Seasoned (salt & pepper!) #TeamTCUK athlete, Andy Beach chose the Cholmondley Castle Gauntlet (middle distance) triathlon, part of the Castle Race Series, as his first race of 2021. Here's his entertaining race report that features two fire alarms, a stuck timing chip, losing his bike tools and fending off an attack on the run - enjoy! Please note: no race day photos as Andy was 'billy no mates' that day but we have some of him on his 87km taper ride with Tim and Kirsten the weekend before so you can admire his fuelling and lead out skills!

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Pre-race

How were your preparations leading up to the race?
Overall, pretty good – a few more missed sessions than I would have liked but life gets in the way. Last two weeks of training did not ramp up as much as I would have liked due to too many missed sessions. Pretty much injury free which is always a bonus. Did a quick recce of the bike course on the day before and then got my head down early on the night before only to woken at 12.30am and then again at around 2am with fire alarms going off – both false alarms thankfully but still hardly a restful night’s sleep. Looked and could not find anything in the coach’s handbook about dealing with that and what training I should have done to overcome it – maybe some new ear plugs might have worked but where do I get those from…

Did you feel that your training had prepared you sufficiently?
The training, as hard as it is for me to admit it, was spot on the only thing letting me down was my own commitment to it and my commitment to getting my weight down. I hit race day at 107kg but would have liked to have been 3 – 5kgs under that but to be honest I could not be arsed!

Swim

Time: 34:36

How did it go? Always the best part of the event for me. Felt very good did not feel like I was pushing but maybe that is why I went so quick.

What were the positives/negatives? Couple of sighting issues as I went round slower swimmers but other than that no issues at all.

T1

Time: 8:05

How did it go? Was quite a distance from the swim. Got wetsuit stuck round the timing chip which cost me a bit of time. Managed a good drink of coke and a good drink of water before setting off.

What were the positives/negatives? Everything was laid out nicely so no scrabbling about. Took too long to get my wetsuit off. Take chip off before stripping?

Bike

Time: 3:31

How did it go? Felt good all the way round.

What were the positives/negatives? Good pacing over the three laps. First two within 17 seconds of each other. Third was a little longer even though was trying to push on a bit. Seemed to get hydration and nutrition correct. Issue with bottle cage working loose and then finding that my stash tube with my tools in had fallen off my bike so could not fix it. Need to check everything on the bike before I set off!!

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T2

Time: 3:58

How did it go? No panic. Slowly, slowly, easy does it.
What were the positives/negatives? 7Ps worked, no real negatives.

Run

Time: 2:15

How did it go? Good. Did not go out too fast and lasted until about 8/9 miles when three guys came out of the woods and started beating my legs with iron bars. Lap 1 = 46 mins, Lap 2 = 45 mins Lap 3 = 44 mins.

What were the positives/negatives? Pacing looks to have been spot on – just very slow (Or is it? Cannot decide.) Definitely not a lot left in the legs at the end but heart and lungs were still feeling strong. Nutrition again seemed to work, never felt sick and always seemed to have the energy.

Post race

How have you recovered from the race? Now that it’s done, what are your future race plans? Have not recovered as yet. An easy swim session was not easy. Trying a gentle jog tonight, 2 days post race, and see how that goes. Future plans involve getting an Xbox and playing Call of Duty!