The Sped-Web

Triathlon, Running Coaching and Stuff

  More Race Reports 

On this page you'll find info about the Clacton triathlon, Ballbuster Duathlon, Wotton Bassett Triathlon and more (eventually)

Clacton Triathlon 2003 (where?)

Two events for the price of one, plus time!! As time is an abstract concept the latter is a joke.

Triathlon One

Discipline 1: The M4 to the M25. This went fairly well for friday afternoon. I had a problem before the start with my tyres. A change on thursday meant a dodgy wheel balance. So that was the delay in setting off. The rest of the ride was fine 1 hour 60 miles was OK.

T1 M4 to M25. No problems in T2

Discipline 2: The M25. This is one of the trickiest disciplines and it was not long before problems arose with the sheer volume of traffic. The was plenty of drafting in lanes 2 and 3. I pottered along in lane 1 and for some reason everyone else just wanted to drive in echelon on the other lanes. All that drafting going on makes you want to jump into their lane and join in. Don't do it only encourages more, and more. Anyway, by now the ETA for Essex was looking to be 4.5 hours.

T2 M4 to A12: T" included a drive though feed station (MacDonald's) with large fires and a thick Vanilla shake, yum yum. This was just what I needed

Discipline 3: A12. The last discipline is always the hardest. Last time I did it in 2001 Hatfield Peverill was the bottle neck (as if the a12 isn't one big bottle necked linear carpark anyway). This time it was just one big hell hole in the Whitham area with roadworks and a car fire. If you stay relaxed you can overcome the stress of it all so with a  vanilla shake it was only slightly horrific.

The real thing

Why go to Clacton? Essex was holiday home once or twice per year for the young Speds as Mother came from that area so I know the area as a child and I thought it would be fun to see what a triathlon in the far east was like.

The real Clacton triathlon was totally new to me. The swim is a 1500m sea swim but with a difference. the triathlete's are sent off in waves of up to 10 every 5 minutes. the reason (I assume for this) is the bike course. The transition is 1200m from the swim start and is based at the end of a semi-tarmac-ed potholed gravelled ridden undulating track. The track is therefore a neutral zone with no racing. A hundred triathletes coming out could be fairly serious.

The bike is a two lap affair through some fairly flat (Have you seen a  hill in the this part of Essex?) out to Kirby Cross through Thorpe le Soken and back  through little Clacton to new Holland. then around again. The distance is as close to 25 miles as you can get.

The run is a very flat out and back affair along the Prom (high level out lower on the way back).

That's it really. well organised and a nice event. If you remember Loretta Sollars she was racing came home 3rd overall!

Full results here

Wotton Bassett 2003

NWLL run the Wotton Bassett event for the first time this year. That meant Mike Cox at the helm and Mike organises a good event. I chose this event above the Cotswold sprint for several reasons.

a) I don't like wet suit swimming

b) Mike Cox organises a good event and I have not done one of his this year.

c) I could cycle back home 

d) It's cheaper.

It was a great sunny September sunday and I had a 10.00 start. I eventually got into the pool and was one of the last pair to set off. The swim is quite a small pool and a bit choppy at times, the bike area was about 10m from the swim exit though which was nice.

This event is all about the bike, OK so there is a 400m swim and a 4km run sandwiching it but the bike is 30km or so and is a very nice gently rolling trip to Malmesbury and back along the B4040. The sad man that I am I know all roads by the number, that what happens when you spend your working life in highways departments in the SW. The only advice I would give is that save a bit for the journey back as it is little harder and you don't need to leave much for the run a sit is so short but quite nice.

And here are the two Hogweed Trotters

Simon was 1st vet 40 and Adrian 4th  vet 45

The 2002 Ballbuster

For results go to the Human race web site.

Tri and Run, Ballbuster 2nd November 2002

You start on top of a big hill run a loop of 8 miles back to the top of the hill. You then cycle the same loop three times and to top it off run the loop again. That about says it all doesn't it? Well no actually it's worse than that because you can't describe the pain and aching involved in it, at least for me this year anyway.

I chose to do the event because it was on a Saturday (no kids football matches) and take on the challenge of the event. I did it in 1998 and was 5th overall. That year I trained for about two months with the event in mind. At least once per week doing a big endurance "brick session" of 6-8 mile run easy 20-30 mile bike and another run, one I remember being 11 miles but easy. Hills and hills and hills. 

This year I had run loads for a marathon three weeks previously. The marathon was my main focus in the autumn, get a time to qualify for London 2003 and then have fun at the Ballbuster. At the moment (the day after) I can look back and say it was no fun, but it was character building!

