Posts Tagged ‘Glyn Neath Triathlon’

Two of our Health Club employees Andrew Morrissey and Rob Crabtree took part in the Glyn-Neath Triathlon on Sunday 25^th September. Rob, who has recently completed a very impressive half iron man race and is a seasoned campaigner of triathlons, was aiming for a top 10 finish, while Andrew who’s a cyclist was aiming to survive.

The race started with a 400 meter indoor swim followed by a 22km cycle and a 3km run. Due to different expected times in the swim we were set off at different times.

Andrew was first to go, with swimming being his weakness he was dreading the swim and this showed. Having struggled through the swim he finally finished the 400m and first transition in just over 13mins. Andrew knew that he would pull a lot of time back on the bike and he did coming in just over 41mins and passing everyone who beat him swimming, however it should also be stated that Andrew dropped his glasses and Garmin while cycling and got stuck behind an annoying slow driver so lost a lot of time (this is not a excuse for Rob beating me just stating the facts and it will also never happen again). He then completed his 3km run in over 13 mins with a finishing time if 1 hour 8 mins coming in 42^nd out of 128. “I did enjoy doing my first triathlon however I am very disappointed with my swim and bike; I will carry on swimming but will be concentrating on my bike for my return to France in June”.

Due to Robbeing a far superior swimmer, he set off at a later time. He would be competing against athletes who spend 20-30 hours a week training and have completed Ironman competitions all over the world. Rob started strong in the swim setting a very good pace and putting half a length over his nearest rival. Having realised is pace was too quick he started to slow down, finishing the swim in 2^nd place and transition in 7.51. Going into the race Rob knew that out of all three discipline cycling was the weaker but he put in his best performance (some would say lucky but very impressive) finishing 41 mins to stay in contention for a top ten finish.

He then set off on his run and finished in 12min 11secs giving him a overall finishing time of 1 hr 1 min, and coming 18^th out of 128. “I was happy with my overall performance but felt that knowing Andrew was also racing I had to push myself to the limit and call on my experience . Overall both we happy to finish but both agreed they could have done better”.