Ulverston Pool Triathlon

Last Sunday was the Ulverston Pool Triathlon, which Andy had crazily signed up for (nothing to do with me!). This involved a 400m swim (16 lengths of the pool), 28k cycle, and 5.8k run. This was the first of a few 'bigger' challenges that Andy had set himself for the year.

When he registered he'd put down the slowest time for swimming which meant he got put in the first wave of solo participants at 8.45am, in fact being the first one to set off! We arrived at a very foggy Ulverston Leisure Centre early so he could pick up his timing chip, t-shirt, numbers for running and cycling and get his bike racked up with all his gear ready for transition. Andy got to be lucky number 13!

He headed into the changing rooms to get ready for his swim just as the relay teams began theirs. There were 5 Walney Wind Cheetah relay teams this year, so it was good to be there early to watch them set off swimming. Once they'd all finished, the first wave of swimmers, including Andy, dropped into the water. He'd not had too much practice swimming so was probably the most nervous for this bit. He did really well and managed to get finished in 13 minutes.

As soon as we realised he was finished the boys and I dashed out to see him off on his bike. We watched him cycle off and disappear into the thick fog toward the coast road. Sam wasn't overly happy during this period, I think he was confused about why we were at the pool and thought he was also going for a swim! Once he'd calmed down and started to watch the cyclists leaving and returning he had a great time.

I spotted Andy cycling back towards us through the fog and he headed back into the transition area to re-rack his bike and change shoes for running. I saw a glimmer of electric yellow and the WWC logo as he headed off in the other direction for his run.

Half an hour later he was back and headed for the finish. Andy was really pleased with his run time as his usual pace didn't seem to change even with all the activity he'd just completed. His total finish time was 2.01.16 and he was 220th overall out of 251 taking part. Very tired, but very happy to have completed his first triathlon! I say first because he was already discussing signing up to next year's triathlon in the car on the way home!