Well the Nokia Royal Windosor triathlon was the first Sprint Triathlon for me and hopefully many to follow. The build up to the event went along with some nerves days before, the nerves were mainly caused because of the problems I have been having with my left leg. 

The race was in a great race venue, beautiful scenery along the biking track and running next to the castle of the Queen of England, what else do you want? Maybe the water could have been a bit cleaner. Swimming in the Thames against the current is not exactly the best place to start your first Triathlon. Nevertheless all this was part of the fun. 

The bike course was as good as flat, the run course was flat apart from the spot next to the castle which had to be done 3 times. A beautiful sunny start of the day without any rain helped to increase the atmosphere. I guess you can't really ask for better race conditions. 

Humanrace organized the event and the main sponsor were Nokia, apart from not able to get out of transition until after 11am when the race was finished at 8 am for me was a bit of a shame, but we were warned! 

Official splits 

Swim times and Bike times include transition times due to a technical problem.

Swim 750m - 00:28:42   - position 233/325

Bike 30 Km - 00:57:44   - position 105/325

Run 5 km - 00:33:51 - position 255/325

Overall time - 02:00:18

Position 194/325

Pre Race

I had ordered fromIronmanActivewear a new trisuit which didn't come in time and had to rush to find a new trisuit on the Friday. 

No activities planned apart from two intense stretching session a day and two days before the event. 

On the Saturday I went for registration and bike racking at 11:00am, a bit of a weird feeling to leave your bike behind. I got my labels for on the bike and the helmet and I was the proud owner of race number 2186. I could sense how big this event was going to be when just walking into the pavilion area, more than 2000 bikes stacked together.   

On Saturday night I went early to bed at 22:30 in the hope to catch some sleep. Most likely due to some nerves I was unable to sleep until 1:15 am and I was planning to get up at 3:30 am as my wave was due to start at 06:08 am. I guess I could have done with much more than just 2 hours sleep. We left home at 4:20 am to be on site just before 5:00 am, this left me with one hour to setup my transition. My wife was not allowed to go into transition so she stayed on the outside. I had a picture with me from my transition setup just in case I couldn't remember which I didn't need after all. 

After setting up the complete transition I needed a necessary toilet break, and had to queue for quiet some time. I returned back at my transition area around 5:40 am at which point I started putting my wetsuit on. 

Time was getting now closer to my first ever triathlon, after checking the setup again I walked out of transition and thought by myself - this is it! We had to cross the streets on our bear feet to walk to the starting lines on the side of the river Thames. 

I noticed straight away the first wave which was due to start at 06:00.

The Swim

I was in the third wave, the one with the white hats. When I saw the previous two waves entering the water and starting their wave a few people started to swim forwards but only went backwards. It was that bad that some people had to be taken out of the water and their race was over immediately. All their practice was over in just a few seconds. I tried to ignore these thoughts and from the moment the second wave went off I jumped into the water. 

I remembered from reading, and from practicing in open water that my body had to get used to the cold water otherwise this would impact by breathing and performance. The water was just above 18 degrees, I guess this must have been the warmest temperature from all the practice swims in open water I had till so far. 

Days before this event I saw a DVD and picked up a few tips like putting your head in the water and floating horizontally whilst blowing bubbles. This must have helped me as I was totally relaxed minutes before the start, or was it the adrenaline? 

Due to the current it was impossible to stay at the same spot in the water for kick-off, we were drifting backwards or unless you fancied loosing lots of energy you had to kick very hard to stay in the same position. Just next to the start inside the water there is a little man made island, I rushed to this side and could hold myself.  

Once the start signal went off I started swimming like a maniac, I could feel arms, legs, heads, bodies all over me but was able to get away from all this. However I was out of breath rather quick, which wasn't good, from the moment the mass was gone and spread out I searched for my own pace which I found rather quickly. The swim was on the right hand side of the Thames, but this meant that if was possible to walk inside the water at some places, at some point I tried to walk but the underground of the Thames wasn't such a pleasant feeling and I didn't want to step into something sharp which would take me out of the race or infect me. 

The swim seemed to take for ever and I was looking forward to see the big massive yellow buoy near the bridge which crosses the Thames. In meantime I saw people passing me with pink hats which before the race I noticed must have been the woman’s race in the fourth wave, this meant that I was drifting 4 minutes behind and they had caught up with me. Finally I arrived on the yellow buoy from HumanRace and was relieved however it took me at least a few minutes to turn on this buoy, the current was very strong. I gathered I must have been swimming too close to the buoy that I was almost cuddling this and probably lost lot of energy here. I was hoping after the turn that we would swim with the current and no longer against the current, but I was unable to feel the difference, I was still pushing on like a maniac. Not far now and I could see the exit where my wife was waiting for me, no not with a cup of coffee or a towel with refreshment. When I saw her the only thing I could shout at her was "Dirty water". Thanks babe for supporting me. 

My concentration moved on to transition and I knew the distance between the swim exit and the transition was a few hundred meters so I started taking off the top half of my wetsuit, this went smoother than I feared for. My legs felt very tired at this point. I didn't have a problem taking off my wetsuit like I witnessed other people during other races. Just before I was ready to take off on the bike someone inside the transition area pushed my bike on the floor which added additional time to my transition time. I guess that's all part of the fun. 

I had hoped to complete the swim within 18/19 minute

The Bike

Running out of transition was fine, I had feared running with my bike shoes but this wasn't too bad after all. From the moment I passed the gates I jumped on the bike and away I was. My legs felt immediately very tired which is something I was surprised about, but I kept on pushing without thinking about my legs. I started taking people over and had a good feeling. I kept on looking at my speedometer and noticed a speed most of the time more than 20 miles which I was happy with. At some point I was part of a group of riders which overtook me and then I overtook them so we were changing positions. I felt I was doing well and before the race I was hoping to complete the 30K under the hour which I did. 

At the end of the bike we came into the village of Windsor, the marshals were holding up the traffic and we could surge through the village towards the transition area. Not exactly knowing were we where the bike in gates appeared quicker than I though. I was hoping to leave my shoes on the bike, but because I didn't practice this part too many times I didn't risk it in the last hundred meters were lots of crowd was gathered in a narrow alley. I jumped off the bike instead and ran as quick as I could with my bike towards my position in the transition area. 

My official time was 57 minutes including transition time, which is an average of 19.4 miles/hour.  

The Run

Changing my bike shoes into the running shoes was smooth and I left the transition area very quickly. My full thoughts and mind were with my left leg, is my leg going to hold up or not? Am I going to have pain? Will I damage my leg more? 

As a consequence I started running with a very slow pace, not that I could have ran much faster as initially I had stitches. I took some water from the provision area and drunk this quickly and hasty. I was surprised to see so many runners on the track, not sure why I was surprised after all there were more than 2000 participants. After the first turning I saw the hill next to the castle and could only think about not going too fast, which I did. The track was made off 3 laps next to the castle and we were responsible for counting. In meantime I was searching for my wife but was unable to find her. The finish line was setup on the exit of the final lap and when entering this area I started realizing I had accomplished a dream which I was working towards for the last 8 months. I had become a triathlete who completed his first Sprint Triathlon. Then I noticed my wife and reached my hands up in the air and took my own peace of fame on the finish line. 

I enjoyed it truly from start to finish. Up to the next one!