My first triathlon of the season, in at the deep end with a World Championship Age Group qualifier, the Llandudno Sea Triathlon.  Sprint distance with a brutal swim in freezing, choppy waters (awesome fun!), a hilly and technical bike course (scary fun!) and a reasonably flat run (flat fun?).

I made sure I didn’t go off too fast as I usually do on the swim and tucked in behind the leaders, came out the water 3rd and felt reasonably fresh going into T1.  Although Draft Legal this course has very little opportunity to benefit from drafting due to the fact that we were very spread out and the laps are essentially up the Great Orme and back down.  That said I was surprised at the benefit I got for a short while when I tucked in behind a guy who overtook me on the first ascent.

Bike went ok, was passed by about 6 guys, still my weaker discipline but I’m definitely stronger this year.  Descending towards the end of the bike leg allowed the heart rate to calm down a bit and I felt strong on the run where I ran the 3rd fastest leg, sub 20min 5km and regained a couple of places.   Finished 7th out of 37 in Age Group. The top 4 in each Age Group qualify automatically and with one guy ahead of me not registered it looks like I’m sitting 6th at 102.9% of the winners time.  So, with my goal being to benchmark myself against the best this year there is possibly a slim chance of a fastest loser spot.  Got one more shot at the final qualifier in Redcar in 5 weeks time…

Sandy Whisker