Adi Barbrookes epic adventure!

So this is it then, the qualifier for the Budapest ITU triathlon championships, a huge event with 1000 competitors.
I arrived at Rutland Water on Friday evening parked up "The Beast" (aka my camper van) went and registered and then settled down to listen to the England game, as it turned out I should've gone for a walk instead!

I woke bright and early gobbled down some oat based cereal and a banana and set about taking everything down to transition.

First issue to overcome was the bar to rack your bike on was set too low. I tried balancing it, as did others, on the saddle sack however this wasn't stable and it fell off twice while preparing the rest of the kit! Five bikes down a beautiful full carbon Cervelo TT bike crashed to the ground spilling the contents of the aero bar mounted bottle when the owner had left it balanced, more precariously than he'd imagined, on the back of the saddle. In the end I decided that the way forward was to mount it facing inwards and hook the brake levers over the bar rather than tip it on an angle to get it in and out! Then it was off to the race briefing.

We had an in water start and my wave set off at 07:10 and boy oh boy what an aggressive start it was too. Within the first 15 metres I had taken 2 punches and three kicks to the head, one landing on my left goggle lens and I thought the suction would pull my eyeball right out the socket! Around 100 metres in things had settled down, in actual fact it's more likely I'd been left behind! Again, as with Fritton lake, I was feeling stronger towards the end of the swim and began passing other competitors.

A smooth exit from the water followed by frantic searching for the zip of my wetsuit as I ran up the ramp saw me in to transition with my wetsuit flapping around my waist. I arrived at the bike and pulled the wetsuit off the rest of the way, grabbed my helmet and in doing so dislodged my number belt which fell to the floor, fastened my helmet, picked up and fastened my number belt around my waist. Then, as I unracked my bike, the velcro on my timing chip came undone and it fell off. I reracked my bike refastened the timing chip and finally set off out of transition on to the bike course.

During the race briefing there was mention of the Rutland ripple which conjures up visions of a slightly undulating part of the course. If only! These were blooming big hills and in hindsight I probably should have attacked them harder than I actually did, but as the saying goes hindsight is a wonderful thing! At the end of the bike a far more pleasing transition ensued on to the run which took us around the lake up on to the Dam. There were two laps of the Dam, collecting a wrist band on each lap before heading for home. Just before leaving the Dam section I heard "COME ON WEST SUFFOLK!" from a familiar voice as Graham leaned in to view shouting encouragement.

This was the homeward stretch so I picked up the pace and strode hard for the finish line crossing in a final time of 2:22:24 in 123rd place and 28th in age group. My splits were as follows: S-30:20, T1-1:10?, B-1:13:01, T2-0:52?, R-36:58.

Unfortunately I was way too far off the pace to qualify for Budapest, there were some bloomin’ quick chaps there I can tell you, but I’ll get you next time!!

Congratulations to Ann Fish who came 2nd in her age group!

Adi'Budgie'Barbrooke......