The London Triathlon 'The Worlds Largest Triathlon' ... In Londons Excel centre situated right in the heart of Royal Victoria Docks so a superb feeling of that old Laandon Town with Canary Wharf as your back drop. Easy access by DLR, Train and Car with car parks on site although we chose to stay up for the weekend in a nearby Hotel. Plenty of race choices from Super Sprint to Olympic, Relay teams and Corporate events running on Saturday and Sunday and all in certain timed waves. My event Female Sprint was Saturday afternoon so a nice time to ensure your relaxed and plenty of time to organise yourself and your bike. The Transition was HUGE! It should really be named the Largest Transition Triathlon! You can rack your bike anytime day of your race wearing a wristband you have unlimited entry in, which is useful for leaving your kit and having a wander around the Expo or spectate at other events. Spectating is not great, best views was for swim and run but bike not much to see. My BF had trouble trying to find spots to stand as it became very busy and to navigate around the courses in and out the Excel building was a bit of a mission! The views across the Docks outside was nice and Swim was very well marshalled and organised although the exit was bottled necked for us swimmers and a bit of a scramble to get out!
The transition from Swim was crazy! Running with your wetsuit in a bag up a slippery set of stairs then run all way around transition to find your bike, this took at least 3-4 mins and made floor very slippery so running with bike if you wear your shoes a nightmare. I spoke to one lady after & she had slipped on to her back and injured her coxes . I had to help her pack her things away poor thing.
My race was one of the busiest and out on the bike section it proved it. Bikes were hurtling down slopes from transition onto race section which must have caused an accident as on my way back into T2 at the exit they stopped the race to allow ambulance through, which extended my T2 time unfortunately.
The run out of Excel & down another slope into what can only be described as a congested loop of craziness! The paths were too small and run was tight turns and over corigated plastic making it hard to run on especially as they kindly put water sprinklers nearby, nice thought on a hot day! But slippery under feet. Not sure why organisers need to make run routes so twisty ? It's so hard to sprint a 5km! The finish was great back into the Excel on a spotlighted platform so nice for the Spectators to cheer you in.
It was a good experience to do although a bit pricey !
A nice result for me 3rd in my Age Cat ..I liked the bling and beer finish