Upton Standard Aquabike

One Thursday evening swim Sue Simpson turned up in a tri-suit. I asked her why and she said that she was practising for the Upton Aquabike. My interest was piqued because I had been considering trying Aquabike. I experience Exercise Induced Laryngeal Obstruction (EILO) on more intense efforts such as running! I expressed an interest and I think that Sue immediately regretted mentioning the event as she was keen to qualify for the World Standard Aquabike Championships in Australia next year as her husband Colin already has a spot. I realised that it would not really be cricket to take Sue’s spot and I really didn’t think there was any danger of that happening, but I did register my interest in qualifying “just in case”!

Adrian had the Eastbourne Middle Distance Triathlon on the following day and so didn’t feel like a day driving to near Birmingham and back, but he let me take the car. I went slightly wrong a couple of times on the way and hoped to do better navigating the course!

I arrived in good time and proceeded to register and rack. The first thing I noticed was that they didn’t mark our number on our hand so once the sticky labels provided were on the bike and helmet, and the race no on the race belt with the bike, there was no way to verify who went with which bike!

Expecting to be in wave 5, we were surprised to be told to rack in row 6.

I tried to recce the transition area and surroundings. The swim start was 1.5km up stream which had to be walked. We carried our wetsuits as there was a pleasant warmth to the air. It transpired that we would now be starting in Wave 6. We clad our wetsuits and put our belongings in a numbered bag that would be returned to the registration area.

The first challenge was to get into the water. the river bank was some metres above the water’s edge and we had to climb down steep ladders to the wobbly pontoon below. This wasn’t a good start as I tend to get rather dizzy in a long open water swim. We had been warned that the water would be cold. It was – very! In the water I called out, “Hey Sue, I’ve warmed up my wetsuit!”. The swimmer next to me turned and said “I’m not Sue, but thanks for sharing!”. It was difficult to hold our position behind the start line with the current as we waited for everyone to descend the ladders. Eventually we were off. I tried to maintain a moderate pace with long smooth strokes and to control my breathing. One mistake was that I should have moved further to the centre of the river to catch the maximum current, but even so the swim went quite quickly.

Arriving at a very deep pontoon we were bemused as to how to get out. A marshal gave me a hand but I still ended up like a beached whale trying to get my legs up and around to get to my feet. Not too dizzy I was able to climb the steep ramp and then run up the grassy bank and a fairly long way to enter the transition area, run to the far end and back down our row to my bike. A lot of running for an Aquabike! More mistakes as I wasted time putting on socks and gloves before wheeling my bike out of transition. Here started the first dead zone and I was not confident at all as to whether I was still on the clock or not. I asked a marshal if this was in the dead zone but they had no clue. Then Colin confirmed that it was and I relaxed briefly wheeling the bike out to a main road where the dead zone continued for some way to a safer area. Colin also indicated that Sue wasn’t far ahead.

Off on the bike, a lady who looked in our age group went storming past. I figured that it would not be possible to be back within 115% of her time and so thoughts of qualifying waned but I still wanted to give my best to the race. At one point I missed a turn because I was faffing with a drink and with the velcro on my gloves. My Garmin beeped “Off Course”. I was confused and was alone so I decided to turn around and quite quickly got back on the right track. The bike course was lovely through varied rural areas. Not too much climb but I did tend to drop off on the hills and be passed, only to catch up and pass again on the downhill and flats. I was hoping at some point to possibly catch up with Sue but I didn’t. Dismounting and walking through the final dead zone, I saw Sue waiting with Colin. The final burst was another run around the transition area, re-rack the bike and run-out over the final timing mat, so there was T1 and T2 for this Aquabike.

Sue and I then walked to the finish to get our medals. We did a token run over the finish line to have a photo taken and collected our goody bags.

Colin went to check our results. There was some confusion as our times were based on having started in Wave 5. But we had started 10 minutes later in Wave 6. Colin managed to sort it out eventually! Good job someone knew what they were doing!

Somehow the fast age-group lady must have slowed down because we did come in within the 115%. Colin reassured us both that we had qualified. I still can’t quite accept that until I see the Q on the BTF web-site.

Lesson learnt that I probably wasted a couple of minutes faffing with socks and gloves whereas Sue’s more polished transition got her round ahead.

If I inadvertently have qualified, then Adrian has agreed that we will make the trip to the land of my birth down under where I would do my best to not let the side down!