Guildford Aquathlon

We hear from John Bateson who is in search of appropriate swimming trunks….

Guildford Aquathlon, Friday 4th June 2010 – John Bateson

This is a three race series – 500m swim in the lovely Guildford Lido followed by a 5k round the park. It’s (very well) run by Guildford’s Pheonix triathlon club has so a transition element – the final time includes putting your shoes and shirt on, taking a sip of water and drying as much of your body as you feel you need to. The starts are separated by 30 seconds, so the results aren’t known on the night.

It’s a local event, mainly designed as a taster, I think. There were about 90 entrants. Anyway, having swum just twice since trying the last of the same race series last year, I wasn’t expecting much from the swim. But (unlike my rubbish running form), I have a good swim stroke (thousands of hours of youthful repetition). So I managed 8mins for the 500m, which turns out to have been the fastest on the day (but far from the fastest in past editions!).

The run was uncomfortable (my breathing is always a bit laboured after swimming in chlorinated water), and I got easily overtaken by the guy who’d set off 30s behind me on the swim. He was pattering along in a high speed Pose-running style in his Newton forefoot-running shoes. I get the feeling that Pose has always been popular amongst triathletes – I think they are early-adopters of all new ideas. Anyway, he looked really comfortable and shot past me.

This made me think I was suffering and running badly, but it turns out that the guy going past me finished in 16m16s and was basically a lot better runner than me. My finish time was 17.36, which leads me to the suspicion that it’s not a full 5k…

My combined times put me in second place overall, which is very pleasing. Unfortunately the results don’t show club affiliations, but I did sport my Vegan Runners vest (need a bigger one to get on easily when wet). Now I need some Vegan Runners swimming trunks.

The goody bag included some kind of protein products made with milk – I gave these to a chap about to cycle from London to Istanbul. Good luck to him. 

All in all nice event. Next one in a month.

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