lengthy race report follows…. get a cup of tea before commencing.. and follow stroke by stroke, crank by crank, step by plodding step!
after an early night i was inevitably awake at 2am, but at least i had slept. i snoozed on, listening to some lads in the street who were apparently still up. i was looking forward to getting up & going out to load the car before they’d gone to bed but sadly they dissappeared at just gone 3am.
finally it was 4am and after a small amount of mild cursing i was up and about, breakfast and pottering about with my energy drink etc.
the car was mostly packed save food & the bike and it was a cool fresh air, seemingly unique to that time of morning that greeted me as i opened the front door.
by the time i left a gloom had gone and the sky was clear with a cool chrome colour. onto the m45 and i could see a mist rising off the fields as the sunrise started to turn some of the sky to my left a peachy colour. the radio masts at rugby poked out of the mist interspersed with red dots all the way up.
a few more cars on the M1 but pretty quiet. the radio gave me some company to distract me from my nervousness. even turning off the motorway no sign of obvious triathlon goers; stop at any service station en route to a marathon and you’ll find the place packed with running types, stereotyped by scrawny males with dangly adams apples wearing ronhill tracksters & trainers, oh and probably the appropriate race t-shirt announcing they’d done the race in year dot.
where was i ? oh yes…
arriving at emberton i was 6th car in the car park although the marshalls were all ready out for us.
off to registration in as many layers as i’d brought with me looking at the mist over the water and then back to the car to sort out the bike & transition gear. the energy drink i’d mixed was obscenely strong so needed some diluting.
with transition layed out i was ready to get changed for the swim. transition took more organising than usual, since i had another 5 hours ahead of me after the swim i was slightly more worried about comfort than usual meaning socks & a top to hold some energy bars, as well as my GPS to help pace myself suitably.
once more back to the car to get the wetsuit on and off for the race briefing. fortunately the mist had cleared now the sun had bothered to edge above the horizon properly. into the water which seemed warmer than i expected for a few strokes away from the bank, everything in order and ready to go. it was only at this stage i turned to realise the leg from the 4th to 5th buoys would be directly into the low sun, could be interesting.
time for the off, no hurry, i stood back and waited for most people to get going and then set off to follow the throng toward the first buoy. before i even got there i was feeling too warm in the wetsuit. left at the buoy and a shortish dash to the second. no problem so far off to the third buoy and a dogleg right to the fourth, someone making toast somewhere round here. sharp left into the sun, couldn’t see a thing! even struggled to see the pack ahead to follow. each time i looked up i was convinced the pack was too far right so stayed as far out left as i dared. a bit of shoal mentality kicked in ahead as they seem to have hugged the bank until they could spot the buoy without the sun behind so the next time i looked up they’d all kinked left.
left here and back toward the first buoy, no sign of anyone nearby, fairly convinced myself i was last by now. apparently not as after the first buoy i got passed by two swimmers. once again swimming back into the sun and a right at the last buoy this time to the exit point which seemed to take forever to arrive!
into a depressingly empty transition it wasn’t difficult to spot my bike, at least i wasn’t completely last. getting the top on was still the hassle i’d expected it to be, number belt, food, helmet, pre-rolled socks were easier to get on than expected, shoes and i’d best be off then.
it was turning into a cracking day, sunshine, blue skies & white clouds. thought i was in trouble over the first few miles of the bike course, took a while to get into the swing of things and it didn’t help that the first section seemed to be mostly uphill and into the wind. fortunately there were plenty of places to get up a good rhythm despite the wind and some rough surfaces, and a rhythm i seemed to be able to keep going on the hills which meant a it of to and froing with a couple of other riders who had better speed than me on the flat. a really nice downhill in the big ring with a sweeping left hander followed by some very stompable undulations were great.
managed my scheduled half energy bar on that lap, tropical flavour wasn’t too bad but took alot of munching.
flying again on the long drag back to the start and onto the second lap. picked up a bottle of water which was precariously loose in the bottle cage, although it seemed preferable to the energy drink i was forcing myself to get through. not quite so stompy on this lap but keeping a reasonable pace. fnding it increasingly difficult to get down on the tri bars as my back & arms started to complain, but forced myself wherever a good straight or the wind required it. another half energy bar, i was beginning to wonder if i could face the other two halves i still had. things getting a bit busier back on the main drag, including the traffic, didn’t help that the local cruise seemed to have turned out to see how close they could get.
on the third smaller lap i knew i could make it round, and in a surprisingly quick time (compared to my schedule anyway). sawpped my near empty bottle of water for a fresh one and thought i’d best give the energy bar another go early on to give it a chance to go down before the run. to my surprise the choc-orange flavour was almost irresistable so both halves went down with no problem at all. felt like i was taking it unreasonably easy on this last lap, not making any progress on the lone rider out ahead but not passed by anyone either so can’t have been going that badly.
very happy with 3:08 for the bike then, didn’t know quite how long the swim had taken 40minutes, 45? worst case of an hour.. thats 4:08 total leaving a 1:52 half marathon to get me under 6hours, sounded doable especially as i was being deliberately pessimistic on the swim time.
back into transition and a controlled change to running shoes.. swap the helmet for a cap to shelter from the sun and then no excuse but to head off onto lap one of four for the run.
out into the village and on tarmac, can’t quite beleive my GPS is telling my i’m going under 8min/mile…. i’m supposed to be taking it easy to start with and i thought i was. oh well. fortunately plenty of water stations on the run most of which i took a short walk break through. a large part of the lap was off road on farm tracks which made me lower my expectation alot as i knew i couldn’t run too fast over it.
that said it was a very scenic run round the cornfields before dropping back down into the park and round the lake. lap two and more of the same. more sensible pace now, no concerns on not finishing now just the time. forgot to check the finish line clock as i went throguh onto lap 3, probably for the best. slowing now with heart rate beginning to thump in the back of my head even my cruising downhill pace was over 9min/mile. was craving something sweet but not into bananas or gels which were available, probably a bit late now anyway i reasoned.
onto the final lap, this time remembering to check the clock, 5hours 15ish it said, which required 3 and a bit miles in 45minutes… no problem (i think) although it might not be that much quicker! made a point of specifically thanking all the marshalls on the way round as they’d been great. was beaten by a section of off road hill and reduced to walking a bit of it.
a chap who i’d seen stretching a couple of laps back caught me and dropped to a walk just behind me, i looked across and he reassured me he was a lap down, as if i was worried about position at this stage! (or ever). all down hill from there anyway he told me, and he was right, he looked fairly strong and soon left me behind. on a few occasions alongside the cornfield the wind dropped and left me with stifling heat coming off the ground, i was glad i was nearly done.
was very pleased to be back on the tarmac to get into my stride again and turn into the finish line…. only too pleased to see the clock reading 5:47:07.
made straight for the shelter of the brolly over the drinks stand and swigged away. as with two weeks ago i found the lure of the oranges and watermelon put out too great and must have eaten my entire weeks worth of fruit portions. great stuff.
sandwhiches, fluid, sugar, crisps and a nice sit down saw me recvering nicely. and a nice young lady to rub my legs over! sheesh they know how to hurt you, worse than anything i’d endured over the past 6hours.
my worst case, all gone pear shaped plan was 7hrs, ideal was sub 6… and miracle would have been 5:30… so very pleased with that.
as i’d expect from the ‘big cow’ people a well organised race with plenty of marshalls and police on the junctions. quite a small event being the first time it’s been run, but that suits me fine, the only downside being a generall fast field putting me a long way down overall and plum last in my age group (not that i care about position you understand).
full results here
some photos here