Race Review - Kings Aquathon

I decided that I wanted to get at least some of my bike miles for the week so I decided to ride to and from the race to get a few miles in. This seemed like an ambitious idea in the cold but I got wrapped up a bit and off I went. About half way to the race the heavens opened and it seemed even more like a bad idea. I kept the pedal in fairly calm, saving my legs for racing.

I got signed in. Feeling like everyone's grandad as all the other competitors were students, and most of them were still giving their ages as x-teen. I packed away my biking kit and checked my run and swim gear. I realised I had forgotten my race belt but I let my engineering skills loose on the contents of my bag and pockets and constructed a new one.

Briefing started with an announcement that I hadn't expected (but should have if I had thought about it). This was to be the last ever Kings Aquathon. They are going to be moving across to the new aquatic centre in future. THe name of the race will change, and the run route will have to change as well. They think this is a good thing. I am not convinced that it will improve what has always been a good little race.

I got seeded in Heat 7 of 9. But more than half the field had declared times between 6:45 and 7:15 so it wasn't really a clear cut signal of where I was in the field. I still haven't seen the final results so I can't really tell how I went in terms of the general field. But I had the watches running so I know how I went as compared to me. 

My swim was pretty solid. Nothing spectacular, but well paced and clean. The other guy in my lane was off like a shot and I never got near him, but there were guys in the lanes either side that were only just sneaking away for the first few lengths and from about half way I was reeling both of them back in. 6:59 is not quite my fastest ever 400m swim, but it is within a few seconds, and without anyone to tow behind.

I had a bit of a faff in transition. I had purposefully set up near the door so I could make a last minute decision on clothes. Looking outside the rain was back on and I knew it was going to be cold so I put my cycling jacket on.

I came out of transition behind a few of the swimmers from my heat. But we were all quite close so it was a bit difficult to tell who was where. The first 400m or so is on grass and we had sorted out into a more likely race order. Last year's Aberdeen uni tri club captain was in front of me and pulling away. An Edinburgher was just behind me and tucked in close. 

It is three laps around the University campus. At the end of lap 1 I was starting to gain on the Aberdeen Uni guy in front as he was struggling with a stitch. I figured he had mistimed his run the same as his swim and pushed too early. Made the mistake of cheering/cajoling him to get a move on. He recognised it was me and put in a bit of a push, and once that got him moving again he warmed up and eased off and started to pull back out to about 100m of a lead. On the last lap my shadow from Edinburgh also decided that he fancied his chances. With about half a mile to go he passed me and started to ease out to a bit of a gap. I did up the pace to try and chase the pair of them but couldn't make much of an impression on the gaps. I ran about 22mins 30 according to my watch. 

I was pretty happy with my race. Swim was pretty close to what I am capable of. Run time was better than I expected. Run was more comfortable than I expected. And to top all that I coped with the crowds of strangers much better than I have done over the last couple of years.

Riding home from the race was the toughest part of the day. The weather had gotten really terrible. The drivers in Aberdeen are pretty terrible when it gets wet and grey and it was probably the most dangerous 6 miles I have done in the past few years. Survived it, with a bit of waving and swearing at some of the cars.