The Brownlee Tri. This is going to be a difficult one to write. Until the last 15 minutes of the day it was great, then kabang!
Here's
the story; I can't quite remember how I found out about the Brownlee Tri, but I did - and signed up straight away to the 'advanced notification' of entries now open,
yep I was that keen. I think the idea of racing over the same course if not at
the same time with the lad's was great, it would even give me a chance to see
how a mere mortal compared with two of our greatest triathletes.
The idea the Brownlees had of introducing people to
triathlon was great and really worked - to a point. I understand that out of the 1000 entries - for about a
third of them, this was their first tri. Although
the entry fee of £61.50 for a super sprint was a bit of a shocker! - I thought the
organisers wanted to encourage folk into tri not turn them off for life! Makes
you wonder how many more first timers they would have had if the cost of entry
was closer to the norm for a super sprint of say £25, now that would have
looked good on telly 1,330 first timers rather than the 330! anyway. Organisers being a
tad greedy and cashing in the Brownlee name? Never.
The backdrop for all
this was the outstanding National trust site at Fountains Abbey
It was great to
see this site used in such a positive way, odd really because just the week
before the Chair of the National Trust, Simon Jenkins made a number of ridiculous,
ignorant and ill informed remarks about Triathlon and the ITU World Triathlon
Championships held in London the week earlier.
These are his misunderstood uttering's
and this is one of the many open letter rebuttals by
Chrissie Wellington to his ignorance- go Chrissie!
Leading up the weather had been a bit dodgy but on race day
we were blessed with no wind and sun, the water was still cold though, I train
in it so I was ok but to many that were doing this for the first time I bet it
came as a bit of a shock. There were waves throughout the day broken up at
lunch by an excellent Brownlee Challenge, the idea was for Ali and Jonny to go
head-to- head and give us all a bit of a demo - they did, it was great - the
only thing was Alistair was suffering from an injury form the week before so he
had two lucky people chosen via twitter to be part of his team, he just did the
bike - but that just made it a little more fun.
After lunch came the youth team relays, although it wasn't really
a relay? they all did the normal course, it was just the fastest 3 out
of a team of 4 added together. There were some super speedy youth elites
amongst this group, with the Union Jack side panels in their GB suits making us
mere GB age groupers hang our heads in shame.
I was in the last wave of the day, the 'under 35' - yep that's
me. Now what I hadn't realised until a couple of days before was that for the
winners a couple of hot prizes awaited. Namely a Boardman Bike Frame and A Huub
Archimedes Wetsuit, and a pair of the new Adidas BOOST trainers - this was it, this was providence, I had been trying to sort
out how I was going to get a decent roady frame for some draft legal races I
plan to do next year, currently I share my old TCR with my mum, not ideal
having to move stem, handles bars, saddle and take the basket off every time I
use it. (ok, I was joking about the basket, but you get the idea) What’s more,
according to the race info the prizes would go to the ‘top 3 (excluding elites)’
and the super speedy relays guys (who’s entry was £39) wouldn’t be in it, they had
their own prizes of some posh running shoes.
I was definitely in with a shout
if I pushed myself, so to cut a short story even shorter, I did push myself. I
came out of the water in fourth, into transition in 2nd out of
transition in 1st did my bike thing, held up on the run and
finished… don’t forget this was just my wave of 50 or so...
I looked at the
leader board and I was in…. 3rd .... behind… let me check.. Jonny, ok he
doesn’t count, then Junior Elite James Teagle.. hey, he was in the relays and
he’s an elite he doesn’t count either! Result.
The bike is mine, no more sharing
with mum, now I would have something decent to compete on next year. With Mika
Brown picking up the 2nd spot and the wetsuit.
And to top it all I was going to be presented it by Jonny
and Alistair themselves. Double result.
So presentation time, one of the biggest crowds I have been
in front of, banks of cameras and expectant looking faces. I quickly borrowed a
GB jacket to cover my Canada swopsy jacket form Mika’s dad, I was ready.
And then the announcement ... in 3rd place, Mika Brown - the shoes, hang on,
that’s wrong? Mika gets the suit and he was second, right? And in 2nd
place, Tom Stead - the suit*, gutted, head spinning, brave face, what’s going
on?
1st place James Teagle - the bike. Bit of a blur, well done from the
Brownlees. Slick PR people kick in, line us all up for the photo shots. Someone
from Huub (I think) takes the empty wetsuit box from me and tells me how to get
one the right size from them. Not a clue what they said. Suppose I best email
them.
Complaint and a need for an explanation goes in, I was asked
to write to the PR people at The Professional Sports Group (@profsports) who I gather are the
main rollers behind Brownlee Tri, for them to sort out, I did, I think they realised
a mistake had been made, I got fobbed off**, apparently they didn’t mean ‘excluding elites’ and even though
the race timing system was set up for the two events and the wording in all the
paperwork and the website was for two, they only ‘meant’ it to be one. Oh ok, that’s alright then.
Organisers, you take our money (lots of it) - don't let us down!
**5 or snips taken form event and results info here.
BTW I don't want to take anything away from James, he's obviously a class athlete.
**5 or snips taken form event and results info here.
BTW I don't want to take anything away from James, he's obviously a class athlete.
Latest from our follow-up to their follow-up is, they will
try and get the boys to do a signed T-shirt for me! (What am I, 7?) Why the
hell didn’t they say that in the first place?! I would take a £20 signed T-shirt
over a £1,500 bike frame any day.
So to sum up
A great day, too pricey, great venue, great to
meet the Brownlees, great to beat Jonny ‘s time on the bike;) great to think I
had won a frame. Shit to find out I hadn’t.
Absolute shambles in regards to follow up PR from The Professional
Sports Group - shame, spoilt a good day.
Bitter? You bet.
* I have to say here that the
Huub Archimedes Wetsuit is a fantastic prize and I really am grateful and
chuffed to have it. Under any other circumstances I would be jumping for joy.
(I am actually jumping for joy;)
