Kelso Sprint Tri - Race Report

James & Frank were down in the Borders last sunday for the Kelso Sprint Triathlon. Here is James account of the event including details of his bowel movements & an alarming game of Bike Dominoes ......

A pleasant drive down to the Borders was followed by an orderly registration and systematic set-up.
Having had a substantial bowl of porridge at 6 am I was confident that my 'routine' would have been completed by the beginning of the race! Oh no ..... with five minutes to go before my swim heat was off my bowels to decided to work!
This is not something that I would ordinarily put in a race report, but it did mean I missed the start of my heat! Arriving seconds after the start I was asked to wait until the next minute was up and then I was off! 'Phew', I thought as I got underway, only to realise I had not started my stop-watch.
With three in the lane it was a decent swim and feeling more energetic than previously I decided to go for a nice steady pace throughout! A previous puff on my brown inhaler helped to keep my airways reasonably clear and I swam a 14.44 for the 750m. A personal best!
Off to T1 and as I've yet to master getting into shoes that are attached to the pedals I decided to velcro the shoes to the handlebars and run the 70-80m in bare feet and put them on at the transition line. It seemed to work although my T1 time at 2.06 was still just over a minute slower than the quickest.
The bike route was fun! A hill that went on and on! I managed to pass four and was caught by one. The circuit was 23.1km and coming in at 46.05 was certainly a marked improvement and a personal best again!
However, T2 was a disaster! Imagine this .... leaning momentarily on my bike, as I wiggled my toes into a running shoe, the bike fell sideways and knocked the next bike over which knocked ..... and so on! This you had to see! The marshall was shouting "Leave them, I'll pick them up" So 2.16 later I emerged from T2, the slowest changeover of the day!
The run was a hard 6km with an awkward section of steps to transcend levels. My legs got going after about 4km and I started to run well! Once again I passed four and was caught by one. A run time of 27.37 was achieved.
An overall time of 1.32.47 was a pro-rata PB given the increased bike and run distances.
The organisation was fine and an event to be recommended.
Finally, a big well done to Frank for an excellent swim time .... he can tell you about that!

Well done both James & Frank.