well in a warm and dry caravan, I suspected Barney may have done less so on a leaky airbed in a tent. Any performance deficit this caused him was going to be just fine with me.

Trying to sneak out in the dark without waking everyone, ninja like, at five thirty had not gone entirely to plan as I managed to drop, fumble or tread on anything not actually nailed down at least twice. Just my curses alone probably woke up half the campsite. I was looking forward to the race – the 120 competitor start list meant it was on a much more compact and personal scale than usual and I was hoping this would make it special.

We arrived at the leisure center, parked up and registered. I was immediately on edge – at any triathlon there’s super sexy top end bikes, mountain bikes with shopping baskets, and a range of stuff in between. At Ringwood there was something wrong with the usual ratios. Nearly everything was visibly top end gear, being pushed into transition by frighteningly fit looking racers. Although there were a few rusty nails that had been hauled into services they had never been intended for there was absolutely nothing in the middle.

As we set up in the small transition area we had a good laugh with the marshals, who were visibly excited about the upcoming start, and the other competitors – everyone was chatty and good natured. Unusually, everyone racked with the bikes facing inwards rather than alternating direction as at most races; there was enough space that this wasn’t an issue. It felt really good to be laying out bike and run shoes again for my first tri of the season – although I wasn’t looking forward to the barefoot run across gravelly tarmac from the pool, through transition and around a cone at the far end (to equalise distance for everyone) before sprinting back to the bike.

Most of the athletes were laying out wind/waterproofs for the ride – I followed suit but really wasn’t sure what I would do when I arrived in T1. We strapped our timing chips round our left ankles – something which needed more precision than usual as the Velcro straps were very narrow, and made sure we’d chosen a suitable gear for the start of the ride.

We’d had to get there earlier than usual as although our wave (slowest swimmers started first) wasn’t starting until 7:55 transition was closing at 7:10 to make sure the first racers had a clear run from the pool.

As it was a cold and grey morning, we stripped down to trisuits and headed inside where it was warm.

Barney: Ringwood Leisure Center, 28th April 7:45 am

This was my first triathlon of the year. In fact it was my first one since the Marlow Half Ironman event in July 2018 where I had ended up walking chunks of the run due to an ankle injury. I was perhaps a little more nervous than normal. On top of that the swim is the weakest of my disciplines and though I had made good progress last year improving that area my only swim this year had been 3 days before and it had showed how badly my swim fitness had dropped off.

Having put down a swim time of around 13:30 for the 600m swim I was concerned that I was nowhere near the mark based on Thursdays swim. I resigned myself to being one of the last out of the pool but on the positive side I was in a more hydrodynamic trisuit and cap than my Thursday swim in baggy shorts.

Hopefully I could find some fast feet to draft to help me along a bit.

With a detailed and energetic athlete briefing done and introductions with our very friendly and helpful lane counter complete we were close to the off, cheering on each athlete from the previous wave as they started to leave the pool and head out to transition.

Stu: Ringwood Leisure Center, 28th April 8:06 am

Barney and I had put down the same swim time for the 600m swim, so weren’t completely surprised to be in the same lane. The system was clearly working well as with only three of us in the lane I was nearly done and we were all still on the same set of lengths. Counters at the end had made things easier for us, yelling ‘Half-way’ and ‘Two lengths to go’ although it had been made clear it was our responsibility to also keep count ourselves.

It was a typical lap pool, 2m deep at one end, 1m at the other but with clear water and marked up lanes so it was easy to work out how close we were to the end. I was pleased to exit the water in third or fourth place out of our cohort of 15, and was able to pick one of those ahead of me off in T1.

As always, with the adrenaline flowing I didn’t even notice the gravel, although I did take a second or two to brush the bottom of my feet before slipping on my shoes. I squinted again at the grey sky, cursed and took a few more seconds to slip on a waterproof.

Barney was out of the water around a minute behind me so we’d exchanged a couple of words in transition. I ran to the mount line, jumped on and shot off knowing he’d be on me in minutes.

Barney: Ringwood Leisure Center, 28th April 8:20am

13 minutes. Wow, very pleasantly surprised.

Stu had started 3 seconds behind me and at the end of the first length I let him pass and jumped onto his fast feet. I quickly discovered however there was no way I could hold on at that pace without blowing up so after 2 more lengths I let Stu’s feet disappear off and ultimately he finished 2 whole lengths ahead of me.

I covered the next 250m with the other competitor from my lane drafting me. This was when I got a very light tap (I think accidentally) on my foot so I stopped at the end of the length and let her past. I didn’t feel guilty about drafting her for the remainder of the event as we had basically shared the load nicely.

The jog to transition was long, cold and painful on the feet. Having seen Stu heading off I spent time getting my feet free of gravel and putting socks on. Jacket and gloves were also added to try and keep some of the wind and cold out. As I was treating this whole event as a big training session I took my time – a lot of it I discovered later when the official timings came through.

I knew Stu would be going hard on the bike. He always does when he has me breathing down his neck. However today with a very lengthy T1 time and my desire to pace my effort on what I suspected would be quite a windy and bumpy course across the New Forest I knew I would not be catching him early.

I had decided to ease back on the bike leg a fraction to try and come in fresher for the run, which is not my normal tactic. I love the bike but often end up spent before the run, so today I wanted to try something a little different.

