Dorney Lake Triathlon
June 6th 2023
My first triathlon experience was at Dorney Lake on a warm June morning. The day started with a light breakfast and an early start time that meant leaving the house even earlier. I had laid out everything I would need the night before and double-checked to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything. I packed it all into a big bag and just tried not to worry too much.
Once i’d eaten and gotten dressed I put my bike in the car along with my kit bag. The journey from home to the race was a nervous affair and by the time we arrived I’d fallen silent (rare for me) and both my legs were shaking like jelly. I made my way to the check-in desk and got my numbers, race swims cap and timing chip. After filling out the details on the back of my race number I went to set up my transition area, this was a confusing thing to do so just tried to copy the people around me who looked like they knew what they were doing.
Once my area was ready I got into my wetsuit and got into the corral and started to chat with people. One of my favourite things about the days was how comforting everyone was, when I told them it was my first race people were so supportive and helpful, one person even handed me some body glide for my neck so that my wetsuit wouldn’t rub. We then all got into the water and trod the water until the gun went off.
A mass swim start isn’t something you can train for, it’s chaotic and arms are flying, legs are kicking and people will just swim right over the top of you. I got into a rhythm and quickly realised that breathing every three strokes was not going to work as the sun was blinding me so I stuck with breathing every two and trying to sight every 4 breaths. I swam much much faster than I expected to and felt pretty terrible going into T1.
T1 was a totally new experience that didn’t go great, I had to take a minute or two to catch my breath and not vomit. Once I gathered myself I peeled off my wetsuit and jumped into my bike shoes, grabbed my bike and jogged to the mounting line. The mount line was at the bottom of a bridge which made starting a little interesting but nonetheless I got going.
The bike course was not the most thrilling of rides I’ve ever done, eight laps of 5km meant you were going around in literal circles for just over an hour. There were plenty of moments to practice my bike handling skills as the course seemed to become more and more littered with bottles and gels that had fallen from peoples pockets. At one point I had to swerve a mini bike pump that was in the middle of the course. By the time I had started the 8th lap the temperature was up to 24 Degrees which for me may as well have been the middle of the Sahara.
T2 was a little better than the first, my legs felt like jelly but I managed to get my trainers on and refill my pockets with gels. I headed out onto the run course, two 5k loops, where I quickly realised I was going to overheat. At each end of the course they provided water but in a bottle so small that you needed to grab three at a time. I tried to settle into a steady pace and started to chat to a few people along the way. I got a cheer from my dad and my friend Joel at around 5k in and that gave me a little extra push for the end.
I finished in a final time of 2:46:40 which was around what I had expected and gave me a lot of confidence in my ability going into a build for my first Ironman 70.3 race later in the year. I think the Dorney Events are a fantastic way to get race experience as the organisation is great and the course is fairly straight forward.