I had been running 50-60 miles per week for the marathon but probably only one or two bike rides per week, not nearly enough. I thought the running would get me through....WRONG.

I spent the week before the race as a taper and felt OK for the event. I had a bit of a set back the day before the event, feeling a bit ill with a stomach ache and was worried about retaining my carbohydrate store! I was up at 4.45 am to hit the road (well actually I was up at 3.45 as my clock on the mobile phone had not been put back from last week) so off I went at  5.15 up the M4. Temperatures were around 10-11 degrees and ideal for this sort of event, looking good.........NO!

I was cheered up a bit when I bumped into Mark and Andy who had travelled up from the west country too. They had done b****r all training since Ironman Lanzarote back in May, hmmm. I also managed a chat with Lynda Chase and race organiser John Lunt.

Normal people go down the pub for a pint and a chat, multi-sports people (me, anyway) travel 120 miles at an unearthly hour to say hello to two guys who live 20 miles down the road, just before taking part in a mega-tough event. Sad or what?

The event kicked off at 08.00 and within about a mile or so I was thinking, this is not going to be a good day. My only consoling thought was at least this was not the beginning of an Ironman. By 4 miles I was in no-mans land with a big bunch of runners just ahead. I managed to catch them in the lanes but with hindsight probably worked a little too hard. As we hit the hill I just settled into a steady groove and focused on getting up the hill, let alone racing up it. At one point I was so focused (totally out of it?) that the guy behind me shouted "CAR" as one approached from behind and that scared the hell out of me. I got to the top of the hill in one piece (physically anyway) and as my number was called out announced myself as "Simon Spedding" to those who may have known me, I got a "come-on Simon" from Paul who was stood in the crowd. A mush more sensible position to be in. WHY WEREN'T YOU RACING PAUL? I managed the run in a fraction over 49 minutes. In 1998 I had done 51 so I am quite please with that. The trouble was I was now a spent force and still had 2 hours plus of hard work to go.

Onto the bike then. I decided on some bits of neoprene over the end of my shoes to keep my toes warm and to wear a cycling jersey to keep the chill out. From the moment I was on the bike though it was just a struggle to keep going. I was alright on the downhills and flats but soon as I hit the uphill I was dead meat. Oh dear! I was looking for a time of around 1hour 16 so 25 minutes laps were the order of the day. Not this day though. Having grovelled for far too long I was eventually back in transition after 1 hour 21 of pain, ouch! Off the bike and into shuffle mode Spedding.....

The is nothing like the Ballbuster shuffle I've done countless triathlons and as soon as I climbed off the bike 1998 came back  To add to the misery I hit the last run with a severe stitch to go with the leaden legs..... I wanna go home.... I wish I was doing a marathon.....I could have walked quite easily but decided I would get around and that character I was obviously missing, perhaps I could recover. I did actually feel a bit better by about 5-6 miles when a guy from Optima went passed. I decided to run with him and enjoy the autumn scenery. The trees were very splendid when you were not in the mist/fog November is great time for looking at the gold, yellows greens and browns of the trees and foliage. I would imagine this area is  great place to have a picnic train in or even walk through. As we hit the hill for the last time I actually overtook someone WOW. Normally the run is my strong section and in 98 I ran 53 minutes for the last 8 miles. Today it was 57 minutes of hell. 4 minutes is along way on legs of steel. As I finished I looked a my watch 3 hour 7 minutes................gutted, not even under 3 hours. I told the folk in the massage area I would be back in 3 hours and get a massage before the queue started. I quickly changed an hobbled in a limpey shuffley sort of way to the massage tent before the queues started and this was my achievement of the day.

Many thanks for John Lunt for another great event.

Will I be back next year? Who knows? Hopefully, it sure beat the hell out of sunny triathlons. If you want a big challenge. This has got to be one for the future. The irony is that it was sponsored by Tri-and-Run from Essex and that is the knack of the last 8 miles.

Is the sign of a great event, one which you can have a thoroughly miserable time at, ache like hell, and be disappointed in your performance.......and then want to go back for more? if so this is a great event, if not I am one sad bloke!

I found Andy and Mark later and asked how they got on. Mark had dropped out after the bike and was happy to have got that far. Andy had done the lot and was very pleased in going under 4 hours (3-54 mins). The Ironman was beckoning next year though and he had to beat Mark. "I can't believe that fat b*****d can beat me at Ironman he muttered, I Smell a challenge for the west Country lads.

Simon Spedding