Sprint triathlon and aquathlon races

I did the Brize Norton sprint triathlon on Wednesday, I went into this race quite tired after my 200 mile cycle mini tour, but wanted to do this race as its a good little triathlon and also a great opportunity to meet up with fellow club mates who you've not seen for a while.

It was a 400m swim, a 20k bike (more like 19k I think) followed by a 5k run (Sags thinks it was slightly longer than 5k). My race went pretty well (for my standard anyway), the swim was a comfortable sub 7 minute swim, the bike felt hard all the way round, it felt like I had no power in my legs at all; however surprisingly I felt strong on the run. Somehow I managed to come home in 7th place and finish within a minute or two of some very good athletes. Very pleased!

There was one big down side to this race and that was the passing of Air Chief Marshall Christopher Moran, our association's President. He experienced problems on the run and sadly never recovered. Sir Christopher was a real 'hands on' association President who competed, spectated and encouraged others, an true inspiration to others. Our thoughts go out to the Moran family.

Last night I decided, on the spur of the moment, to do a local aquathlon race; an open water 750m swim followed by a 5k run. I was feeling pretty tired from the sprint triathlon the day before but thought it would be a good opportunity to try some open water swimming and practice my sighting, pack swimming, etc. And I'm so glad I did! I'd forgotten what a mass swim start feels like! Anyway, I came out of the water just under 14 minutes (after zig-zagging my way round the swim course) donned my trainers and ran, and ran hard! The run was tough, I could definately feel the previous days sprint race in my legs, but I managed to pass plenty of people and came home in 19th position (out of 83). Happy with that.

Overall, two short hard training sessions completed in two days, job done! Train smart all.