The Triathlon thread - Ironman, 70.3, Olympic, Sprint

The Triathlon thread - Ironman, 70.3, Olympic, Sprint

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Discussion

dangerousB

Original Poster:

1,693 posts

189 months

Thursday 9th October 2014
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baxb said:
Never mind replying to Dr Gadget wink where's your race report !! biggrin
Ah yes, sorry, slight delay - convalescing with too many early nights since I got back!

I'll finish it off tout suite and post it up before the weekend biggrin

drgav2005

960 posts

218 months

Thursday 9th October 2014
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baxb said:
Never mind replying to Dr Gadget wink where's your race report !! biggrin
Hahahah biggrin New nickname is definitely appropriate! Wiggle 17% off at the minute for Platinum customers (i.e. £75 off list for watch + HRM).

And I agree - get that race report written!! wink

baxb

421 posts

191 months

Thursday 9th October 2014
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dangerousB said:
Ah yes, sorry, slight delay - convalescing with too many early nights since I got back!

I'll finish it off tout suite and post it up before the weekend biggrin
thumbup

whatleytom

1,272 posts

182 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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drgav2005 said:
...and I thought I'd bought every but of kit I'd ever need wink



First impressions are it is very, very good... Now, if I could just get round to reading the book it it on... biggrin
Oh damn you! I want. Is it wearable as an everyday watch, or still pretty chunky like the 910xt?

dangerousB

Original Poster:

1,693 posts

189 months

Saturday 11th October 2014
quotequote all
Finished it! Sorry if the report's a bit wordy chaps - I started writing and found it difficult to stop!!

IM MALLORCA 2014
For me, this race was actually supposed to have been IM Wales 2013, but I sustained an ankle injury in early August 2013, so transferred my entry to IM Lanzarote which was on 17th May 2014. Three weeks after I did this, my girlfriend and I discovered we were expecting our first baby . . . and the due date? 20th May 2014!!! Absolutely typical! Unfortunately IM rules dictate that you can only transfer once - no exceptions, so there was only one thing to be done - get entered for a later race!!
All that was left in Europe that wasn’t sold out was IM Zurich, IMUK in Bolton and IM Wales, but Ironman pretty much made my choice for me when they announced a new race for the calendar - the inaugural IM Mallorca on 27th September. No brainer for me!

TRAINING
One thing I did realise at the outset, was that training with an increasingly pregnant girlfriend may not actually be the easiest thing in the world to fit in and to a certain extent that was true - I ticked over during the winter (thinking the usual thing that September 27th 2014 was miles away anyway) and decided to get going properly from April onwards - in other words, when I absolutely had to!
April was OK - eased the volume up slowly, then on May 3rd our little girl was born - that’s where everything got a lot more difficult! My training plan was literally take what sessions I could, when they were possible and when I could physically complete them. In one sense it was good, in that the vast majority of my sessions were good quality, I had to make the few sessions I had count, but volume? Unfortunately that’ll have to wait until next year I think!
From April 1st - to my 2 week taper 1 managed to fit in 108hrs of training or an average of 4½hrs per week, or to put that into context:-

SWIM TOTAL 39.6km AVG 1.72km/week
BIKE TOTAL 1692.71km AVG 73.6km/week
RUN TOTAL 490.34km AVG 21.32km/week

RACE BRIEF
This covered the usual - itinerary, route, safety, rules and offences and also included a couple of motivational stories, one from the third guy home at the very first Ironman race back in 1978 (which still, even now, he was pretty choked talking about).
The BIG THING to come out of the race brief though, was that the water temperature was 26°C and it was a wetsuit free swim. No if’s, no but’s. Skins only. I wasn’t unduly bothered by this - after all, in my (very small!) amount of swim training, I hadn’t worn a wetsuit in the pool and I’d managed not to sink (I had worn one in all my in my OW swims though), but it did take away that buoyant comfort blanket and introduce just a small amount of apprehension - I’ve never started ANY race in my just my tri-suit, let alone one with 2650 swim wave!!!

