Team Jamerzil at the London Triathlon 2004
Team Jamerzil finally came together the week before race day. I struggled to get someone to take Ayumi's place. Abigail couldn't do it because of child co-ordination. Leo's sister Sarah had a hamstring injury. Everyone at the health club was daunted by the event. In the end, Pat came shining through as the Jamerzil runner.
11:45 - Claudia rings the bell of 10 Hungerford Road.
11:50 - bike checks and lube by mechanic Brian
12:00 - filling of water bottles
12:05 - last minute loo visit
12:15 - cycling through the London roads on our way to the Docklands.
We only had to stop twice for a map check. Being a weekend, traffic in the City (financial part of London) was relatively light.
13:15 - cycling right alongside the bike race course approaching the ExCel building race headquarters.
13:30 - rack bikes in appropriate transition areas
13:50 - pick up timing chip
13:55 - meet up with Pat and Richard
14:00 - Andrew and Michelle join our group
14:05 - Brian and camera arrive
14:20 - swimmer is nervous. Frantically searches for open restrooms.
14:30 - last minute review of team strategy and logistics
14:40 - swimmer dons wetsuit and heads to start area
14:50 - swimmer finds out race start is delayed 30 minutes
15:00 - back to Jamerzil gathering
15:15 - back to race start
15:30 - team Jamerzil starts the London Triathlon!
This was the first time I had done a swim start with men. My wave had about 250 people starting all together. The water tasted nassty and some rather large arms pounded my back several times, but I made it around the course free of major injuries in 28:21.
15:58 - strip off wetsuit, throw in bag, carefully run up slippery stairs, find Claudia in transition, hand off timing chip
16:03 - bike portion begins!
Claudia had a stellar cycling race, completing the 4 lap course in 1:33:50, a full 27 minutes faster than we anticipated! Michelle, Andrew, Pat, Richard, Rhoel, Brian and I were all congregated at a strategic point along the course so we could cheer her on and take some good photographs. With 1.5 laps still to go, Pat and I went back up to transition to prepare for the run.
According to the race rules, if the biker wasn't back within 2 hours after the start of the race, the runner would get another timing chip and start off on the run. This was to ensure the race course was cleared by a certain time. We anticipated that I would take 30mins for the swim, leaving only 90mins for Claudia to finish the bike. We didn't think that was going to happen, so Pat (along with quite a few other runners) was anxiously awaiting the race marshal to hand out the chip so she could get started. We were instructed to just wait by our assigned area in transition and someone would come around with the chip. But lo and behold, here came Claudia streaking in! I was thrilled, impressed, excited! My team is doing so well.
Hand over chip, rack bike, three cheers for Pat and she's off. Back onto the course to support the Jamerzil runner.
18:26 - Pat sprints across the finish line! A brilliant performace by all. |
