My battered copy of the triathlon rules, along with my Triathlon Scotland whistle and clipboard
As I kicked off my season of officiating earlier last month, I was again met with surprise when pulling up some athletes for rule infringements that they didn’t know about. (Or claimed not to know about…) So I thought I’d put out a list of the top 10 triathlon rules that I see broken at events.
Having just moved city and gone through the process of looking for a new group of people to train with, I thought I’d quickly jot down my thoughts on what to look for when finding a triathlon club.
A simple Google or search of your National Federation’s website, such as Triathlon Scotland, will turn up triathlon clubs in your local area, but how do you pick?
If transition is the 4th discipline of triathlon, then logistics is the 5th. Just getting to the start line can be a real ordeal for some events, especially if a wetsuit swim and a flight are involved.
Kit all laid out before a non-wetsuit race
I like to lay everything out the night before, especially with the traditional early starts of local, open-road races. To help with this, I’ve made a handy triathlon packing list, setting out all the tasks I need to achieve. I normally drive to my races, so also need to prepare the bike rack, but otherwise I think the list is pretty general. If you’re packing away from the internet, you can find a downloadable, printable triathlon packing list here.
I was eagerly anticipating this final race of the Thames Turbo Sprint Race series for 2 reasons: having been there previously as a competitor and trainee official, I know it’s a great race, but more importantly, it was my first ever triathlon. Time to see how 18 months of training and my TT bike fare against last year’s performance.
The day after my own race at the London Triathlon at the weekend, I returned to complete my fourth and final shadowing of a qualified official, and became a triathlon technical official in my own right. I am now a “Local Technical Official“, the most junior of officials, and permitted “to be the chief official at pool based triathlon and aquathlon events along with duathlons, including children’s and paratriathlon events … also qualified to be an assistant official at open water events.” Woohoo!
A Saturday afternoon wave at a race in London should be the easiest thing for me to prepare for right? Apparently not, as I always like to overcomplicate things for my race at the London Triathlon. This time it was a work BBQ on the Friday night, chased with a marshaling the legendary Serpentine Handicap and picking my brother (also racing) up from Charing Cross before the race.
My first international sporting appearance was last weekend when I took to the starting pontoon of the open sprint race at the ITU World Triathlon Hamburg.
This is a slightly delayed race report from the Bridge Triathlon Super Sprint back on June 22nd , as I combated Glastonbury and illness, and prepared the new site.
I’d entered the Supersprint at Dartford for two reasons; I hoped I could work the short run distance into my recovery from ITB issues and it’d be a good first race for my brother. Afterwards I had a quick look at previous times and realised I could also do quite well, which would be nice. Continue reading Bridge Triathlon – Race report→
As of last Friday, 30th May, I am back in training! The physio has said I am no longer asymmetric and ready to get (slowly) back into to training. So hopefully no more missedraces. Continue reading Back in training→
Adventures in triathlon
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