Cowman Triathlon

The Cowman Triathlon could also be described as the Milton Keynes Half Ironman Distance Triathlon and was based in Emberton Country Park which is to the north of Milton Keynes.

This year their was only 2 waves for the Cowman, which I was in the last wave which started at 7.10am. They also had a sprint event their which started an hour later.

In addition to the chip timing you had stick on numbers, which the a lot fell off on the cycle due to how many I saw on the road. My front number fell off but the back one stayed on all day. They where quite good as in addition to the race number they had your first name on them, so you got some encouragement from the spectators. They also had some stickers for your supporters displaying I am supporting 123 or whatever your number was.

The lake did not seem that cold. I suppose that was helped by walking across the grass to the start area which was still cold due to the dew that was still on it.

The swim I did in 45:30 which was fairly good time for me. The main difference from last year was I did not get cramp in my legs and felt like I could have done it again, good news for less than 6 weeks time!!!

I could have done it slightly quicker if I had listened carefully to the race briefing while I was getting my wetsuit on before the race. As in the last swim lap instead of heading to the next lap buoy as on the first lap you should swim straight to the swim exit. I think this would have only added 30 seconds to my time, however typically my sighting to this buoy was the best I had done all day.

In the transition (T1) I was fairly quick for me 6:25 apart from getting to and from my bike the longest thing was getting out of the wetsuit which I seemed to struggle with.

The cycle I managed 3:16:59 which is an average of 17.4 mph (28 kmph). There were a few undulations and short climbs plus at the end of each of the 3 laps (2 long and 1 short lap) was a big hill. I was able to overtake a few people going up this hill. I could have done with one more bar to eat on the bike as there was only a water stop on each lap. Luckily I took some gels with me in addition to the 2 bars. It started to warm up on the last lap of the cycle which was then 21C (70 F).

In the transition (T2) I was fairly quick for me 2:40. T2 is always a lot quicker due to the lack of kit to change and its ease of doing so.

The run was 4 laps of a 5km (3.2 miles) circuit which was on the local village roads, off road around some fields and through the country park. This year their was plenty of food/drink on the route the main section being just near the start of each loop with a water stop 2/3 they way round.
From T2 I also took a bottle of sports drink and some gels with me. The drink was very useful as I sipped the drink occasionally in between the water stops. I only had some of the gels on the last 2 laps once I had drunk my sports drink. To ensure I got enough fuel on the run I also walked though the food stops. On some of the laps I walked up the inclines as my HR was slightly higher than I would expect possible due to the extra heat as it was now 25C (77 F). I tried to chase a person in the last 400m of the run which we had been overtaking each since the last lap of the cycle. However I started to get cramp in my calf muscles so I eased back. I managed the half marathon run in 1:52:48 which was good considering I have not done any long runs recently in training.

My time for the event was 6:04:23 which was 9 minutes quicker than last year. I also got sunburnt due to the lot better than forecasted weather.