Biker Dad

So last year was my first every Triathlon and I was 57. 

I am fortunate that I have my health and I am still reasonably fit. Having said that I did not break any records, in fact, after completing the Triathlon timings and places are put up on the London Triathlon scoreboard. Yes! I came 5^th in my category! Oh, hang on, there were only five entries in that age group. Oh well.

I managed to do everything wrong and still had a great time.

So the first mistake was in getting the wrong type of wet suit for the swim. I got a regular waterskiing suit instead of a Tri Suit. Do yourself a favour and spend the money, they are only about £100 - £150 for a more than adequate suit and you will at least look like you know what you are doing which is half the fun. It is also quite easy to hire a suit for the season at a much greater savings.

My second mistake was in not understanding the swimming course, which is the first part of the Triathlon. I entered the Super Sprint category. This is a 400mtr swim a 10K bike and a 2 ½ K run. Well it was going pretty good until my training kicked in and my body said, “this is about 400 metres.” I stopped swimming to seek the information from one of the guys in the safety kayaks. Who simply started laughing given that I had missed the turn off buoy by a good 100 metres. “Never mind.” I spluttered, “I’ll just keep swimming.’ So I completed the full 750 metres of the sprint category.

My third mistake was to think that I could complete the bike leg in style on a mountain bike with full nobly tires. I had several other entrants saunter past me who even by my age standards were old. Now this was just wrong, but I have to say I was inspired to see so many game people giving it hell. I think I may have been overtaken by a couple of Boris Bikes.

Lessons learned here is my bike for this year.