So last weekend the race we have been waiting for arrived! Paul has been looking forward to doing the triathlon with Dill ever since Tri Dog came into existence and as the Duathlon was such a success, we really couldn’t wait for this one.

So Friday afternoon we drove down to Box End Park, Bedford and set up ready for racing Saturday. We thought we would have a nice lake side view – BIG mistake! Little did I know the ducks and geese were planning a midnight rave and I got very little sleep! Dill struggled to get any sleep either… he was really quite distracted by the noise on the lake so it was a miracle that either of us managed to get up on Saturday morning! Paul somehow managed to sleep through it all!

It was a beautiful morning and I was managing transition 2, so I had to leave Paul & Dill and off I went…

In the mean time Paul had to walk Dill a couple of times to make sure he had been toilet before hand. He is a pain at times and if he doesn’t go before he is in harness he won’t until afterwards, which we are sure isn’t good for him!

Then Paul had to get into the wetsuit – he had already put his bike and bits into Transition 1 and didn’t need anything at Transition 2.

They started off well, Dill gave Paul that look when Paul got in the water as if to say “what are you doing in there?” but Dill happily got in and off they went! Paul swam next to Dill doing front crawl until Dill swam in front of him a little because then the line got in the way or Paul’s arms. The dogs had to be attached in some way – people were allowed to hold the lead but in some way the person and dog had to be connected.

They had to wait to get out the water due to someone struggling a little but they happily waited and then got into transition 1. Paul had decided that he was going to wear his wetsuit the whole way round and so just took the top off and had it round his waist. He then put on a dry top in hope that he would dry off a little!

The bike wasn’t as good as Paul had hoped, he couldn’t get out of transition 1 because of a dog struggling to get going so he had to wait a bit and then having flat pedals (so he didn’t have to change shoes!) was more trouble then it was worth. That and Box End is known for its ducks, geese and swans that were calling Dill’s name as he was running past. He was really good, he did get on and didn’t pull Paul into the lake though you could see he wanted to!

Transition 2 was simple because they didn’t need to get changed so they were through that quickly and on to the run. The run was hard work as Paul could tell Dill was tiring and when they got back Dill quickly made himself comfortable on the sofa in the caravan.

The results showed that Paul and Dill were 2nd in and 2nd in the male category with just under a two minute gap between 1st and 2nd.

So…

Day 2!

They entered the water a with different tactics, Paul side swam the whole way whilst holding Dill’s harness. This meant when Paul did get a little tired, Dill pulled him along. Paul learnt to side swim when lifeguarding and is very efficient at it!

Transition 1 was quicker than the day before as Paul had put his clips back on the bike so his bike shoes are velcro! It also meant that his bike was much quicker than the day before too! Paul happily flung the bike round the corners again without any worry and was able to beast it up the hills. He was much happier with his normal bike set up and without those horrible flat pedals!

It did mean that transition 2 was slightly slower but when he looked at his times on his watch afterwards the time he made up on the bike with his normal pedals exceeded the time it took for him to swap shoes. They take this all very seriously!

So then Paul and Dill were off on the run! Paul said it was a good run and he seemed happy when I saw him afterwards. Dill was again quite tired afterwards but his FastDog shake seems to really help him recover, he could have gone again easily!

Then came the wait for the results – which for a race was done very quickly!

Paul and Dill ended up finishing in 2nd place, which Paul was very happy with. The surprising part was that the combined times over the weekend had only a 5 second difference between 1st and 2nd place! So of course Paul is now training hard for the next Tri Dog triathlon at the end of September and beginning of October!