TriIC sprint to the finish

This year saw a record number of TriIC members travel to St Mary’s school in Calne for the 2013 BUCS Sprint Championships. It was a stunning morning, the perfect set up for a full day ahead of racing and sunning ourselves on the grass. Eighteen people worked together in the Tetris challenge of squeeze themselves, their bags and racing bikes into two minibuses but with everything finally on board we set off down the M4 on open roads, treated to faint snoring noises from the back seats. New club captain Siân Morgan began the long eventful day in a whirlwind stress. So in the spirit of club camaraderie the entire front row of the bus decided to wind her up some more. It is far too easy to do, especially with Marcel “trouble-maker” Admiraal leading the assault. But once we’d made it to Calne time was too short to get worried about what was happening later that day; we had to get into racing gear. TriIC’s first competitor, Hugh Sparks, had 20min to register, set up transition, warm up, change for the swim and get to the race briefing. Despite this unprecedented rush, he clocked in a strong finish, coming 243rd/412, starting us off well with a good opening swim of 14:31. Siân Morgan, Ed Hallett and Richard Flint were up next, entering a busy pool. Siân dominated with a substantially faster swim than the others, but errors in the pool were soon made up by Ed on the bike.

With the sun beating down, it was easy to get into racing mood. Getting out on the bike leg was beautiful and brought back a lot of cycle passion for everyone after a dreadful winter of spin classes and turbo training. Marcel Admiraal disappointed an eager crowd by not achieving his self-predicted 25min for 25Km on the bike, but finished well for a first triathlon. Out of 18 people, 13 had never done one before, so a superb effort.

Screw-Up Of The Day has to go to Mike Kaye who 30min before his race while wheeling his bike to transition, managed to not only blow an inner tube but shred his front tyre completely in the process. The definitive image of a beaten man, with glasses down, he wobbled his bike back to a sympathetic home crowd and disappeared for a stress relief “man run” to ease the pain. As soon as Siân heard about the shocker after her race, she marched straight to the marshals office in all her sweaty glory to see what could be done. God knows how, but she managed to negotiate Mike another time slot in 15 minutes.

Siân was now back into panic mode. By this point Mike had run a full 10k and wasn’t totally sure where he was. With all hands on deck, the Mike Kaye Support Crew organised necessary transition prep and race numbers, as well as setting up Ed’s bike for him to borrow. Back from the run, Mike practically jogged straight into the pool to start his race. The fun wasn’t over however, as coming out of the pool, he had no idea where the bike was. A daisy chain of Imperial triathletes shouted directions until he found it and was soon on and out of sight with a shining grin on his face. When he crossed the finish line an hour later Mike returned to a hero’s welcome.

The race included a 750m pool swim, 25k bike and a 5k run (actually 5.65K measured by Garmin). The swim was hectic, with thirty people in the pool in each heat. The organisers tried to slot you in with people of a similar swim time, but it was no use. For some, a lot of time was lost in letting people over take at pool ends as required in the race rules. Open water swims will always be a better measure of your swim capability. Transition was easy and well organised, but a long run out with the bike made it a long transition time. The bike was on open roads, no closures, but it was less of an issue than expected. No traffic lights, which was a huge relief, but there were a few junctions to stop at if there was traffic. A nice bike led into a flat out and back run and a water stop at the turn around point which was very well received. Shame it was a significant distance longer than the quoted 5k.

The team performed superbly: BUCS Sprint is the highest calibre event in our calendar, and this year was no exception, with a huge GB team turn out. Top TriIC finishers were Jean-Claude Besse coming 21st overall, beating many GB competitors which is an incredible achievement and Aimee Di Marco finishing 23rd in the women’s category.

Other notable finishers are Tom Pearson who, despite neverdoing a triathlon before, and never racing on his new bike, clocked the 68th fastest bike time, beating well seasoned triathletes at their own game, and Hendrik Frentrup clocking 98th fastest bike leg.

The rest of the day was food, sun, supporting our competitors, and in the case of Liz Crow, fraternising with the enemy. But we soon figured out she was actually dating the guy from Cambridge Triathletes and wasn’t just a massive flirt. Siân’s home baked muffins went down a treat as we watched the final racers fly by, having waited all day for their chance to clock a time. It’s definitely better to race early, how else can you justify gorging on a picnic of carbs and protein.

We had a great insight into the worldly knowledge of our members, including an idea to cycle the Danube River, which Annabelle Meyers loved as she’s “always wanted to cycle India”…

Before we went home we ducked in for a quick pub stop to look at photos, results and play a game of pool watching the sun go down. Race lethargy soon set in. BUCS Olympic distance is our next big race, with an open water swim it will allow the club to put its new wetsuits to good use, and maybe we can rack up some more stunning finishes. This is likely to be the last race report for the year, so a massive thank you must be made to the TriIC committee: Hendrik Frentrup, Sarah Lewis, Harriet Nerva and most importantly Siân Morgan for stepping up as chairman for the summer term and rocking the show! I may even say the club is stronger with the rearrangement so thanks guys. We have had an amazing year, growing exponentially and racing like mad.