St Albans Sprint Triathlon 31st of July 2005

by John McDowall

With the best part of my first season bike racing with the North Road under my belt I had rather foolishly decided to spread my cycling wings and attempt the multi-discipline sport of triathlon.  I entered the St Alban’s sprint event held at the Cannon’s sports club that combined a 400M pool swim, a 20KM ride and a 5KM run. 
My event training was limited to a dozen visits to the pool and four treadmill running sessions at the Gym, so I was very aware that the biking part was my strongest suite.
On registration I was initiated into the triathlon world by the marking of the race number on my arm.  I racked my bike and laid out my kit in the transition area ready for speedy changeovers.  Self-consciously wearing my shiny new boy tri-kit I headed to the pool to start the swim, or what I euphemistically call ‘propelled bobbing’.  With three swimmers to a lane it was not long before I was in the pool engaged in the technicalities of self learnt front crawl.  However, the swim leg seemed to go well and I was out of the pool reasonably quickly and running for the bike.  A quick change and I was off on a flat, twisty but fairly technical route that I had decided to ride at a slightly lesser pace then a normal 10. Certainly the riding part proved a strong bit of the event as I overtook rider after rider on all types of bikes. I was a little disappointed with my ride time as a combination of a game of cricket and a Saturday time trial had left me a little leg weary. 
On reaching base, rack the bike, helmet and gloves off, trainers on and straight off onto the run.  I had another competitor in front setting just the right pace and I stayed with him a while until my hamstrings adjusted to the different demands of running.  I set a solid pace and had a final sprint to the finish to come in at 1 hour 19 mins, coming 73rd overall and 15th in my age category. 
In cycling terms I had done the 20th best ride that had really helped close the gap on far stronger swimmers and runners.  
This is certainly an event worthy of consideration for cyclists considering the benefits of some cross-training, and with cycling the longest part of event it is arguable biased towards that discipline.  All-in-all a really fun experience, tremendously well organized and marshalled, and it was for charity!