Team PRA Triathlon Blog, Entry 7: The Winner's Story

I now know how Colin Montgomery felt in the build up to this years British Open, having had a close friend and 'rival' publicly air malicious untruths about him as he prepared for a big event.

I was shocked and disappointed to hear Alex Anderson telling lies about me in his pre-Triathlon blog and claiming that I'd completed a full Triathlon in 1 hour 22 minutes the previous Saturday. For starters, it was the previous Sunday!

More importantly, Alex was slightly awry with the time it took me - my total time was marginally over 4 hours! This time did include showering and changing after the swim, driving home, making and eating my lunch - and that was just Transition 1. Maybe I needed to work on my transitions!

To quote the great Monty "I'm just trying to compete in the Triathlon and my preparations have been dented. I'm not very happy about that at all."

To further disappoint me, Alex described me as his 'nearest rival', suggesting two things:

1. That we were, in some way, all competing with each other - I had thought that we were merely entering as a team challenge and to raise some money for the Benevolent Fund

2. Claiming that he had a 'nearest rival' intimated that he saw himself as favourite to finish first and everyone else was competing to finish second - yeh right!

Whilst Monty's public spat with Sandy Lyle resulted in him under performing and missing the cut, I was determined that this would only act to spur me on to smash my personal best of 4 hours and 2 minutes!

The swim was certainly an experience! The pre-race info we were sent stated that the water in royal Victoria Dock had been tested against EU standards, but you were still advised 'not to consume excessive amounts'. In hindsight, I should have noticed that there was no mention of how the tests fared compared to EU standards - my guess is that, being the colour of a pint of IPA, it didn't score very highly!

Once the hooter blew, it became a fight - 300 people all aiming for one point in the distance. I got kicked, slapped and, at one point, ducked. After a while, I realised that it wasn't anything personal or malicious, that was just the way it was, and I was doing it too! If you stopped to move out of someone's way or apologise to the person you punched, you were run over by the person immediately behind you!

Into Transition 1.

Alex and I had noticed that the seasoned pro's amongst the competitors had laid out their equipment all ready for a quick change, so we had duly done the same. Wet suit off, t-shirt, shorts and cycling shoes and helmet on, unhook bike and run/hobble out of transition before I could jump on bike. Therein lay my first two problems: I had only taken loan of my road bike a week previous and had only used the cycle shoes and clip-in pedals once in that week. I could hardly run in the shoes and, when I was finally able to mount my bike, I set off but couldn't clip the shoes in. I nearly fell off, and was immediately cycled into by a pro (when I say a pro, I mean somebody who evidently knew a lot more about Triathlon than I did!)

Once I finally got going, the cycling was pretty eventless. I appeared to be overtaking a few people on rickety old bikes and a few people with seriously fast looking bikes overtook me - including one guy with the sort of streamlined helmet you would expect Chris Hoy to be wearing in the velodrome. I told myself that, maybe he should get a life and he should have been cycling in the Olympic event on Sunday, not this one. I would have told him the same, had he not turned into a speck in the distance before I'd even managed to think up my sharp witted banter.

Back to Transition, off the bike and run to my transition point to prepare for the run. Another problem, running in these cycling shoes involved running in a really flat-footed position. I could feel my calves wanting to cramp so I saw sense, laid the bike down and took the shoes off where I was before my calves properly cramped. Unfortunately, in pulling my foot out of the shoes, both calves went into full on cramps!

I finally managed to get through Transition 2 and headed out somewhat gingerly for the run. Unfortunately, by this point, it had started raining, so the run wasn't much fun. To compond matters and make my t-shirt weigh even more, the course designers had strategically placed sprinklers, to cool people down, at one point on the course, so I got a face full of really unwanted water too. Half way round the first lap, there was a rehydration point, offering cups of water or Gatorade. I felt like a real pro as I grabbed a cup of water without even breaking my stride. I felt less of a pro when I tried to take a gulp, still not breaking my stride. I might as well have been trying to drink on a rollercoaster - half went all over my face and the rest went up my nose! Feeling more drowned than rehydrated, I decided not to bother with any more drinks.

Eventually, the torture finished and I ran triumphantly across the finish line in 1 hour 27 minutes, not only smashing my PB of 4 hours, but also beating my realistic goal of 1 hour and between 30 and 40 minutes.

It took me 2 days to get over my exertions, but now the dust has settled, I can look back proudly at the day. I think it's fair to say that we all did really well and should be proud of how we competed and how much we've raised (although there is still time for more donations!)

People have told me that I'll get addicted to Triathlon training - my view is that I would have had to train to get addicted to the training! Damian asked me if I can do 1 hour 27 minutes with minimal training, don't I want to see what time I've got in me with proper preparation?

Answer - no!

You can still sponsor the PRA Triathlon team, who are raising funds for the PRA Benevolent Fund, the Players' Charity, by visiting www.justgiving.com/pratriathlon

To read previous PRA Triathlon blogs go to www.prarugby.com/triathlon