In praise of Triathlon

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Chris Hobson

Chris Hobson

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
After being diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic, at the age of 54, in May 2013, I realised that I needed to get myself fit. I used to cycle to work in the past, so I dusted off my old bike and started doing short rides. I signed up for my local Parkrun and started running every Saturday. I used to swim so I dug out a pair of faded and slightly inappropriate speedos and got back in the pool. Once I became fit enough, I started cycle commuting again. It was an obvious next step for me to become a triathlete, you never know, one day I might even do an ironman.



My first multisport event was the Evil Sheriff Duathlon, (Run 5k / Cycle 20k/ Run 3k), in November 2014. By now I was doing the Parkrun every Saturday, my regular cycle commute was 11 miles, so this should be a doddle. As it turned out I was hopelessly unprepared for a pretty serious Cyclo-Cross course, and it rained continuously. My legs had completely turned to jelly by the time I reached the 3k run and, as I was desperately trying to force them to keep moving, I heard a sarcastic voice in my head say, “How's it going ironman?”



Regarding my diabetes, it seems that I was mis-diagnosed and I am actually a type 2. My condition is now very mild and so I am able to cope with endurance events fairly well. I would be interested to hear from anyone with who does endurance events with a more serious diabetic condition and how well you cope.



My first triathlon was the City of York Sprint in April 2015. (Swim 400m / Cycle 20k / Run 5k). The swim involved 16 lengths of a swimming pool, the bike course and run were very flat so it was a good entry level event. Anyone feeling daunted about doing their first triathlon should know that, at this level, you may well be up against ladies on shopping bikes with baskets on the front. Since then I have advanced, first to Olympic distance (Swim 1.5k / Cycle 40k / Run 10k) and then to half iron distance (Swim 1.9k / Cycle 96k / Run 21k). I'm hoping to do the full iron distance next year. The longer distances do involve wet suits and open water swimming which can be a little daunting at first.



Sprint triathlons are excellent for overall fitness. Although they require only a moderate amount of preparation, because you have to do cycling, running and swimming, you end up doing an impressive amount of fitness work before you know it. Anyone can do a sprint distance with a bit of preparation. Weekly park runs, cycle rides and swims just give you great overall fitness and the events themselves are such great fun that once you do one you are hooked.
 
Well done and well said, Chris. I've worked on triathlons in and around Northamptonshire, Henley on Thames and Weymouth for several years. No intention of competing, though - I prefer parkruns when not working on Saturday mornings - orienteering (competing and providing introductory sessions in West Yorkshire parks), trail runs, mountain runs with navigation, cycle commuting & leisure rides, occasional swiming in pools, open water, sea etc. Spent a great weekend in Roundhay Park, Leeds recently - working one day, volunteering another, watching friends compete etc. Missed the elite race, due to providing orienteering that afternoon.
 
Well done Chris, excellent stuff. 🙂 I have thought about triathlon and if I were to try it then the swimming would be my weakest bit. I haven't done any running for years either although I was pretty good in my younger years - however I don't find either particularly 'interesting'. I go on the bike though because I simply love riding.
 
Haven't been swimming for 25 years and can't ride a bike - apart from that...! 😱 😉 Well done Chris, that's a terrific effort 🙂 We're the same age and I have been a runner for 30+ years, but find it hard to keep up with the training for the longer events these days without something breaking/giving, so a special well done for remaining injury-free 🙂
 
Congratulations Chris, inspirational!
 
"...if I were to try it then the swimming would be my weakest bit."

Swimming is my worst discipline as well. When I used to swim regularly I used to swim breast stroke most of the time. The reason for this was that, in those days, the pools were permanently rammed, you couldn't do the crawl without constantly crashing into people. Once I became serious about triathlon, I joined the master's class at my local pool and got some coaching on how to do the crawl properly. With swimming, good technique makes a huge difference, enabling you to make much better progress with far less effort. In most triathlon events the swim is the shortest part, when I do sprints my swim time is about nine minutes. This is something that pisses off the really good swimmers. There is now an iron distance event called the Isoman which is designed to make all three disciplines the same length time wise, good swimmers tend to like these.
 
Northerner said:
Haven't been swimming for 25 years and can't ride a bike - apart from that...! 😱 😉 Well done Chris, that's a terrific effort 🙂 We're the same age and I have been a runner for 30+ years, but find it hard to keep up with the training for the longer events these days without something breaking/giving, so a special well done for remaining injury-free 🙂
Click to expand...
Don't go near the water Northy 😱.
 
Ever since I mentioned the Isoman triathlon I have been meaning to look up the distances involved and I've finally got around to it. The distances are designed to make the times roughly equal for the swim, the bike ride and the run. The swim is seven miles, the cycle ride 61 miles and the run the same as an ironman at 26.2 miles. I don't think that I am anything like a good enough swimmer to do seven miles without pegging out. There is also usually a cut off time for each section, I think that this varies from event to event but I expect that I would probably struggle to make the time limit.
 
