Bishopbriggs Tri Sunday 9th May

Colin Bain became an official Triathlete at the weekend as he took part in the Bishopbriggs Novice Triathlon. It was not much of a surprise to most of us that he did well & 4th position is an excellent result. Below is Colin's race report.

Well done also to Donna who also took part in the Novice Tri & to James who was in action in the Sprint Distance Event.

Bishopbriggs Novice Tri - 09/05/2010

The day finally arrived and I woke up sick as a dog! I wasn't ill, it was simply nerves. This might seem a bit much given that I was only doing a Novice tri but before I started swimming in January, I seriously doubted I'd ever be able to do one. It was simply the the fear of the unknown in the pool.

Anyway I got up to Bishopbriggs nice and early in order to get registered, warm up on the bike, run a bit, get my stuff in transition and most importantly do LOADS of arm stretches prior to the swim. Nerves started to disappear as I was distracted by chatting to lots of fellow “Novices” (the reason for the inverted commas will be explained later). So after a couple of heats it was our turn, deep breath and it was time of the off. All my arm stretches helped and I wasn't struggling nearly as much as the start of most of our training sessions. I think my technique was mostly out of the window as I was more interested in getting to the end of the swim. I was doing OK and had caught the guy in front fairly quickly (seemed to be placed in lane 1 with only 2 other slow swimmers). I was well in my stride before, BOOM! I collided head on with the other lady in my lane. Not my fault. She had backstroked across the lane and hit me on my side! The knocked me right backwards and it was damn difficult to get going again. Anyway, it took me a wee bit to get going and I made it to the end and scrambled out of the pool, ready to get the hammer down. By this time, several people had already finished their swim.

Out of pool, I immediately started to pass people in transition and out on the bike laps. It ws acase of going as hard as I could and seeing how many folk I could pass. I got to a stage on the bike where I had passed most of the serious looking cyclists and even the Marshall's motor bike was pacing me. Me?After a lap of being 'paced' I was into transition again with nobody anywhere near. I was stating to think I might be doing well. On to the run and the legs felt fine (not like a Duathlon). I kept up the pace as much as possible not wanting to back off at all given that this was against the clock. My new racing shoes worked a treat as I floated over the ground. It being only a 3K run, it was over pretty quickly and I was through the finish, tired but not exhausted, wondering where I had placed.

So what was my position? After enquiring, I was sent indoors to check the timing board. 3rd place!!I was delighted with a podium. My time of 43 mins, a full 10 mins slower than the winner and 6 mins slower than 2nd place. That sounded like an awful big gap to me. About half an hour later, I checked the results sheet and I had somehow slipped to 6th place, 4th male Novice. Booo! Spoke too soon about the podium. I was gutted. Full results are not out yet but I seem to remember that the first few places in the novice race swam 400m in under 6mins, cycled under 17 mins and ran under 12 mins! Not sure that any of those performances were Novice performances but mabe I'm just bitter. I'm not, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and definitely will step up to Sprint distance for the next one, hopefully before the end of the summer. It's nice to finally be a triathlete, something I've thought of for many years. Highlight for me was definitely seeing my son waving at me through the cafe window every time I took a breath coming back down the pool. Thanks Callum!