the bakers ring piece , some african bambarter and the day francos world fell apart part 2 .race day
Triathlon Training Blog, Wednesday, August 26th, 2015430, yes thats what i said. in the morning too. Guess what? its still dark. It absolutely pissed it down all night. The 25 mph wind hasnt turned up yet thankfully so decide to leave the disc on.Porridge in the dark coffee in the dark. thankfully someone remembered to bring a torch.not me. Twilight and the hushed hurried cacophony of silence of 800 people moving quietly in rushed undertones on race morning. Apprehension is everywhere , nerves mixed in with a small dollop of fear in the cold half light of dawn.
To take the edge off things a bit, word going around is some loon turned up at a W.I party last night dressed as eddie murphy in ‘coming to amercia’ and his goat went beserk.
Rack bikes. the racks are numbered so your slot is your slot. I prefer this saves messing around.See heather in transition and plait her hair for her, which has been part of the routine. I’m cutting it fine getting back to put my swim gear and have to hurry a bit. I do remember to take caffeine and pop a couple of paracetamol.( trying this for the first time only for the reason it helps lower your body temperature. Not going to be a problem today but will be in hawaii. Nothing new on race day. So just doing it today to make sure it doesnt disagree with me)
Fabulous decided to spare Arthur last night after he caught up with him. Turns out arthur is a martha and Fab and M had a lovely evening together. I wish them all the best for the future.
We are first off , wave one . the water is warm .The gun goes off. The lake is nt quite a hissing cauldron of seething neoprene . Wasnt that much of a bun fight and it all seemed quite civilised. I feel i am going well and prefer a lake swim even if you are slightly less buoyant . Clear water all the way . In the last 400 m i latch onto one of the help for heros guys whose lost his lower leg .I cant hold him and off he goes. Turns out if this had been an ‘official ‘ event he would’ve broken a world record today.
T1 . think, methodical ,not fast but efficient , Thats all i can expect from transition this year.Been all over the place. A shade under 30 mins for the swim which, for me, is excellent. I was a bit disappointed to see Fabs bike still in t1. I cant hold fab in the pool .Not even close .But he has never beaten me in a competitive open water swim. If his swim doesnt go well he tends to struggle. It must be a mental thing or he has spent the swim dreaming of martha and the evening they have just had.
Bike
Its not raining . Out of t1, As usual time to chase the leaders down. There’s quite a few ahead of me. 300 watts for the first few miles picking the swimmers off. Into the lanes . You really have to keep your wits about you here as the road surface is atrocious. Again after settling in to the ride i tend to tighten up. Hip flexors are bar tight and i have my usual half hour working too hard for the power i am producing.(perceived) However i do love the reaction of the other cyclists as you thunder passed them 10 mph faster with the disc whirring. U can spot them 20 metres ahead. Something has registered in their senses that something is coming. When u go passed them some almost flinch. Its funny until someone does it to you . Which did happen. Caught by one person on the bike. On the relay so he didnt count.The turn and a 35mph stretch. Still finding it harder than it should be. Start guggling the fluids and food. Now i know, ultimately this is my fault but. When i come to a 3 way junction and there is a marshall standing in front of me it would be highly beneficial if he pointed which way to go. So i guess and guess wrong. Some choice words . Into lap 2 and now the power is there 260 270 watts . I pass 3 cheating bastards who arent making any effort to hide they are drafting. Its like a chain gang. I am shifting now. We are now mixed in with all the other swim waves so its busy. Into the lanes and down badger alley. Right at the start there’s a car. well a big 4 wheel drive blocking the road stuck behind another competitor whose bike isnt their strongest event. Held up, seething. It is bedlam. A single track narrow road with cyclists coming both ways and a 4 x 4 in the middle doing 16mph. We have all fought hard to get our precious seconds and to watch them taken away is , well as far as i’m concerned not on. I overtake him up the grass verge, fuck the no overtaking rule , should have designed the course better. That little escapade was quite exciting and i just ducked in as cyclists approached me. But not without its cost. I hit a pothole and the left tri bar slips down 20 degrees. I try to pull it back up later to no avail. It is a tad uncomfortable constantly slipping forward but certainly manageable.
The turn , down the hill and its 12 miles to the finish. Pushing it now and the power is up. Its rare that i feel good in these b races on the bike so i may as well drive it home. 3 miles out from t2 on a much wider road same scenario as badger alley. Car in front following a competitor, family member.
This should be banned but the way they word it in the race brochure almost encourages it. It says something like ‘ try not to block the lanes with your vehicles supporting family members’ Most interpret this as a carte blanche to do what they like everywhere else . I saw 3 cars on my way round constantly over taking and stopping it hindered other competitors and was dangerous at times. The rules should say .No following by vehicles at all or a DQ. u find your spot to support and u just stay there. end of story.
