Pembrokeshire Triathlon Camp

Race day today .Picked up Mr Fabulous at 8 then headed off. Talked the usual shit on the way there. I found it amusing that Lyn at Milton Farm shop had read this blog and recognised Rhys as Mr Fabulous just by the descriptions of behaviour. The irony of this was wasted on Fabulous. Found the start ok with over an hour to spare. Got kitted up. The new NB skin suits are pretty swift has to be said. Warmed up for a bit went to see Ollie who told us of the course. Not straight out and back as we thought. Ollie said it was straight forward. I dutifully informed him i could get lost now going back to the car. So Fab and i pressed on regardless . Ignorance is bliss so they say. That made Fab and i two happy little NB campers.Saw Heather and Ben before the start and the legend that is John Sheehan.

Got to the start in a flap with seconds to spare. Get ready 5,4,3,2,1 go. Clean start and the laurel and hardy TT season is under way. I was half tempted to hum ‘derum ta tum, de rum ta tum, de de de tum, de de tum.’ But Fab had his full race face on and i felt it would not be fully appreciated.

First leg into the wind and it took a bit to settle down. I decided not to use the tri bars and sit up a bit to try to give the bigger Fab more of a wind shadow. He thanked me for my efforts later by saying ‘ well that made no fucking difference whatsoever’ Un incombered we pressed on. Its a double hitter for Fab today. He’s bigger than me so not getting the full benefit of my draft and ,on the day , i was stronger. So he was rinsed , well, pretty much all the time. He hadn’t fully rested in my draft and then had to come through to do his turn.I was quite enjoying watching the young fella suffering. Although i was taking longer spells at the front.

we got back to the first roundabout and there were no marshals or signs so we went straight on. Spent the next mile not entirely sure we were going the right way.Oh dear , you can’t quite beat that feeling of uncertainity. I figured if we got to Merthyr without seeing someone we should have read the start sheet .Then luckily caught sight of our two minute team up ahead. After burners back on.

Got to the half way mark in 29.15 and then decided things could get interesting if we went under the hour. Caught two chicks at this point and blasted past them like a machine.(threshing machine) i could tell they were impressed by the way they ignored us later. In denial. I expect they will contact Fab later on facebook.

At the 18 mile mark the road had deteroiated and the under hour time had gone .At this stage Fab was whimpering and started to hallucinate. It was a sad thing indeed to witness. Watching the man fall apart. Not a dry eye in the house.He thought we had nearly finished and was under the impression we were on for a 46 min ride. I did chuckle at that.I used the softly softly approach and mentioned something about ‘still 7 miles to go you daft prick and stop fucking around with that computer’. At that point i saw a little light go out in fabs eye.It was too much for him to comprehend.I think he caught a sob in his throat and his whole world fell apart. Tragic

20 miles and fab has dried his eyes and is back in the room. We caught two more pairs before the finish and we finished strongly. Fab has no recollection of any of the event at all and asked me who i was as we rode back to the car. As a team we went well and it was fun and i was pleased with that. The time was a little disappointing at 1 hr 1 min and 58 secs.But i think we scrapped in the top 10. 1st place went to the ‘dream team’ Olly and keiron 51.56. (taking the piss) 2nd was 58 mins something. So Fab and i were in the ball park of the mere mortals. Heather and Ben williams did really well with 105 something.

Nice little social afterwards catching up with some faces not seen since last season and the odd team who seem to take things all a little bit too seriously.Not without their charms also. We drove home and did the usual post mortem chit chat. Again although Fab is the court jester his tenacity impressed. At only 24 years old watch this space. only his second season.

I got home to find the pigs had decided the paddock is not the place for them anymore and had upped sticks and left. I spent the next 2 hours trying to catch them around castlemartin village. I had quite a crowd to witness the pig hunt,pig cornering and pig capture and photos were taken by a few. I wonder what the captions will be to go with them. I couldn’t help but think as i tried to bribe the pigs with food before grabbing them (by the ears as it turns out is the way to go)’ i bet Keiron and ollie arent chasing pigs around a village right now. Much to the amusement of the gathering crowd. I bet they are wrapped back up in their respective oxygen tents,plugged back into their mainframes ready to go again.

Got an individual 25mtt next week. should be interesting.