RACE DAY
Did my usual pre-race prep thing of having very little sleep - woke at 5am having had about 3 hours, jumped into my trisuit and tried my best to get a bowl of porridge and a couple of bananas down me. Picked up my gel bottle, carb concentrate bottle, dilute carb bottle (to drink on my way to swim start), track pump, swim cap and goggles and jumped into the car with my bruv in law and my girlfriends brother for the 5k drive down to transition.
Sorted my bike, finished my drink and wandered down to swim start - still dark, but now the sun was beginning to make its presence felt with a faint glow on the horizon. Forecast was good (sunny and 27°C) and there was barely a cloud in the sky.


If I look like I've just gotten out of bed after 3 hours sleep and am bricking it, that's because in this picture I have and I am!!!

SWIM
I hate this part of the day - swim start 15mins away and you just have to wait and make nervous adjustments - swim cap on, swim cap off. Stretch. Jump. Goggles on, have I got a good seal? Goggles off. Done with chat now, just have to focus. Say cheers to my buddies and walk into the swim pen. Kick the water. Wander back 20 metres. Catch a glance with another competitor - he’s as nervous as I am. Slap him on the shoulders and clench one another’s hand. “Have a good one mate” . . . don’t even know if he spoke English, but I know he understood. It’s in the eyes.
Pro men go off. Right 5 mins. Goggles on. Get a good seal. Stretch. Jump. Pro women off. 2 mins to go. Swim cap on. Everybody moves forward as one. Thousand yard stare. AC/DC plays over the PA. Starting pistol sounds.
Game on.
I’m in the centre of the pack probably 5m from the front running into the gently shelving sea. Eventually it’s up over my thighs and in we go. It is ABSOLUTE chaos. I’m packed in like a sardine - people either side pressing into my shoulders, every time I stroke I catch someone’s feet. There’s no point in trying to kick as I can’t. I’ve at least 2 people punching the back of my thigh with their stroke. 400 - 600m in and I’ve already spotted 3 or 4 poor sods resorting to backstroke!
“Relax, sight and focus” I keep telling myself. It’ll sort itself out soon. But it doesn’t. 1.25k out at the first turn buoy and I’m still trying to swim, entwined in a writhing mass of bodies. I’m getting punched in the back of head repeatedly. The water is boiling all around us and it’s making breathing really tough - every other breath I’m kopping the equivalent of an eggcup full of the Med straight into my stomach (or at least that’s how it feels). Sighting is tough for the same reason (well that and my absolutely ste eyesight!!!).
At about 2k some Spaniard (I know ‘cause I saw the “ESP” legend on his trisuit) decided to go on a mission and swim pretty much about 60° across me from my right hand side. God knows what he was sighting. I stroked with my right hand and caught his leg - he responded by explosively kicking out with it, catching me right in the meat of my left shoulder with his heel. Any other time I’d probably congratulate him on a perfect shot, but not now! Bloody painful (and felt it every stroke for the rest of the swim). Shortly after my stomach cried enough of the salt water and I started retching. I briefly stopped to empty my stomach (not that much came out but air and water).
Soon I was out of the water with an Ozzie exit and into the shorter 1.3k loop. Experienced pretty much exactly what I had done on the first out and back and still didn’t manage to find much clean water, but after what seemed to be an eternity I was out, running underneath the water showers to T1 - THANK GOD!!!!!
SWIM 1:17:20 - told my mates that if I had a good one, I’d be out in 1:10, 1:15 if it was average and 1:20 if it was bad - ‘nuff said smile



