Brighton and Hove Triathlon Race day

 

Who would have thought that after such a rubbish day as yesterday was, windy and wet and a rough sea running, that today would turn out to be so lovely. Well, this is England. It was cold enough when we left home this morning as the sun rose, a fabulous great ball of fire, to make our way over to Hove to park in Second Avenue as we had planned after a short spell of sussing out the area yesterday, ready for today, and not having to panic because we couldn’t find a spot. We found a big enough space on the street to get Petra the Peugeot into, and it cost only £4 for the whole morning.

 

That left us just enough time to walk a block or so to Starbucks for both a takeaway coffee and a last minute nicer toilet than the Porto loos at the race venue. We got both of our transition places set up for the race and then came out to watch the start of the Draft legal sprint swim wave. It was clear from the start that the swim route was waaaaay too long and the Race Director was onto that immediately and had it shortened before the next waves went off. For my wave that was all standard distance women and for all the Standard distance races following it was still a good 250 meters too long.

 

 

Although I have to say that the sea swim this morning was one of the most enjoyable I can recall taking part in for a very long time. The sea was just beautiful and clear and clean and smooth and perfectly behaved yet still so different from a lake swim with all the movement. Brighton looked as lovely as Nice on the South of France and in fact the two cities have a lot in common. Both have a city frontage to the coast road and a very similar promenade with a drop down onto a pebble beach and not a lot of tidal change as there is further along the coast down our way.

 

 

I wished there had been more carpet over the stones when exiting the water to climb up the quite steep beach, up a ramp onto the promenade and a long stretch into the transition, most of which I walked to get to my bike that was right at the furthest end of transition. Consequently my T1 was rather long. The bike ride was eight laps along the Kingsway on a completely closed wide road; such luxury. Steve had not trusted my counting and had stuck tiny bits of handlebar tape on my bike frame to help me count though my own plan was simply to watch the distance on my computer. The bike section was superbly marshalled, even to having marshals at both sides of every crossing and at every junction. The bike route was also just over a mile over the twenty five mile distance.

 

 

The run course was four laps along the promenade that was by late morning crowded but that still seemed to work for the most part although there are always some people who even with competitor’s running back and forth still seem to be in their own little world and just wander across with children and loose dogs. At the far end of the run loop I was delighted to spot World Champion Boxer Chris Eubank out on a bike just turning on to the promenade. I recognised him instantly, and also knew that he is a Brighton Resident and in fact I have seen him around Brighton on a motorbike or walking through the town on his own lots of times in the past. If he is out you do see him since he has very striking and has great charisma. This morning he was hatless and did not even have sunglasses on. He was so close that I waved both hands and said ‘Hi Ya, great to see you’ and he shouted encouragement back at me as I passed by.

 

 

 

When I had finished that lap a saw Steve and told him to look out for Chris Ewbank Steve caught me up and we ran together for a couple of laps, Steve was a lap behind me after a later start but a much better swim, he swims so straight its is just ridiculous, he doesn’t have to sight, he just counts strokes and generally bumps into the buoys.

As we went turned back again, the famous boxer was leaning on the promenade railings. As I passed him I put my hand out to hopefully slap hands but instead he grasped my hand and gave me a quick hug and said I was doing great.

 

At the end of that lap I went on to the finish and Steve still had another lap left to do. It was quite hot by the time I finished and I ambled back into transition and picked up both our bags from the bag drop and sat with my shoes and socks off for a bit. My toes were a bit sore and a bit of wiggle whilst sitting on the grass helped a lot. I was tired enough too. I drank the rest of the coffee in my drinker and some water before packing my bag so that I would be ready to leave when Steve got back. His bike was racked very close to mine.

 

There did not appear to be any sort of awards as far I saw and that was a bit unusual. I think most people had a great time and there were a lot of new triathletes giving the sport a trial. The ones who did shorter races can console themselves that they got through a much longer than advertised swim and so should be feeling pleased with themselves. They certainly got the very best of weather conditions and a well marshalled event.