Team Feat Race Team and Feat UK events

Race report by James Gilfillan

A big congratulations to James who is our new National Middle distance Triathlon Champion. A well done also goes to Wayne who came in 11th overall after a disappointing swim.

Not wanting to blow my own Vuvuzela but here is my account to the Bala National champs race…..

So you may have heard that I won my first ‘proper’ National championship triathlon this last weekend.  The British Middle Distance champs, over 2km swim, 82km bike and 20km run, based at Bala, north Wales in Snowdonia National Park. 

For some reason I was uber nervous before hand, even on the sat afternoon when we drove the bike course and checked out the lake and transition area the butterflies were getting me!!!  Staying locally with friends was good for relaxing, though a shocking England game on the sat eve didn’t help matters. 

Just for a change the start wasn’t until 9:30, which saved the early alarm and allowed for a light breakfast!  A novelty of the tri race scene, though still went with the usual cup of black coffee to get me going.  Saturdays beautiful weather was replaced by a bit of uncertainty a shower on the way over and a heavier one just before the start saw me hunting out the thermal top to wear under my race suit. 

Bala lake has a reputation for being cold!!!!! However on entering it was nothing compared with our own Ellingham lake, clearly it’s the northerners who are softies!!! The large clean lake was an easy swim, for all but the guy leading the race who clearly had his own route that must have involved swimming an extra 200m plus, oddly not one person followed him on his ‘curious’ route, it did transpire that he was Welsh so clearly local knowledge isn’t always an advantage! 

Out the swim in 4th on the feet of the lead guys was a perfect result.  Once my mate Mike had worked out which way the bike course went we set off in pursuit of the leader.  After 1km the course ramped up away from the lake and kept going past the White Water canoe centre.  I soon had the leader reeled in and spat out!  And after 5 mins of climbing there wasn’t much to see behind but empty tarmac. 

From this point on the rolling nature of the course and blustery winds played into my hands allowing me to pull away from the field.  Mindful of some strong cyclists likely to come through the pack I kept the pace as high as sensible.  Unfortunately there wasn’t much to report during the bike except the usual Marshalls loafing around not ready for my appearance and the turn around point not being where the race info showed it to be…….. 

Being out and back I did get to see the chasers whizzing down the hill past the Coed-y-brenen MTB park as I went back up, this always makes it tricky to judge the time gap as I hadn’t bothered with watch, HR monitor or speedo.  Whilst I wasn’t about to make it easy on the way back I was nice to have a tail wind heading for home.  Retracing our route I got to see the entire field strung out across the welsh mountains, plus the damage I’d done during the first half of the course! 

By this stage it was clear  the thermal top was a bit too thermal so I made sure too keep drinking. Back in to town and the marshals sprang in to life….. once in to T2 I was quick to strip off…. Only to remove my thermal top, but in doing so forgot to ditch my rubbish that required a brief stop at the dog poo bin to deposit the rubbish… only problem with not being a dog owner I couldn’t work out how to open it! 

Once onto the run course proper I felt strong and really pressed the accelerator.  The run was also out and back, with the last mile to the turn being uphill.  This seemed to drag on a bit and once around the Welsh Dragon identified as the turn marker I was eyeing up the gap to the 2nd place athlete.  Hoping to get back down the hill before seeing 2nd place, I wasn’t disappointed, a nice gap, but never being confident in my run ability I wasn’t about to ease off.  The last 2-3 miles back to the lake seemed to drag on. 

The encouragement of athletes heading out on the run was great and reflects the comradery of the support and as ever I was struggling to acknowledge or encourage back but was grateful non the less. 

Back to the lake and again the course took an unexpected detour, retracing right back to the entrance to transition before spurring off to the finish line.  To say this was a satisfying ‘jog’ to the line is a bit of an understatement, I did allow myself a bit of self indulgence and to soak up the moment, before breaking the tape. 

As ever Emma was there to cheer me home and get the all important finishline photos.  This was certainly one of the better finishline arrivals with a good gathering of supporters watching the athletes heading out on the run.  I always feel for those guys, who see me heading into the finish just as they’re making the run out of transition. 

And just to top things off, the heavens opened in the 11mins after I finished, before the second place athlete crossed the finishline. 

A great day out, a great result and one I’ll remember for a long time.  Thanks to all who wished me well, supported and encouraged and esp those who were on the pointy end of some of my training!!  

James

Results 

http://www.stuweb.co.uk/swp/default.asp?a=2&e=375

Click here to read what happened to Wayne.

Further pictures from the event can be found here