BIKE
I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to run into T1!
Quick turnaround (7:52 in one of the longest transitions on the calendar apparently) and off onto the bike course.
The first section was right up my street - we headed East out towards a place called Arta - great road surface and flat/gently undulating. The first 10k, according to my Garmin, whizzed by at an average speed of 36kmh. I was passing HEAPS of people and beginning to enjoy myself after that total bunfight of a swim.
It was pretty congested though and I had to run the gauntlet a bit with passing the multiple peletons that seemed to have formed (totally illegally!). On occasions I came up to bunches of 20 riders, 3 or 4 abreast across the whole right hand lane. Crossing the white line (as was drilled into us during race brief) is a DQ offence, but occasionally there was just no other choice - briefly cross the centre line or brake and drop into a group (yellow card offence in itself), completely arresting your momentum just because others can’t ride by the rules. I did find that quite annoying!!
This was pretty much the pattern until we turned back on ourselves at Arta and headed inland to Petra (at 55k), before heading back towards Alcudia via Santa Margalida (at 65k) and Sa Pobla (at 85k) - all of this was TT territory on great scenic rolling roads - all pretty quick with the odd gradient thrown in (quite a few false flats if I remember correctly) - I also particularly remember sheep and goats with cow bells clanking around their necks through this section!
At Sa Pobla I made a mental note to save my legs a little - we had the main climb at approx. 115/120k and not that I’d seen it, I knew it was about 12k or so long and despite having a reasonable climbers build, I resolutely DO NOT enjoy climbing (on a bike anyway!).
That decision was in vain though, as on the run in from Sa Pobla to Alcudia (90k) we hit the first of the headwinds, so there was no real opportunity to save any energy. Just get down on the bars, get as aero as poss and grind it out.
I went through the 90k point in 2hr 49min feeling pretty good. Main nutrition was fig rolls, with carb concentrate (”The Edge” from Reflex nutrition that I swear by) squeezed into the water from aid stations in my aero bottle. I had a backup of a small bottle of berry gels, but they were a last resort as from previous experience, they generally make me feel sick after a while!
From Alcudia (massive support from great crowds all over the road!), we headed along the coast, through Puerto de Pollensa (105k & fab views!) and back inland towards Pollensa (115k). At Pollensa I stopped at the aid station for a quick pee break, jumped back on, took a big old slug of gel and metaphorically said my prayers. This climb, I knew, could go either way. It’s all well and good trying to consciously save your legs, but we were at 115k - the point during an IM bike leg that I dislike anyway. You’ve already come a long way, but you’ve still got a fair way to go. Things can go very wrong, very quickly during that last 65k, so it’s important to not stop thinking and make the right decisions.
OK here goes.
The climb starts with a couple of k’s of false flat - you don’t really notice the gradient, but backing off means you slow down quickly. Then we’re round a corner and up it ramps - the trees are abundant here which offer some welcome protection from the sun, but that’s the only positive. Your front wheel’s pointing upwards and by the looks of things it’ll be that way for some time.
And it is. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not talking brutal gradients and if this climb were at 20k rather than 120, I’d probably talk about it very differently, but OH MY GOD did it ever feel relentless! I didn’t feel as if there was anywhere to rest - I think it’s only an average of about 7 - 8% and generally I’d always prefer periods of 10 - 12% or 12 - 15% and then an opportunity to rest on a 4/5% section. This was (or certainly felt like) 7 - 8% EVERYWHERE and the cruellest thing was just at the point I started thinking “Jeez, when on earth is this going to end” I saw a crest up infront of me. JOY! Time to descend (which I just LOVE!). Sure enough we did descend. For about 200m and then the road ramped up AGAIN for ANOTHER 2k.
I think we had 3 false summits - I hated them! I think they broke a few riders - saw several poor sods walking at the 130k point and I really felt for them. A proper cyclist would probably tell you different, but I felt that climb was a proper sting in the tail of the bike course and I could only think of 3 consolations . . . 1) The view at the top was EPIC. Proper alpine feel, 2) I could soft peddle it back to Alcudia (as it was a fairly flat run-in) and leave something for the run and 3) The DESCENT!!!!
The quality of the descent into Campanet almost made up for the pain the other side! Hit over 80k’s and loved every single second. A couple of sections could have easily caught anyone out (blind hairpins with some tasty drops if you got it wrong), but it was switchbacks all the way and a magical ride down. Awesome.
At Campanet I just told myself to get it home easily. Save energy. Doesn’t matter if you lose time, you’ll thank yourself when you get those runners on.
Famous last words. First we had to go down what can only be described as a donkey track, full of potholes (that I felt sure I was going to puncture down) and then back onto normal roads, but a fierce headwind scuppered any energy saving plans! Once again, the tri bars were invaluable and I’d hate to have ridden the course without them. From 160k onwards though, I was just willing the bike to finish. The relentless roar in my ears hadn’t been amusing when we hit the headwinds and it was now just plain demoralising.
20k later though - that was it woohoo T2. Two down, one to go!
BIKE 6:31:40 - wanted as close to 6hr as poss, but the bike was a lot harder than it looked on paper!