Stu: Ringwood Leisure Center, 28th April 9:10 am

The bike course was brilliant, clearly marked with marshals at critical junctions. Although the roads were not closed, the early start meant there was very little traffic and I was taking full advantage of this with some aggressive cornering lines. I’d had two exciting moments – about three quarters of a kilometre in, in full aero tuck on my tribars and at about 34 km/h I’d spotted a tight mini roundabout coming up. I didn’t ease up or sit up and it turned out to be a correct, but very close call.

Further on, at about 18k there was a sharp ninety degree left with a marshal yelling at me as I hammered into the corner – as I rounded the bend the cattle grid he’d been warning me about (couldn’t hear him, was going too fast) was suddenly there in front of me. I hauled the bike upright and straightened my line as I shot across it.

I’d averaged well over 30km/h over the first 20k, but between 20 and 30k we were suddenly hit by hills, rough road surfaces and headwinds. With 280m of climbing in 45k there wasn’t a huge amount of elevation change, with most of the course best described as undulating, but there were a couple of beasts in that stretch.

The swimmer I’d managed to pass in transition came past me at two k – I was sure it was Barney coming up and was surprised it wasn’t – and I was still able to see her at around the 8k mark. At the 18k mark someone else rocketed past me – still no Barney. I’d told myself if I could hold him off until the hills between 18-20k I might be able to keep him in sight for the rest of the ride, but as I fought my way onto the New Forest moors there was still no sign of him.

I had a total of four cyclists come past me on the whole 45k and passed four myself, so it was much more of an individual ride than I’m used to. I loved it, but had been burying myself to stay in front of Barney – I hadn’t expected to need to do it for so long. Being heavy, I found the hills hard, but I had a much less difficult time with the wind at the top than some of the other riders.

I was finally able to recover a bit and start picking up speed again for the last 10k. I drew a round of applause from the spectators at the dismount line for an (inadvertent) rear wheel skid as I braked hard on the downhill gradient and ran back in for T2.

Barney: Some windswept part of New Forest, 28th 9:25am

The first 8 miles had been flat and fast, then things had got windier for the next few miles as we climbed up onto the exposed areas of the New Forest. Though no where near as bad as the day before when Storm Hannah came through there were still gusts that unsettled me enough to mean I took the safe option and went back to my brake hoods rather than aerobars.

I had over taken a few people in the first 2 miles but then not seen another competitor until 13 miles at which point one from the wave after ours (you could tell by the higher number flapping on his back) went past me like I was stood still. There is nothing quite like seeing, and hearing, a highly capable cyclist cruise past on a TT bike at full race pace, you just have to admire it.

We then hit a combination of some climbs, rough road surface and head-on winds; I was down to what felt like a crawl and it wasn’t until 20 miles in that I saw anyone else. Another fast one from the following wave went past just as I spotted 3 riders a quarter of a mile or so ahead on the top on the moorland. Was that most distant one Stu? Whoever it was had tucked down so I couldn’t make out if it had Stu’s distinctive orange helmet (based on later conversation, it definitely was). I picked off the other two competitors as we went over the final bumps and though I was closer to the elusive figure, as we dropped off the heights and out of the wind he vanished, never to be seen again.

As I came into transition Stu was just getting ready to head out. “Great ride Stu” I said as he set off and I racked my bike.

My plan to ride slightly more conservatively seemed to have worked, my legs felt fresher than normal. The chase was now on.

Stu: Ringwood Leisure Center, 28th April 10:10 am

Struggling with a different issue with each ankle I took a few seconds to put on socks. The left ankle was slightly blistered from a couple of days ago (I later inspected my run shoes and the material at the heel had worn apart and rucked up) so I applied a compeed plaster (these things are magic for runners). I had to hold it against my heel for a few seconds to warm it up before it stuck, but I was off and running quickly, shedding the waterproof as I ran back around the cone before exiting transition again.

As I headed out, Barney raced in with his bike. He might not have caught me on the ride, but I knew he would get me on the run. I settled in to a steady pace as we climbed out of Ringwood and focused on the runner I could see a hundred meters or so in front of me. I would wear him down steadily. A terrible runner, a fair few athletes came past me – including Barney at 2k of the 9k run; but I’d picked my target and took him at 4k.

Chunks of the run were on narrow lanes, and a small amount was on a fairly busy road, but the drivers we saw were all patient and gave plenty of passing distance. It was scenic with there was a crossover at 3/7k which meant you got to see more other competitors on the run than anywhere else. I spotted David from our club coming the other way at this point – he’d started much later and was gaining, but not as quickly as I’d expected.

A water station was manned in the crossover by two very lovely older ladies. I lost a few seconds here as I couldn’t bring myself to run on and discard my (paper) cup, so I drank at the station before politely handing the empty cup back to the lady.

There was one pinch point at about 0.5k/8.5k where there was a blind bend with runners coming both ways – I was lucky and had a clear shot at the corner, although I did slow down to make sure. Soon I was racing back in and over the finish line to receive medal, water bottle, access to the snack table and an offer of a free massage.

We retired back to the campsite to dive into the bbq our families had pulled together while we were racing, this worked brilliantly as a chance to debrief on the race, get some protein and water in and warm up while relaxing. Leaky tents aside, I think we’d both recommend this as a way of getting more out of a racing weekend.

We both loved this race; neither of us humiliated ourselves in front of a scary looking field, both enjoyed seeing each other on the course and we fully intend to drag a lot more of our club down to the Ringwood Brewery Triathlon next year. As this proved, triathlons are a lot more fun with friends.