First Double - Race One

This was an offroad triathlon, beginning not far from my cousin's place. It
was a 500m swim, approx 20km ride (although the venue of the course changed
on the thursday before the race, so distances weren't as advertised),
and a 6km run.

I warmed up with a little jog, before venturing over to the swim start.
I had just finished putting on my wetsuit, and was standing on the shore
waiting to enter the water, when I looked down at my friend's leg and
realised I forgot to pick up my timing chip. "Uh oh", I muttered and
sped of to the rego area, which was about 200m away from the swim start.

I spied the trailer that contained the chips, and frantically opened it,
discovering a few racks of timing chips, but not mine. Someone
suggested I try the rego tent, where luckily, my chip was residing.

I grabbed my chip, wrapped it around my left ankle, before one of the
volunteers reprimanded me for no having the chip on the outside of my
ankle, then made me put my foot up on a chair so she could put it on
correctly.

After I insincerely thanked her, I sprinted back off to the swim start
where I found everyone lined up behind the start line, about 30m from
shore in the water. As I was dolphining to join the group, the moment of
silence for peace ended, and the "gun" went off, so by the time I caught
up to the back markers, I was only down a few strokes.

Finally swimming, I felt unusually fast, as I overtook the tail enders.
The first buoy was more hectic than usual, but I made my own space and
said no apologies. The rest of the swim I spent overtaking more people,
instead of being overtaken after an over ambitious start.

Out onto the bike, and I soon overtook a friend on the concrete bike
path, before I found myself in a small group of regular Xterra
competitors. We worked well as a group, and soon caught up to the 2nd
place guy, then continued to ride in a group.

The bike course was great - mostly fire trails, although there were ups
and downs all the way, but nothing overly technical. Whilst riding in
our little echelon, we came to a locked gate, where we had to dismount
and squeeze our bikes through a small gap. I was fourth and last in our
little group, and when I remounted, chainsuck struck, and I lost the
group as I ripped my chain back into place.

I rode the rest of the dirt alone, which actually allowed me better
vision, and I caught back up to the group as we hit the pavement.

So all 4 of us cruised up towards T2, but only 2 of us went the correct
way, the other 2 electing to try a short cut (accidently). I expected
them to wait for us (about 30 sec), but 1 guy took off, trying to
maximise his lead, whilst the other waited. Fortunately, I caught him
before the offroad part of the run, and I spent the rest of the run
keeping the gap big enough so he couldn't sprint past me, without
busting a gut so I had something in reserve for the next day.

So that's how it ended, me in 2nd (although daylight probably thinks it
came 2nd), cheater 1 in 3rd, cool dude in 4th, and cheater 2 in 5th.
However, after discussions with the technical officials, they decided to
dish out time penalties of about 2 minutes, which I think was a good
decision (I don't think disqualifications are warranted in minor
discretions, as it turns people off who are usually out to have fun, and
things like this are usually accidental, however I think you should be
penalised somewhat more than your advantage, as ultimately it is up to
you to follow the course).

So after rearrangeing the postions, my partner in non-crime was pushed
up into 3rd, cheater 1 was upset at having lost more time than his
original advantage, and having lost a place on the podium, and we all
wondered why they were so cheap and couldn't provide any PB at the
finish line, instead of just fruit and water.

Saturday, 22nd February, 2003
Sri Chinmoy Offraod Triathlon (500m, ~18km, ~6km)
Swim: 8:10
Ride: 51:45
Run: 27:27
Age Group: 2nd
Overall: 2nd