RUN
A reasonable transition for me (6:43) and out on the run.
It was a 4½ lap course through the centre of Alcudia, back a few k’s towards Can Picafort and then another turn along the beach back towards the port.
First lap and I did not feel great at all - I was ROASTING and just couldn’t get up to speed. Every time I picked up the pace I spiked my HR way too much - I made sure I walked every aid station to ensure I got fluid down me, but the best thing I did was grab a handful of ice cubes at every aid station and shove them down my trisuit to try and get my core temperature down.
This certainly helped and I managed to see off the first 10k in (what in any other scenario would be a monumentally pedestrian) 59:10.
Suffering from huge amounts of “band envy”, I picked up my first of 4. There were some guys with 2 or 3 bands at this point and to help myself mentally, I convinced myself with a smile (or more likely grimace) that they’d all been cheating biggrin.
On to lap 2 and I’d begun to feel a bit better in myself. My core temperature felt back to normal, everyone with more bands than me was cheating and I was looking forward to getting back to the beach where the support from the massive crowd was HUGE. There was also a guy with a hosepipe that drenched anyone who asked - that was sublime biggrin
My second 10k was dispensed in an equally pedestrian 59:20, but I was still on target for my pre race run target and hey! I now had 2 bands! Check me out biggrin
Lap 3 however was horrible. I think this was the stage at which my tougher than expected bike came home to roost. My legs started to feel heavy and getting going after slowing to walk the aid stations became increasingly tough. This was starting to hurt now and I was far from home and dry. Time to dig in, ride the storm and hope this was just a phase. Forward momentum was all that mattered, however slow it felt!
My third 10k was awful - 1:07:15, but on the plus I was approaching the start of lap 4 - I had less distance to go than I had come already and already into my 4th 10k.
The support was still immense around the beach and at 33k, my niece briefly popped out and ran with me for 100m, asked how I was feeling, to which I think I said “very tired”! That was a welcome boost and all I kept telling myself was that at 36k I was going to pick up the Holy Grail - the elusive, enigmatic 4th band. It was yellow and it had my name written all over it! Just 3k and I'd be on my way home. What a delirious thought!
It was one I was going to have to put on hold though - at 34k I suffered what can only be described as an apocalyptic episode. If my bike leg had come home to roost at 27k, at this point it invited all it’s mates and partied. I didn’t feel particularly terrific before this moment, but like a flick of a switch, all of a sudden I felt absolutely awful - with no exaggeration whatsoever, I genuinely didn’t know whether I was going pass out, throw up or s**t myself. Or possibly all 3 at once. This was totally desperate.
At the next aid station I immediately ran into a portaloo. Mentally I worked out how far was left - 8k. Right at that moment it may as well have been 80k. I felt there was NO WAY I could walk or crawl that, let alone run it. I leaned my forearm against the portaloo wall, my head lolling just above it. God I felt rough. I HAD to get through this. It’s hard to describe the absolute despair I felt at that moment, but God it was real. Monumentally hideous. I’d come so far, there was no way I was going to allow this to stop me.
I came up with a brief plan - a series of small incremental steps to get myself out of this. Number 1 was a number 2 - if nothing else it would shed a bit of weight! Number 2 was a quick pee. Number 3 was get back out there, try to appear normal and grab a flat coke as quickly as possible. Lastly number 4 was run that 8.2k. I knew I could do that - Jeez 8.2k was nothing - at home I would have barely warmed up at 8.2k Goddamnit!
And that’s what I did.
2k later I picked up that last yellow band and it felt like a shot of amphetamine (not that I've ever had one, but you get what Imean!). Now I was on my way home. Every step I took wouldn’t have to be repeated and every step I took would be a step closer to that finish line.
The further I ran, the easier it became and finally I ran down onto the beach road for the last time - the support still immense and rather than running towards the port again, this lap I turned right onto the beach itself and down that carpeted finishing 'chute. And it felt like I still had miles left in my legs - I finished the last 200m with a proper sprint and draped myself over the barriers in the finishing area - people I didn’t even know, spectators, competitors clenching my fist and slapping my back shouting at me over the music on the PA . . . “You are an IRONMAN!”
This is why I do this. It’s unbelievably tough, but what an atmosphere. What camaraderie. It was only 30 odd years ago that the medical profession thought it wasn’t possible for us to complete this distance. And today I did just that. How amazing is that? Right at that moment I couldn’t have cared less what my finishing time was. I had to dig so deep, but I finished. That was all that mattered.
RUN 4:30:10 - pre-race I’d hoped to sneak under 4hr, but nowhere near enough in the tank for that!

