Burnham 25th Anniversary Triathlon

I’d been anxiously watching the forecast all week and had been bitterly disappointed to find rain was due all day on Sunday. I’d had visions of running along golden sands on a beautiful sunny day. However at least I was forewarned and borrowed a good sized plastic box from work in which I carefully packed all my kit. A woman just along from me had brought an open topped fabric shopping bag. Anyway, enough of the technical stuff, the other thing which had horrified me at first was the ungodly hour of my start time – 6.40am!!! This meant getting up at 4.30am – a time familiar to Richard but not to myself. However all went well and we arrived at the leisure centre and registered, collected chip and goody bag, dumped box next to bike and waited for the swim to start. The organiser asked us to give a rousing cheer to one of the swimmers just finishing his last length. He was a bit slow but when told he was 90 years old we were suitably impressed.

My swim went poorly – not sure why I can do Ok while training but it all goes to pieces on the day. Then out of the pool and into the outside world, which felt quite cold, but only light rain. I wasn’t taking any chances however and dressed in long-sleeved top plus coat and hood and gloves, long shorts and warm socks. All this took valuable transition time so it was a bonus to find that the T1 times hadn’t been recorded on the final results.

Off on the bike and a few cyclists soon went past. The course was quite flat, the only hills being a couple of railway crossings. Being used to the hills round here this was good, and perhaps I could have tried a bit harder. I did feel good though when I actually managed to overtake two other cyclist – and they both had racing bikes. The only people I have ever overtaken previously were either on the phone or smoking a fag!!! Before long the finish line approached and I was into T2 and off on the run. It was still damp rather than raining, but the wind was getting stronger. We got on to the beach and ran towards the lighthouse – a familiar sight to anyone who has done the Burnham beach race, and then followed a path up some slopes of soft sand and through the dunes before emerging back on to the beach. Now the hard work really started as I was running straight in to the wind back along the sand to the finish. It was head down with an occasional glance up to follow the road cones. It’s a strange thing with flat beach runs that you never seem to get closer to the destination. So I counted myself along the cones instead and finally the finish line was there. A few spectators were huddled under the sea wall including Richard, and the finish marshals were well wrapped up. My watch showed an approximate time of 1:45. I’d finished the whole event and it still wasn’t even 9am.

Back to the leisure centre for a good hot shower and it was absolute chaos in the changing room. It was one communal room with cubicles for changing and showers and there were kitbags everywhere, other competitors were arriving, departing, getting changed, queuing for toilets or showers or to be called poolside. We didn’t bother to wait for the prize-giving as it was still a few hours away. I later found out I was second in my age group (out of two)!!! But only by 3 minutes. Perhaps I ought to buy that racing bike after all.....................

Having arrived home in time for a late breakfast, Richard decided to catch up on his sleep. Being a hardier soul I spent the day thawing last year’s fruit from the freezer and making jam. And being glad that I couldn’t swim any faster (which would have given me a later start time and a much wetter day).