7th July 2002

Anne and I had both entered the Bournemouth Triathlon but due to an unfortunate disagreement with a car on a roundabout near Sudbury only I, was able to participate.  By the way no refund for Anne, insufficient notice, we need to plan ahead more.  She is recovering well from a broken collarbone, bone in hand and bumps and grazes. 

We traveled down on the Friday evening taking 6 hours due to the Friday volume of traffic.  We found the hotel we had booked by Internet to discover a party of OAP Bowlers from ‘March’ were camped out at the Hotel.  It seems that the owner is a keen Bowler and OAP groups treat the Hotel as some kind of Mecca.  One of them, dressed as the Rhinestone Cowboy, sang us a song while we enjoyed a quite pint that evening.  I tried the wetsuit out for the first time before breakfast on the Saturday morning.  The sea was calm and the suit fitted well so all seemed good, almost confident, I was.  Back to the Hotel for breakfast with the Rhinestone Cowboy, yehaa.

I registered for the event and collected my number and Goody Bag in the afternoon, then Anne insisted we went shopping.  When for a short ride to test the hill up from the Exhibition Centre and to select the right gear for the morning to make the hill easy, I didn’t find it.

I racked my bicycle by 0620hrs and studied the opposition, some very fit looking athletes.  My start time was 0745 (third wave), the first wave of elite triathletes was off at 0658 following a briefing.  Interestingly the sea had ‘got up’ overnight and waves were evident and white horses’ etc.  Also a wind chill factor before the start so we all looked like Antarctic Penguins ready to dodge the Killer Whales.  I actually missed the start in that I didn’t have my goggles on and rinsed them as I waded through the waves.  We swam straight out to a buoy then 90 Deg right and parallel with the beach for 4 buoys turn left, another buoy , turn left again and back towards the pier passing 3 more buoys.  Finally left back to the beach again 1500 meters total whilst wrestling with the other 99 triathletes in my wave.  It seemed at times as if the wet suites had ‘magnetic’ properties as lots of other swimmers kept bumping into me.  Out of the sea, run along the beach starting to take of the wetsuit and fighting that light headed feeling you get having spent 30 minutes bobbing about in the waves.

I found my bicycle ok, it was the only one left on my part of the rack.  So out of transition and up the hill as a good starter for the 40 Km cycle.  By the time we cleared Bournemouth there was a steady stream of super fit cyclists overtaking me, getting there own back for not having had such a good swim.  I was encouraged by the ambulance that went rushing past me at 6 Km and at 13 Km saw it again attending an injured lady triathlete.  All this helps the concentration.  I was pleased with my new bicycle although not going fast by the standards of some of the others.  I was having problems with the shorts however, and on the return from Ringwood was beginning to wonder if I had left a sheet of sandpaper in the shorts for safe keeping.  Anyway back into Bournemouth and straight down the hill, through the main Town Centre Square having first dismounted under the instruction of the marshals.  This was because of the light rain and the very smooth paving stones.  Back towards the transition, passing Anne on the way.  She had waited 1 hr 20 minutes to get a picture of me only to meet up with some long lost acquaintance 15 seconds before I arrived.  As I ran down the hill looking backwards and shouting ‘Anne’,  thinking she might just worry that I was lost out on the cycle course somewhere.

Triathlon rules do not allow you to take off your helmet until you have racked your bike.  So being brain dead at this stage and seeing a competitor with his helmet in hand I went for the clip on the chinstrap.  At this stage a burly marshal jumped in front of me and screamed “don’t even think about it” I got the feeling he was a big ‘Dirty Harry’ fan.  The daft thing is I stood for a second or two thinking “don’t even think about WHAT” !

Quick change into the Asics and out of the transition area (I think it was the same fencing as used at Glastonbury this year) next was the run along the prom for 5 Km turn and back 5 Km, at this stage it was a case of survival.  I was very aware that I was the entertainment for those holidaymakers sitting in their deckchairs licking ice creams or sipping tea from their flask.  I plodded on at a very poor pace before a short sprint for the cameras at the finish.  An enjoyable experience and I’m sure I can do better.

Split times were recorded as follows, includes transition. 

Swim 32.38, cycle 1.23.26 and run 59.14.   (1.5Km, 40Km, 10Km)  my first Olympic distance triathlon. I finished 595^th out of 626 in the men’s event.  21^st in my age group out of 24.

This was an international triathlon as well as being the Army championships, six Army chaps behind me.  Disappointingly the SAS recruitment officer didn’t ask me my name !

Grayhame Fish