Forres Novice triathlon is on my race targets for the year. Because it is such a small novice race I generally finish a lot higher at it than any of my other races through the year. So I had set a target of improving my previous 14th and 13th places to get into the top-10 this year.
This was complicated by my mountain bike being stolen and then complicated further by some major changes to the course. The new course was meant to be all tarmac but I only found this out with 4 days to go so I didn't have a chance to recce it. I took a gamble on the course description being accurate and packed my TT bike.
On the morning of the race I registered and then went for a drive round the bike route. It was wet and looked gravelly in places, had two right turns and a straight-across at a T-junction. Not ideal but it was all road and the TT bike was going to be able to cope with all of it.
I was drawn in Heat 4 and lane 2. This meant, that on paper at least, only 10 of the other entrants thought they could swim faster than me.
I was off first in my lane. Of the 4 others it was one of my TPT clubmates that was off last. This meant with the 5 second gaps between each starter I would have a 20 second start on him. He is a much smoother swimmer than me and I was fairly confident he would make that gap up, even having to do three other overtakes before he would get to me. I didn't know any of the other 3 swimmers in my lane so I was hoping that they had been accurate with their times for seeding or were willing to sit in behind me for the duration to minimise time lost to overtaking.
I went off fairly hard and was pleased to see after a few lengths that while I wasn't making any huge gains I was slightly edging away from the other in my lane. At length 10 of 16 my TPT clubmate finally caught me. I tried to draft on him but I only lasted a single length. As soon as he went into a tumble turn he made a body length gap on me and I couldn't get back into his draft. I kept pushing through the swim and was rewarded with yet another swim PB of 6:40. 19 seconds faster than this race last year. The results show actually only 6 people posted quicker swim times than mine. Swimming is definitely not my weak sport these days.
I was quite quick out of the pool but took it steady through to transition as I tried to relax my breathing. Transition was really busy, as expected from such a short race. I decided to sit down and went for socks with my cycling shoes, added my cycling helmet and number belt, grabbed the bike and off. As I crossed the timing mat I went to start my garmin and realise I hadn't picked it up in T1. This was a bit frustrating but I wasn't going back for it.
I had another clean mount on the move, as usual passing another athlete who had to stop to mount. Why does no-one else practice this?!
On the bike I was quickly catching some of the swim specialists who had been out of the pool or transition in front of me. I passed about half a dozen of them in the first quarter mile but one passed me. I kept my head down and tried to keep him in sight but he gradually eased away. About half way round the course there is an out and back section where I could see the riders ahead as they turned back towards me. The first to pass me was a young lad. I suspected this was the 2012 winner as he looked ridiculously young and was well ahead. Then just before the turn came into sight the one rider that had passed me. I was surprised, but pleased, to be third on the road as I made the turn. But that slipped away slightly as I spotted the next rider coming up to the turn was my MRR clubmate. I knew he could run better than me so I needed a bigger gap off the bike if I was going to survive in a medal place. I kept pushing on the bike and, with the second half of the bike course suiting the TT bike better, I had hoped that I had something of a gap on him.
I managed to get out of my shoes prior to dismounting for T2 again. I have not quite perfected that skill but it is getting much better. I am probably still trying it a bit too early to ensure that I can complete it before the dismount line and not get caught with one shoe on.
I had to rack my bike in someone else's slot as mine was already taken by another bike. Slipped into my run shoes, helmet off, grabbed my garmin this time and I was off. I almost went out the wrong way but got waved at by an official. As he turned me back round I noticed that my MRR clubmate was already in T2. I knew I wasn't going to have enough to hold him off but I still had plenty to chase. The cyclist ahead of me was possibly still in range and I figured the young lad who had been leading was still in a different age-group, so I still had an overall podium place and possibly a prize (top-2 in each age-group) to chase.
I pushed as much as I could but I was suffering a bit from how much I had put into the bike. At a couple of points I looked around to see if I was being caught but I was still aware enough to remember that there might have been weak swimmers in Heat 3 that had made up time on me on the bike or run so I couldn't ease off.
I ended up finishing fourth on the road. I should have been really pleased but my first thoughts were that I was upset to have just missed a podium spot. It was only once I started chatting with the guys who had finished ahead of me that I realised I might have been second senior. With the overall winner still being a junior and the other guy ahead of me being a veteran that meant the only Senior Male beating me on the road was my MRR clubmate. So now I had to wait nervously for the presentation and hope that there was no-one from an earlier heat who had a superstar bike or run performance to make up the minute or so that they might have lost in the pool.
As it turned out there was one more from Heat 3 that had flown the bike and run legs to beat me, leaving me 5th overall. But he turned out to be a Super-Vet, leaving me as Second Senior Male. This is by far the best result I have had in a triathlon and I was really pleased. I even got a snazzy wee trophy for it. It is one of those laser cut glass ones it doesn't photograph particularly well.
As with previous year's race I have to say that this is probably the best marshalled event I race at. Despite some potentially dangerous road sections on the bike leg the marshalls were fantastic and made it feel very safe, with plenty of warnings for traffic and dangerous surfaces and clear instructions from the marshalls when they wanted you to stop or where you were clear. If you are looking to do your first triathlon, Forres is definitely the one to choose.
Here are the full results:
http://www.resultsbase.net/Results/IndividualResults.aspx?Id=2176
Here are my results:
| Split times | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total time | Pos. male | Senior | Split time | Speed split time | Pace split time | |
 Swim | 6:59 | 5 | 2 | 6:59* | 3.44 km/h | 17:27 min/km |
 T1 | 8:03 | 7 | 2 | 1:04 | - | - |
| Cycle | 34:06 | 4 | 1 | 26:03 | 31.09 km/h | 1:55 min/km |
 T2 | 34:30 | 5 | 2 | 24.0 | - | - |
 Run | 50:19 | 5 | 2 | 15:49 | 12.14 km/h | 4:56 min/km |
*includes a run section to transition.
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