Think these days if it below a certain temperature they wear wetsuits!
Back in the late 60's early 70's I went to school with a girl who did sea swimming , this was in the North East, she aimed to swim the channel , back then I think they used goose fat!
 
Yes Grovesy, you are correct, wet suits are normally used for open water swimming. If the water is a little warmer they become optional and if the water is properly warm you aren't allowed to use them. The last one I did was wet suit optional but I was too chicken to go without mine. Sprint triathlons are often held at swimming pools and the competitors are started either individually every thirty seconds, or in small groups every few minutes. The organisational skills of the people who run triathlons are truly amazing.
 
It's fun, but challenging working / volunteering on triathlons. I've worked on kids' and adults' pool and open water tris, mainly in Northants, Cambs, Oxfordshire, plus Challenge (Ironman distance) at Henley on Thames and Weymouth. Also ITU weekend of triathlons and duathlons in Leeds a few weekends ago. Next working on Roade kids' and adults' triathlons in September.
 
I'm sure I'd be able to 'manage' much better with a duathlon as my swimming would be the one to let me down in a tri.

Some time ago I was thinking about the 'athlons' and what about a quadrathlon. Obviously in a tri there is one water based and two land based. So I thought - another water based and has to be an athletic type activity - aha, canoeing! Anyway my joy in thinking I'd come up with a new sporting event was very shortlived when I looked it up to find it already exists as an event including the canoeing. I think there are some described as quintathlons that include shooting - US based not suprisingly and not really an equivalent suitable part in my opinion. So I'm trying to think of a suitable activity for a quintathlon now. :D
 
Once you combine running, biking and navigation, with other activities such as kayaking, canoeing, coasteering, caving, climbing, abseiling etc, continuously over hours to days, you've got adventure racing eg ITERA race in Republic Ireland, part of Adventure Racing World Series has just finished.
 
Part of my cycle commute takes me along a disused railway line and I often encounter deer on the path. So far they have always headed off across the fields when they see me coming. Once one ran across the road in front of my car, with much braking and swerving I managed to all but miss it, I just clipped it on the behind. It ran away apparently unharmed and there was no visible damage to the car.

Regarding this particular deer, in triathlons, when you progress to the longer distances there are just so many things that can go wrong and prevent you from finishing without the local wildlife crossing your path.
 
Once when cycling to work a guy in a Ford Fiesta turned right straight across my path. I wrote his car off with my head. Had I not been wearing a helmet I am pretty sure that I would have ended up with a fractured skull at best.
 
Update, I have now entered the Outlaw 140.6 triathlon that is to be held near Nottingham on July 23rd 2017. This event is an unofficial Ironman, meaning that it is the same distance as an Ironman, 140.6 miles, but not part of the official Ironman franchise.



It was a man called John Collins who gave the name Ironman to long distance triathlons. The first one took place in Hawaii on February 18th 1978 to resolve a bar-room argument about who were the toughest endurance athletes, swimmers, cyclists or runners. Collins proposed to resolve the dispute by combining three local races into one. These were the 2.4 mile Waikiki Rough Water Swim, the 112 mile Round the Island Bike Race, and the Honolulu Marathon, 26.2 miles. Collins declared that the one who won it should be called the Ironman. It nearly didn't happen as Collins cooled on the idea once he had sobered up. But other keen endurance athletes badgered him to go through with it and so the event went ahead. Only twelve competitors entered that first Ironman. It was won by Gordon Haller in eleven hours and forty seven minutes. The Ironman World Championships are now held at Kona in Hawaii every year.

Edit:
I got that slightly wrong, there were fifteen entrants and twelve finishers. Bear in mind that there were no feed stations at that time, you had to provide your own support crew.



From this incredibly humble beginning, Ironman has now grown into an international franchise with official Ironman events taking place all over the world. Its nearest rival is the Challenge series which also runs 140.6 distance triathlons around the world. To date, the world record for this distance is held by Jan Frodeno. On 17th July 2016 he completed Challenge Roth in 7:35:39.



In addition to these two big players there are numerous independent 140.6 distance triathlons, the Outlaw is one of these. I now have an incredible amount of work to do if I'm going to be in with a chance of finishing. The cut off time is seventeen hours. As I have completed a 70.3 in just over seven hours on a difficult and hilly course, I'm hoping that I will be OK as the Outlaw is a fairly flat course. The catch is that the organisers warn that the course is very tough if it happens to be windy on the day. With any long distance race, nutrition is very important to get right. Being diabetic makes it even more so. Lots of cereal bars, High Five gels and energy drinks will hopefully keep me going.



Fun fact. I live in New Ellerby, a little village about halfway between Hull and Hornsea. My daughter Hannah is at Keele University. When I went to visit, I set the trip meter on the car and the distance from my front drive to the parking space in front of the halls of residence is 140.6 miles. I have to say that it's a bloody long way.
 
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