FINISH 12:33:45 - as I told everyone before I left, given my poor prep, I’d take what I was given. That’ll have to do

Today though it’s different biggrin
Whilst I’m still amazed that I (and everyone else) finished, I do care what my finishing time was and 12:33:45 isn’t remotely good enough smile Good news is that my girlfriend’s brother having watched a race for the first time wants to compete next year (used to row in a 4 so a very good athlete, but can only just swim at the moment!).
Here’s to next season! beer


Apologies for the lack of bike and run piccies, btw, but Finisherpix wanted 75 quid for them and they weren't worth anything near that!
Also, for a bit of montaged footage of the race, have a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaUBMASZPs0 - pause it at around 4:50 and you'll see some idiot on the left of your picture, sat on his arse in T1 sorting his bike kit out . . . that's me!!

dangerousB

Original Poster:

1,693 posts

189 months

Saturday 11th October 2014
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By the way, Kona coverage live online at http://eu.ironman.com/triathlon/events/americas/ir... . . . pro men & women off in 10 - 15 mins age groupers of in 30 - 40 mins . . .

bigandclever

13,750 posts

237 months

Saturday 11th October 2014
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Great write-up. You've terrified me, thanks a lot.

wink

esuuv

1,306 posts

204 months

Saturday 11th October 2014
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Great write up - those last 10k, seems so straightforward from the outside, when you are there - its the longest distance known to man - ever!! Well done on the finish!!

Someone asked above about the size of the 920, its thinner than a 910 - but still too big to really wear all day.

Gatsby

1,311 posts

235 months

Sunday 12th October 2014
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Great write up Mr B, sounds like an excellent race!

Don't know if everyone has seen the results of Kona, so I'll not spoil it hopefully, but blimey what a comeback on the run by the woman's winner!


drgav2005

960 posts

218 months

Sunday 12th October 2014
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dangerous B

AWESOME biggrin Great write up - loved it!!!

drgav2005

960 posts

218 months

Sunday 12th October 2014
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whatleytom said:
Oh damn you! I want. Is it wearable as an everyday watch, or still pretty chunky like the 910xt?
Depends what you normally wear as an everyday watch - I'd have no issues wearing it - it is much more comfortable than the 910XT biggrin

baxb

421 posts

191 months

Monday 13th October 2014
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Worth waiting for Db ! Great write up & a great time - very well done beer

dangerousB

Original Poster:

1,693 posts

189 months

Tuesday 14th October 2014
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Cheers guys! beer

It was a cracking race - I'd definitely recommend it if anyone fancies a European event . . . someone asked a while back whether it's a TT or a road bike course. Think I made it clear, but if not, it's definitely a TT course.

