8th August 2021 St Neots Standard Distance

 1.5km Swim 45km Bike 10km Run - Temperature 18oC

Swim 27:42 - T1 01:36 - Bike 01:10:57 - T2 01:04 – Run 00:39:51 Total Time 2:21:11

Winner 50 - 59 Age Group, 8th overall

 After my first race in ages at Woodburn I was keen to get another race in to learn more about short distance racing but also to see if my run was improving. It was always going to be a low key race so I was keen for something local to keep the logistics simple. St Neots ticked the box.

 

Less than an hour’s drive from home and transition within 100m of the car park – perfect. The bike and run course was very similar to Woodburn, the swim was a river swim rather than in a lake. The good news was that the swim was a mass start, probably totalling 300 athletes as the sprint distance started at the same time. A nice bit of argy bargy at the start then things spread out with little chance of a draft. Judging by my speed I think there must have been a current in both directions. Luckily, I never looked at my watch, just tried to move quickly through T1 as transitions at this distance make a real difference to the overall time. Anyway, I was still 45s slower than the top guys so work to do but easy seconds to gain given a little practise.

 

Out on the bike I was determined to deliver on the numbers I had been nailing in training, perhaps a little too determined. It was a flattish two lap bike course and I faded on lap two as my lap one excitement took it’s toll. Next lesson was that it is a red lining effort but some holding back is required.

 

T2 was better with only 20s to knock off to get me at the right end of the times. 

 

Out onto the run and the first couple of km was still a calibration exercise as I was still only recently running 10km in training. I don’t yet know how a hard 10km should feel unlike 21km or 42km. I had in my mind to aim to get all the km splits under 4:15 to give me a solid improvement over the last 4 weeks of training. By 4km I was starting to tire but luckily someone came past me at the right sort of pace, so I sat on their heels. The next 3km were simply a case of keeping up and slowly the pace seemed to feel a little more comfortable/natural. I then went past them for the last 3km and for the first time in two years I started to feel like I wasn’t muscling each step out but it was starting to flow.

 

The overall pace of 4:11 per km doesn’t reflect how much easier it felt than Woodburn. The real take away wasn’t running 10s a km quicker, it was starting to feel like a runner again.

 

Getting back to the race, winner of 50 – 59 was nice but the field was less than 30 athletes, the overall race less than 100. Still, nice to get a win at my new distance lol!

 

Let’s see where my running is in 6 weeks’ time at the Dambuster