Anyway . There is enough room to go up the inside , the road is wide and there are no other cars approaching. Now, this sort of thing is beyond my comprehension and i try to refuse to believe that it goes on but i have heard that it does. It amazes me ,if it is true , what lengths people will go to. I would be forgiven for thinking there was a bit of skulduggery going on. As i went up the inside of the silver mercedes four wheel drive the driver shut the door on me. He basically veered left for no reason i could see. I’m committed as i’m already a third of the way passed the car . Theres no where to go. Except to bunny hop onto the grass verge which, thankfully , immediately turned to pavement and i went passed.I screamed at the driver whose son wound down the window as i went passed on the pavement at 30 mph. What the fuck was he thinking , doing. If it had been a hedge instead of a verge i’d have been under the car. Following competitors in vehicles needs to be banned.You could have a fatality on your hands. Admittedly going up the inside isnt in the highway code.
Into T2 . As i go in i see fabulous who obviously has DNF he leans over the fence to tell me i am 4th in my wave. I’m actually 1st or second as the others were relay teams.But i never miss an opportunity where Fab is concerned and as he leaned right over the fence i slapped him as hard as i could across the face.It was a pearler.FURRRWHACKKKK!!!STINGER!!! He was fucking livid with my hand print across his chops .As mad as a box of frog workers locked in the hopping mad frog factory at home time.I thought he was coming over the fence.Which would have been the only physical enterprise he had shown today.’How’d you like that Fab ?’ I shouted. You and your fucking goat!!I could still hear him a mile down the park. I was cockahoop. A perfect shot,perfectly landed and executed.Shock value 10. Totally caught Fab with his pants down. Gold star for me. Useless wanker
Its pretty much an off road run and with the rain from last night it is very slippy and has groin strain written all over it. So i ease my way into the run. I’m moving ok at around 90 min pace which will do at the moment. One guy passes me early on in lap 1 whose number 2 from cirencester tri club. I let him go as its still early and i’m not settled yet. 30 mins for the first lap and i’m not really caning the run. Then i’m caught by another runner who i am already a lap ahead of although i dont know what wave he is in. and i decide to go with him. He’s wearing a challenge rimini race belt so i figure must race for GBR as well although i dont recognise him. We go bit and bit for the rest of the lap and the pace has picked up. As we head down to lap 3 i’m starting to feel good and raise the pace again. He’s gone into lap 3 the final lap and i now feel like im moving at more like my 10 k pace . I catch No 2 at 2 miles he’s cooked and i fly passed him. 2 and a bit miles to go.Then with no warning my left achilles just pops. I pull up instantly. I know its a game changer and i know the race is over. No 2 goes passed as does challenge rimini guy. You know its over but hope against hope it isnt’ try to walk it off, rub it , I take the timing chip off to make sure it isnt too tight. Try to run. No. I stare up the road. 2 bloody miles . I could shuffle it. But at what price. Kona is 7 weeks away and i cant risk it. Desperate disappointment weighs me down and every step towards the showers gets heavier and heavier. Almost crushing me. I’ve never DNF through injury before only once have i not finished a race, crashing out in a half up in north wales. This is difficult to bare and accept but its the only decision in a kona year.
I shower and change .Its like a wake. Still pull yourself together. My A star athlete is still out there. So i pick up a spare coat my coaching umbrella and a recovery drink and go and see how the milla is doing. It really does start to piss down. Almost tropical. I adopt Linzi who has forgotten her umbrella and little Lucy is getting soaked. Her husband is competing and we chat . Ive a watchful eye for a revenge riddled fabulous who could pop out at any given moment with a bitch slap. Its like Kato and clueso some times.
The milla goes passed and is moving well. Contrary to popular believe as i head to the finish i step out from underneath my umbrella and tell linzi to keep it. Her need is greater than mine. As i’m an all round nice guy.The milla finishes in 4 hrs 47 mins. A 45 minute improvement on her best half.Which was the outlaw last year which is fast too. All smiles and hopefully the bike coaching i have been giving her has played a part.
She too went potholing on the bike and had tri bar issues as did Heather who DNF as well. Not the best outing for the Pembs riders.
Post race analysis.
No2 went on to finish 9th overall in 4 hrs 11mins. going off his splits As he started his final lap he was 3 mins ahead of me. So i caught him 2 miles into the final lap. There at that time i was running 90 seconds a mile faster than him. With over 2 miles to go that would’ve given me a finish time of 4 hours 7 or 8 mins. Good enough for 6th or 7th. Never mind. Bike splits were identical despite the perceived lack of power on the first lap. NP was 260 watts. First lap 1 hr 3 mins 2nd lap 1 hour 3 minutes . Bike split 2 hours 7 mins for the 53. something miles. Initially i was listed as a DQ. Which i assumed was for the car overtaking episode as i was a DNF what did it matter? then my time was listed as 4.57 which pissed me off as i’ve never gone that slow in any half. that is conceited and vain i know but it is also true.
The event. is fast. the run was difficult in those conditions.But thats the British summer for you. It is extremely well organised. That badger alley section needs to go. The organisers are aware of this and have stated it will change for next year. The road surface is terrible at times but where isnt it? This is now a very popular event and with good reason it is , as stated , well organised,fast and a nice place in the world. Only problems already stated one of which is being changed the other is just to ban spectators moving around in vehicles on the course during the event. If you are in it to win it ask to go off in the earlier waves as u get the clearest runs on the bike and run part initially. Having said that the guy who won it in something approaching obscene (3 hrs 51?) was off in the later waves.there were 2 who went under 4 hours .Fair play to them.
As for the achilles wait and see how bad it is. Ice it rest it hope for the best