Forgot to mention the jelly fish on the swim (like heaps of the things), but tbh I was more concerned about the biff than them! biggrin

esuuv said:
those last 10k, seems so straightforward from the outside
Blimey, ain't that ever the truth!!!

Fatbloke

396 posts

279 months

Wednesday 15th October 2014
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excellent review, looking forward to it

did Mallorca & Lanza 70.3 this year my firsts at that distance

Big Mallorca 2015

dangerousB

Original Poster:

1,693 posts

189 months

Friday 17th October 2014
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Fatbloke said:
excellent review, looking forward to it

did Mallorca & Lanza 70.3 this year my firsts at that distance

Big Mallorca 2015
Cheers! Get Mallorca booked for next year - you'll love it.

It really did have a great atmosphere which matched the event strap line:-

"Fiesta, no siesta" biglaugh

MrsMiggins

2,808 posts

234 months

Friday 17th October 2014
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Just entered London 2015 - oly distance. Woo!

drgav2005

960 posts

218 months

Monday 20th October 2014
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"We're off to Mallorca for a few days in October, during the October week... it will be a lovely relaxing break"... it was at this point I knew something was up and sure enough my name had been entered into a half ironman.

The ‘holiday’ started off in our usual mundane way with Lorna’s Mum (a.k.a. ‘The babysitter’) being ejected from the plane for feeling a teeny bit nauseous. Knowing she was in fact, 100% fine, we stayed on the plane and headed off to Mallorca. The irony was not lost on me when, 1 hour into the flight, one of the air stewardesses needed to go to the toilet as she felt sick. I offered to help open the door to eject her from the plane but she was allowed to stay on for some reason. I call dual standards.

After a 2 ½ hour bus journey to drive a 20 minute taxi ride we arrived at our hotel and proceeded to make up the bikes. Lorna spurned my offer of help and I knew that one way of nobbling her time had escaped me…

We squeezed into the English race briefing along with what seemed like 500 team GB members and I wondered if we’d sneaked into the wrong venue. The first bombshell was dropped – temperatures expected for Saturday were up from 22C to 28C. Sweet – it’s generally 28 degrees in Glasgow in October… generally Fahrenheit rather than Celsius but surely that wouldn’t be an issue?

Second bombshell. Sea was 25C = NO WETSUIT SWIM. Aaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhh. My first ever sea swim and I was without my beloved neoprene safety blanket. I was going to ask whether or not I was allowed one of the inflatable crocodiles I’d spotted in the local shops (I’d discounted the blow-up dolphin as it didn’t look as aero) but seemingly only team leaders were allowed to ask questions during the race briefing. Dammit.

The pasta party was good and we scoffed as much as we could prior to loading up with more carbs in the form of ice cream and beers.

Race day arrived and rather than the usual 3:30 a.m. start the alarm went off at a very civil 8 a.m. The transition area opened at 10:30 a.m. and we headed off in our tri-suits down the main drag with another 1000 folk to kick tyres in (the World’s longest) transition and hang about in the mid-day sun. Even the factor 50 sun tan lotion was struggling at this point.

We watched the elite men and women race off into the sea, running Baywatch style about 100m until they could actually start swimming. The phased start was great and it meant that at 12:25 p.m. when the open men’s start hooter sounded it wasn’t the usual fight inside a washing machine that virtually every other tri I’ve done has been.

Surprisingly enough (and don’t tell Lorna) I actually quite enjoyed the swim… about 41 mins for 2100m according to the Garmin. Not sure how I ended up doing 200m more, maybe the 920XT was just trying to make me feel faster.

Now, I know I had the pi** ripped (quite correctly) for my transition times in Austria, but holy moly – this was a loooooonnnngggg transition. At least 800m from the sea to the bike exit…

I thoroughly enjoyed the bike course – some nice hills, quick descents and excellent stewarding by the brilliant marshals and local police at all the relevant junctions and roundabouts. Almost got taken out by some plonker who disobeyed the whistles at a roundabout in Magaluf (what do you expect from someone driving a hire car in Magaluf?) and he proceeded to get a bo**ocking in Spanish from the policewoman as I rode by.

