The Oysterman tri is a sprint tri near Whitstable in Kent famed for its oysters. To start with its a 500 meter out and back sea swim, 20km bike ride and then a 5km run to finish it off.
Coming into this I was worried about the sea swim as I heard the return leg is a lot harder due to the tide and had only 25 minutes to complete it. The day before I had a mild panic about my goggles, they were my spare pair which I didn't really like. So a mild panic trying to find some Aqua Sphere Kayenne goggles, lucky i found a shop that stocked them and it was'nt so far from Whitstable, this was great news so manged to get some new goggles (and a new tri bag! oops) and register for event the next day.
Sunday morning nice 5am start (why to triathlons always start so early!) i still in mild panic about the sea swim. I got my first look at sea course, it didn't look so bad high up on the cliff! I set my stuff up racked my bike etc.
then it was off for the briefing, all was well lucky only 2 waves and quite close together so no hanging around. as we all made our way into the sea the water was nice and warm and we all swam out to the start line and all of a sudden the Klaxon went off! and we were off.
It was down to the second buoy and then back again and on to the beach. Going down it was quite good, I thought this is quite easy! Sure there was the normal kicking of each other, the pushing, the foot in the mouth, all good stuff. Go to the turn boy and it was a bit hectic and few more feet in the mouth and jostling (i am sure i must have kicked a few too) But OMG the return leg went on for ages and ages. I kept looking up and I am sure the halfway buoy was not getting any closer, i dragged it out and go to the turn buoy to head for the beach. Up and out of the water and I always feel a bit dizzy. Swim did in 22minutes 20 seconds.
T1 was a bit of a faff as hadn't practised this but managed to get my wetsuit half off on the run-up to the transition area and just scrambled with my legs. T1 time 3minutes 48seconds (not great)
Bike was great! the course was flat and fast, I got low into an aero position and gave it all I got and overtook plenty of people. It was out into the countryside not that i really notice it as was giving it full beans and the roads are not great with potholes etc. But the roads were quite as it was early Sunday morning, I only got held up by 30 seconds or so by a small lorry coming down a small street as I came back into town. I manged to do that in 40minutes 27 seconds which is maybe the quickest 20km on a bike I have ever done. (dam that lorry)
T2 was an easy change of shoes and turn the race number around. (1min 42secs)
Run is the same course as Whitstable parkrun which i had once before, i was a bit breathless after the ride maybe I took it a bit too hard. But wanted to try and get as close at 25 minutes as I could. I set off with a good pace but breathing and HR was too high and knew i wouldnt be able to sustain it. I slowed down and tried to get it all back under control but i felt tired by this point. But it was a nice run along the seafront around a bit of a park bit and back again. With the last 500 meters to go there was a large uphill section back up, it was hard work but managed it and even tried a little sprint at the end. Run 27minutes 19 seconds and overall time of 1hr 35 minutes.
So it was to collect my oyster shaped medal have a drink of water and find an icecream 
I was a great race and really enjoyed it.
The postives :
I didnt die in the sea
i actually enjoyed the swin
the bike felt awesome
the run was better than my prevous tri's
Bad :
speed up my transition times.
dont be so nervous.
.
Another London Marathon 2018 report
Bit late but my New Forest 10k report.
My turn for Forest of Dean Half race report!
Sunday's run - I may have got a bit carried away!
