This Triathlon, run by Bath Amphibians for the last 12 years, is centred on the University of Bath’s Sports Training Village (STV). The swim takes place in the 50m pool, the bike ride is a hilly one but on good main roads away from Bath itself with the opportunity to go fast while the run is based around the university complex. All in all it’s a very well organised, run and safe event and being based within the STV there are excellent facilities for spectators and competitors alike. The other good point about this event is that it runs both the Standard and Sprint distance tri on the same day – thus catering for long and short haul tastes!
It was on the 18th of July that Chris and I travelled down for an overnight stay in the area – Chris has chosen the Standard and with a swim start time of 07:30hrs we wanted to be in the area for easy travelling. I chose the Sprint, and with a more civilized start of 10:00hrs had the opportunity for a leisurely breakfast. The night before consisted of Carbo loading (fish and chips) and hydration (a quite pint) followed by an early night. Unfortunately, my nights sleep was interrupted Chris being violently sick – we blamed the fish but the end result was a weak, shaky and disappointed athlete unable to compete in the Standard Tri and so it was up to me to fly the Brecon Multi Sport flag…
As I intermittent above, this event is a very good one and if you take on the Sprint it’s easily commutable on the day from Brecon (unless they start the Sprint first next year!). It’s thoroughly recommended – it’s a definite for us next year and we may even rope in Lynda!! With Chris not well enough to compete we had to kick our heels until 10:00 when I was due to start, which meant lots of good coffee (just for the caffeine you understand) and extra Carbo loading through sickly sweet energy bars.
The Standard distance event catered for all levels of capability and there was a well represented field of 201 competitors. Highlight of the wait was watching a fine display of distance swimming by a John Wood (ex-GB so we understand) who effortlessly clocked up an impressive 19:11 swim for 1500m. The event was eventually won by an Adam Wells in a time of 2:13:32 (swim-23:31, T1-58 sec, Bike-1:10:42, T2-27 sec and run-37:53). The Sprint had only a slightly smaller number of entries (140). The overall winner in a time of 1:21:22 (swim-12:12, T1-49 sec, bike-48:00, T2-49 sec and run 19:26) was a Johan Berote of Bath University Cycle Club. Yours truly, in a time of 1:26:10 (swim-14:44, T1 50 sec, bike-49:14, T2-52 sec and run-20:28) came 7th overall and 2nd male vet.A good course and a time that I think I can better next year.
All in all a great event and one I would recommend to anybody – if you plan to do a Tri next year then you should put this one down on your race calendar.
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