I spotted Lorna (at around the same point) twice in the race but was struggling a little (32C by this stage / lack of training / bloody sore feet) to catch her up on the bike… Looking at the Garmin data I was catching her up on the hills but she was kicking my butt on the flats. I arrived back in transition 90km later in 3:38.

Our bikes were near the entrance to Transition so I expected to be fairly quick in T2 despite changing out of the salt-stained tri gear into more comfortable (and dry) run gear. However, I was pointed back to the top of the area before I could change. Every step was bloody agonising and at this point I was wondering whether I’d actually be able to run a bath let alone a half marathon.

Out on the run course and I realised that the tank was well and truly empty, despite not pushing it hard on the bike since every pedal stroke felt like jabbing a needle in the ball of my feet. This felt like it was going to be a long run. And so it was!

The volunteers were great and (unlike The Outlaw) there were tons of people on the course offering encouragement, although sadly none offering cold beer… I’ll write a note to the organisers to help them improve the event for next year.

It took several stops at the aid stations, walking up every hill (of which there were many) and shuffling downhill until there was enough in the tank to start running, and I use that word loosely. After 13km I managed to get the legs working again and ground out to the finish (changing my pace from about 9min/km to 6 min/km or so) in 2:32:17… my slowest ever ½ marathon!

I eventually crossed the line in 7:11:23, 23 minutes behind the missus – well and truly chicked!

Really impressed by the race organisation and very friendly staff – the CEO of Challenge had joked with us the night before that we weren’t allowed to do the race on account of our IM tattoos I’d highly recommend this as an end of season race, but like Lorna said, make sure you do plenty of hilly bricks!!!

As I write this Lorna is already planning another 1/2 IM Challenge race in Rimini next year biggrin

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 20th October 2014
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Blimey, step away from teh thread and look what happens - esuuv, baxb, croftsj and dangerousb all notch full IM distances, and drgav sleepwalks into a cheeky end of season half!

beer Big congrats to all of you, and to anyone I've missed.

Soooo... never did get round to that marathon in October. I managed a pretty satisfying ride at the Box Hill original sportive a couple of weekends ago. I had to watch a much younger and skinnier colleague blast off into the distance ten miles from home, but hey-ho, these things happen.

My IM training buddy has decided to get serious - he hired a coach at the end of the summer, then went 2h 18m at an Oly in Barcelona. Dammit. I regard coaches much like revision for exams - basically cheating by a different name! But I have relented, and I am now a coached "athlete" [sic].

So far I've had the joys (not) of physiological testing (Bane mask and stabbings in the finger whilst being tested to destruction), had my coach ride me up a 9 min climb in the Dales at a constant power output that he knew from the testing I could only maintain for 9 mins, had to do a swim FT test (twice, as he thought I slacked off the first time) to determine CSS, and had to do a parkrun "flat out, but pace it evenly" to determine my running FT.

fking hell. I am spent. And we've only just begun...

All this is building to three HIMs and a marathon next year, plus some Oly sharpeners, then a return to IM in 2016 when I will have moved up an AG with the target being to see just how fast I can go with 18m of structured coaching behind me. Should be interesting. And unpleasant. Mostly unpleasant, I suspect.

blade runner

1,029 posts

211 months

Tuesday 21st October 2014
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dangerousB said:
. . . someone asked a while back whether it's a TT or a road bike course. Think I made it clear, but if not, it's definitely a TT course.
Thanks for that! Just need to get the brakes sorted on my TT bike for that descent then, as they are pretty useless at the moment.

Cracking race by the way!

baxb

421 posts

191 months

Tuesday 21st October 2014
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Nice one Gav (& Lorna !!) good effort to step up to a late season one. I've managed one bike ride & an aborted Parkrun since Weymouth so entered the Dambuster Duathlon (early March) to have something to focus on over winter.

Greg - seem to think your last race report ended on the same note as my last 2 i.e. never again ! Pretty sure I'm going to stick to it this time so good luck to you for going for it again !