Brize Tri

Where do I start? First race of the year and there was so much going on.

I'll start with my race.
Swim - I was in the same wave as Sam Wright and the RAF's Golden Girl, Bev, so it would be a good wave to see how I'm going. Well, I was 3rd out of my wave but Dale called 6:40 as I exited the door of the pool to transition so I was very pleased with that.
T1 - Bit of a faff getting the tritop on over wet skin but until I have a one piece for sprint events this is the only option.
Bike - The bike route is short at about 10.5 miles and I was determined to treat it like a TT with a full on effort. Once onto the road I could see Bev but she wasn't exactly hanging about and I had to work hard to catch her. Sam by this time was well out of sight but I got my head down and gritted my teeth; this was really hurting. It was worth it though because after a few minutes I got my first sight of Sam and another couple of minutes and I cruised passed him, trying to look relaxed and in control when I actually felt anything but. First problem came at the major right turn; when I got there there was a lorry doing a 3-point turn in the junction and I had no choice but to stop and unclip and wait for him to sort it out. I reckon I was stationary for about 10 seconds but there's the slowing down and speeding up time as well. Later, I was catching Chairman Pete at the 2nd right turn and got caught behind a white van, not a great problem, cost me maybe 4 or 5 seconds, but I had neglected to change down and when I went to get going again I was in a MASSIVE gear.
T2 - No problems here and I ran out with Dale's words of encouragement ringing in my ears "Your favourite bit now Mick!"
Run - I hadn't got far when I had a pain in the stomach area, it was like a stitch but went right across just below the ribcage. It felt like cramp and/or I had a large ball of wind that needed to get out. However, just after Sam cruised passed me things got a bit better and I started what could almost be described as a run. It was still hurting but it was bearable, although my mouth now resembled a very dry thing.

I finished in 58:37ish, an improvement of some 30 seconds from last year but both the bike and run routes were slightly longer so I am well happy.

Sags was awesome, although not quite as awesome as the official results suggested. He started 4 mins behind but didn't overtake me so there is NO WAY he finished in 52:52 against my 58:37; I think the timing fairies were being a bit optimistic there.

Reg DNF'd - what's that all about? Hero to Zero mate, you need to HTFU! Give yourself a good talking to like you did after Dambuster last year; you came back strongly from that so fingers crossed for you.

No doubt the forum will fill in a few more details in due course.

Next races for me are the Bala HIM on 8 June followed by the Odiham Sprint on 11 June. I suspect I won't be at my sharpest for the Odiham race!