TinMan2 Sprint Race Report, Sunday 22 April tl;dr version: well executed race in near-perfect conditions; hard but fun! As forecast, Sunday dawned clear & calm with a gentle northerly breeze barely causing a ripple on the half-metre high-tide swell at Suncoast Beach. Long queues at registration gave the first indication that the field would be full & competitive despite the top juniors being away in Morocco competing in the Africa Triathlon Champs. Eventually I got registered, set up in T1/T2 and went for a warm-up swim out to the final turn-buoy, amped & ready to go, but delays in getting the 10k run started caused delays to subsequent races. Sometime before 8:00am we were off, with a couple of bigger swells rolling in as we were swimming out but these were easily negotiated, round the first buoy and it was easier to sight the next mark without the rising sun reflecting on the water & in our eyes, round the final buoy and back to the beach, tried & failed to catch a couple of waves in. Quickly in & out of T1 (still some time to be gained here) and a flying start on the bike (shoes clipped & elastic-banded on) that went without major incident (luckily not many other riders in my immediate vicinity), then out onto the loop course hunting desperately for a pack to ride with as last time out I lost a lot of time riding on my own on the draft-legal course; passed some MTBs and some fish out of water but no one to work with, until at the turn under the M4 at Blue Lagoon a group of three came by & I hung on the back to recover a bit; did a turn on the front, then they peeled off at Kings Park Stadium, turns out they were just finishing off their Sunday ride & took advantage of the closed roads. Lap 2 & I was back to pushing on my own for a short way past Kings Park Pool until the beachfront road when a group of two came past, tucked in again and worked well with them, sharing the work for two more laps; one lap to go and I got popped off the back having pulled too hard & long on my turn at the front (live & learn); was on my own again up to the Blue Lagoon turn when the leaders of the Challenge race came by and I managed to jump on the back for the most amazing draft back to Moses Mabhida Stadium (those carbon deep-rims sound like steamrollers grinding down the road), four laps done so back through the underpass dodging the Sunday morning strollers, remembered to take my feet out of my shoes well before the dismount, hopped off a bit early (better than too late) and immediately my legs told me that despite the shared workload, that had been a hard ride (sub-40mins = average speed over 30km/hr yeeha!). Quickly through T2 (can shave some time here with elastic laces) and out onto the run trying to catch the two guys who had dropped me on the bike as well as my training mate who’s a better swimmer & rider than me. Struggled at the start with my TomTom (Runner1) watch to get it to start a new lap so that I could monitor my run, failed and resorted to using the current pace readout. Caught my buddy at the turn (12:14) and kept working hard to drop him & reel in the guys in the distance, caught one or two juniors who had imploded and managed 11:45 home. All in all, good improvement from last time on this course in similar conditions on 4th February (-2 mins on swim+T1, -4½mins on bike+T2) despite a slower run (+43sec), and overall felt like I was in the game all the way rather than being left behind on swim & bike then trying to catch up on the run. Now I have to work out how to improve in swim, bike, transitions AND run. Big thanks to the B-Active Team & sponsors for another well-presented event, and to everyone who turned out to race & support for providing the buzz. See you again soon. Results here: http://results.finishtime.co.za/Results.aspx?CId=35&RId=2474&EId=3
