Athlete race report: Southport Triathlon

Experienced TCUK athlete, Ed Crisp, headed to the seaside for his first race of 2022 and took part in the Southport Triathlon at the end of May. Organised by Epic Events, this is an Olympic distance triathlon and it's an AG qualifier so is always a very well attended race. Question is, did Ed throw up at the end? Find out in his race report!

Pre-race

How were your preparations leading up to the race?

Up until the night before I was still unsure if I was going to start this race. Still recovering from a torn hamstring, Covid and a nasty respiratory infection, I hadn’t had the best start to the year. The lack of consistency to my training meant I was way behind the level of fitness I really would have liked.

Did you feel that your training had prepared you sufficiently?

I had just about enough fitness in the bank to get me through the bike and the swim but I had only run up to 8km and that was mostly done on the treadmill to manage my hamstring injury.

Swim

Time: 22.49

How did it go?  My swim went well. I hung back at the start so I could start with a mate I was racing with. I came out of the water in third place, taking quite a wide line on the swim to get into clear water

What were the positives/negatives?

Positives: Glad the water was shallow and had warmed up a bit as I hadn’t been in open water yet this year ‘cos it’s still bloody freezing!

Negatives: Didn’t get chance to set up and try my new race goggles before the event so I used my pool training goggles which are exceptionally dark. It was an overcast day, I dived in and I couldn’t see a bloody thing it was pitch black.

T1

Time: 4.38

How did it go? As I was still unsure about being able to complete this event I didn’t go eyeballs out, took a steady donder to my place in transition, dried off and put socks and cycling kit on.

What were the positives/negatives?

Positives: Ample space in transition.

Negatives: Only the initial bit of transition was carpeted, then it was quite a long painful run through transition

Bike

Time: 1.13.03

How did it go? Having discussed race day strategy with Coach, we decided that it was best to hold a bit back on the bike to be able to complete the run. The event is held on a closed seafront road which has a pretty good smooth surface but can be prone to a strong sea breeze. On the day the wind didn’t pick up too much and I was able to hold a good pace throughout, slightly faster in one direction than the other.

For the first time I kept a close eye on my numbers to make sure I didn’t blow a gasket, stayed within my current level of training and had the best possible chance of completing the run.

What were the positives/negatives?

Positives: Seeing another TCUK athlete (Sally Marples) on the turn of my last lap gave me a boost to catch up and say hello.

Got my nutrition right, fuelling up in advance taking on board a gel just before T2.

Negatives: The sharp U-Turn at either end of the course is a bit tight and you drop a lot of speed and it easier to negotiate on a road bike than a TT bike.

 

T2

Time: 3.53

How did it go? Went absolutely fine, didn’t bust my hump to get through transition, took a good drink before heading out on the run.

What were the positives/negatives?

Positives: No drama, plenty of space lots of marshals to warn you of faster racers coming through.

Negatives: No negatives to speak of.

Run

Time: 56.40

How did it go? The run was always going to be a question of survival for me with the current lack of training and injury. As it was 2x 5km laps my contingency plan was to do the first lap and if it all goes wonky donkey I’ll bail out.

As I set off on the run course my watch bleeped to say I had done my first kilometre, it felt good. Then kilometre 2, where I rounded the top of the lagoon and we had previously swum, it still felt good and I could see the bridge where we would loop round for lap 2 which didn’t look that far away (I had forgotten that there was a zig zaggy bit between to make the course long enough).

I passed the turn in to the finish line and set out on lap2. I thought I’ve committed now so upped my pace a bit keeping an eye on my heart rate to make sure it was sustainable. Before you know it, I was in the last kilometre where my mate I’d left behind swim finally ran passed me - bastard!!

Really pleased with how the run went, anything under an hour I would have been happy with, to make my day even better I crossed the finish line to see my mate throwing up!

Guess who it was that threw up at the finish line??

What were the positives/negatives?

Positives: I managed to negatively split and do the second 5km faster than the first. I managed to complete the 10km, the longest run I’ve done this year, and my hamstring held up ok.

Negatives: Probably could have gone a bit harder on the first lap and held my mate off till the finish line.

Post race

How have you recovered from the race? Now that it’s done, what are your future race plans?

Recovered well from the race and need to focus on continuing to rehab and strengthen my hamstring.

Need to focus on building my running speed up ready for the next events lined up that are shorter faster races.

Planned events if they go ahead:

Next events are the Erewash Triathlon (400/16/5) 14^th August where I’ve been trying to do under 1 hour for many years my PB 1.00.43

Aviemore Long Durty Off Road Triathlon (1000/18/9), missed out last year due to illness, cancelled due to covid prior to that and completely underestimated the first time I tried it.

Race review

The Southport Triathlon is an Age Group qualifier so there’s some pretty speedy competitors out on the course.

It’s a closed road event and all contained around the marine lagoon so a great event for spectators.

The marine lagoon is very shallow you can stand up in pretty much all of it so great for those swimmers not so confident in open water.

The Bike route is on closed roads in good condition so ideal for those wanting a good fast ride and the run route is around the swim lagoon, if you’re racing with others you will see each other on the course regularly.

The whole course is absolutely pan flat so a great first timer event.

The organisation is very good, I’d recommend parking the opposite side of the lagoon otherwise you are stuck in the closed road section till the roads are reopened.