I decided to do this sprint distance race as a bit of a loosener before the big event (only three weeks away!). Did it a couple of years ago, so was familiar with the course and the setup of the race, so it was a good low key, low stress event to do, and always enjoyable.
Culford is a little village just north of Bury St Edmunds. The village is fairly quiet, and the roads used for the bike course are almost completely flat and sheltered, making for a pretty fast course. The race is based in the grounds of Culford school, which largely dominates the village.
The official format of the race is 300m swim/21 km bike/4 km run.
The swim is a nice easy 300 meters in the school pool. The reason for the slightly odd distance is due to the length of the pool and the number of lanes, coupled with the decision to go with a duck under the lanes type system (up and down each lane once, then duck under the lane ropes). This is apparently to help avoid people mis-counting lengths, although how people lose count on the way to 12 lengths is beyond me!
Following the swim, there is 500 meter dash to the transition area for T1 and the bike split.
As noted earlier, the bike split is quite flat, on quiet sheltered roads. The only real factor is wind, which was not particularly strong on the day (in fact, despite the forecast, it turned out to be almost perfect conditions). The course is 3 laps of a 7 km circuit. The only tricky bit is negotiating the foot down junction. The last turn of the bike course makes it's way from a small side road onto a slightly busier B road. Due to the increase in traffic, the marshals require you to stop and place your foot down at this junction, before setting off again. The only thing I can say about this is make sure you change down before you hit the junction. I made the mistake of being in my largest gear when I hit the junction and nearly killed myself getting moving again ! This junction is the only downside to an otherwise nice fast course - I had to stop twice for cars coming through.
T2 is unremarkable. Dismount the bike when you mounted it, a quick dash through transition (which is nice and small, quite refreshing when compared with the likes of the Eton Super Sprints), and on to the run.
The run is around 4km, entirely within the grounds of the school. The run is a 2 lap course, comprised of a lap around the school field in a clockwise direction (on grass), followed by short run up and down a tarmac path off the side of the field. Despite rain overnight, the field was fine to run on, although, using the pose technique, I use racing flats with a waffle sole, which gives me plenty of traction. With a decent bit of rain, I suspect the run could be a little hairy with a pair of traditional running shoes.
All in all, I enjoyed the race again. The marshals and organizers as always, were absolutely great, and the whole thing went smoothly. In terms of my performance, I was happy, although the run could have been a little faster. Still, not a bad effort considering my preparation has been purely for going long (long slow runs of more than 2 hours don't exactly constitute preparation for the 4km 'sprint').
I can only recommend this event, particularly to anyone wanting to make a start into triathlons.
My results (6th, bike split includes T1 and T2):
Sprint
Pos. Name No. Club Cat Swim Cycle Run Total BTA no.
1 Oliver Milk 196 Tri-Anglia ME 4:04 5 33:22 1 13:40 4 51:06 16165
2 David Bettinson 186 Cambridge Tri MF 4:42 12 34:16 2 13:36 1 52:34 120007
3 Graham Perks 182 Essex Police Tri MG 4:24 9 35:14 5 13:55 7 53:33 120865
4 Harry Smith 200 East Essex Tri MB 3:39 1 36:22 8 13:36 1 53:37 120979
5 Phil Jarvis 187 Triathlon Essex MH 4:54 17 34:26 4 14:59 13 54:19 118253
6 Richard Woodward 194 Ipswich Tri MF 3:47 2 34:25 3 16:15 32 54:27 0
7 Gabe Lowrie 198 Cambridge Tri MB 3:59 3 36:52 12 13:41 5 54:32 14914
8 Mark Nowell 191 Tri-Anglia MH 4:20 8 36:11 7 15:36 19 56:07 0
9 Jason Ridgeon 122 MH 5:10 34 36:55 13 14:20 8 56:25 14996
10 Keith Tilley 117 MG 5:34 51 56:34 0
