Llanwrst Triathlon, 3rd September 2006.

Report by Nick Reed

The 2006 Llanrwst Sprint Triathlon was billed as a new race but was in fact in fact a kind of digitally re-mastered version of a race which was first staged in the late 90s by hosts Carneddau Triathlon Club. I can speak with some authority as it was yours truly who was race secretary of the original event and for a couple of years I spent many weeks in the lead up to the race knee deep in race entries and trying to blag freebies for the goody bag from Asda...

It was great therefore to go back to my old North Wales stomping ground to be able to compete for the first time. It was however with some trepidation and characteristic lack of preparation - as this was to be my first race in over a year. Indeed as I (literally) blew the dust off my trusty Cannondale race bike the night before, I noted that my speedo still showed my bike split from The Longest Day 2005.... the horror, the horror... don't make me go back to that rainy place mummy...

Llanrwst is in the Conwy valley, a few miles north of Betws y Coed and driving over from Glossop it looked like the weekend forecast for rain was wide of the mark as it was a pleasant sunny morning, but the "windy" bit of the forecast was bang on the button. Sure enough wind was a big feature of the bike leg but it was rain earlier in the week which affected the run.... Sadly T2 - which is in a park adjacent to the River Conwy - was completely underwater and the organisers took the sensible but regrettable decision to cancel the run leg. Evidently their insurance for the event was contingent on appropriate risk assessments for the various elements, and they were unable to guarantee safety with any alternative T2 site.

The swim was in the bijou 20m Llanrwst pool but sensible start times meant there were never more than 2 per lane and it was happily uncongested. With a very relaxed start time of 10.50 I was able to bimble around and watch a few swimmers heading out onto the bike leg before the compulsory brief 10 minutes before the off. As usual I saw off the swim with all the grace of a ballet dancing hippopotamus and completed the run leg - 50m out to the transition area by the pool.

The bike course is at least easy to follow - up one side of the valley and down the other. After half a mile winding out through the centre of Llanrwst you are rapidly out onto the A470 heading north and it was once in the open the wind become evident. Although it was a tailwind on the way out - and there were some super fast stretches - there were still swirly gusts which seemed to make it hard work. But that was nothing compared to the way back.... After the turn at Tal y Cafn there are a couple of short but nasty climbs and then it's back into the eye of the wind as you head through Dolgarrog and past Trefriw towards Llanrwst. Although some of the sections had a bit of shelter in the trees, you had to pedal hard to get down the hills in others - you get the picture.

Personally I had fun on the bike and gave it as much beans as I could knowing that I wouldn't have to run afterwards and reveal my dark secret that I actually cant run. On the final mile or two my right hand Gripshift decided to start spinning around my tri bars (grub screw ailments - you gotta love 'em) meaning I couldn't get anything but my biggest gears so it was with enforced bravado that I crossed the line cranking the biggest gear possible trying to look hard, but probably looking like a fat old bloke on a poorly maintained bike.

At the finish a few folks headed out do the run anyway, but knowing that it involved a 500m hill I thought it best to do some structured recovery so I just ate chocolate and jelly babies instead.

It was a good turn out from MTC with everyone finishing in the top half of the field of 130 and everything considered I was happy with my first outing as an MTC member. Well done to Jude and Sonia who were 2nd and 3rd in the female open despite some confusion about times and categories at the prize giving.

Overall winner was Tom Bunn with a time of 47.54 for the 400m swim and 25k bike.

Results (400m/25km)

Name	CAT	Swim rank	Swim	Bike rank	Bike	Pos	Overall
Nick Reed	mv	42	00:07:41	22	00:47:18	21	00:54:59
James Smith	mo	9	00:06:16	36	00:49:50	31	00:56:06
Martin Simpson	mo	12	00:06:29	45	00:51:19	36	00:57:48
Judith Wall	fo	30	00:07:06	48	00:51:56	43	00:59:02
Sonia Harris	fo	35	00:07:17	48	00:51:52	44	00:59:09
Ian Welch	mv	107	00:10:37	33	00:49:32	48	01:00:09
Robert Williams	mv	16	00:06:36	58	00:53:35	49	01:00:11
Clare Welch	fv	85	00:09:21	69	00:54:52	70	01:04:13

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