^ Great result, well done!
Hopefully I won't get any stick for posting this, as technically it was a race, just with swimming and running too
My first proper triathlon, having only done a local sprint one before…..the Staffordshire 70.3 Iron Man.
Swim – I must admit waiting with hundreds and hundreds of other people on the queue to the starting pontoon, I wasn’t feeling too bad – much better than I thought I would! I am really not a great swimmer, I’ve only been training for it seriously for less than a year, and I haven’t done as much as I should/could have. It will always be the one I look forward to getting out the way, with an ok time that won’t mess up my whole day.
The main thing I was a bit nervous about was going straight into the swim with no ‘warm up’ in the water. The temperature was 14C, so NOT very warm at all (in fact it felt freezing!) But like everyone, there was nothing else for it but starting my watch and jumping in.
It started fine, for the first 200m or so, but then I had a massive panic attack and I just couldn’t catch my breath at all. I had to stop and bob about for 10-15 seconds to calm down. Not that I knew then, but my HR went to almost maximum, which probably caused it. I think it was just the shock of going from nice and warm to freezing cold water. Luckily after getting going again, I calmed down and found my rhythm for the rest of the swim. I cannot tell you how much of a relief it was to finally climb out of the water!
I had a super optimistic time of 36 minutes to complete the swim, but I was pretty sure I would be much slower than this on the day. To my amazement, I clocked a time of 35:28!
T1 – It was a bit of a run to the main tent to pick up your blue bag and change out of your wet suit. It was the first time I’ve ever hurried to get my wet suit off, and I felt it didn’t take too long, but I’m sure there’s time to be made up here. I didn’t bother with a flying mount this time, and put on my socks and tri shoes in the tent. As this was the main setup before the ride and run, I was more than happy to sacrifice a bit of time making sure I was comfortable for the two, with no stones in shoes etc
Ride – This was the bit I was looking forward to, and where I could make up quite a bit of time. There were some quite rough roads out of T1, and a fair amount of single country lanes. There were bottles and bits everywhere from falling off people’s bikes! And a few skid marks into hedges where I guess people didn’t quite make the corner.
When we hit some of the more open (closed) roads it was time to put the hammer down. I felt pretty strong, and was comfortably passing lots and lots of people, only 2 people overtook me during the whole ride, and second person lead me into T2. My plan was to average 22mph, which would give me a time of just over 2:35. I managed 2:30 in the end, so more minutes saved heading into the run.
66th fastest overall bike time on the day, which I was really pleased with (15th fastest in age group)
T2 - a much faster and simpler operation this time. Just slip on my trainers, dump the helmet in the bag and away you go. Although I did sacrifice a couple of minutes with a quick loo break. I really didn't fancy running 90 odd minutes desperate for a pee!
Run - I had a great feeling when hitting the lap button (starting the next bit of the tri) on my watch to see I was at almost 3:15 exactly at the start of the run. That meant anything under a 1:45 half marathon, and it's in the bag. If I were just going for a run, sub 1:45 would be pretty easy, but I was worried I'd burnt too many matches on the bike. I aimed to average about 7 min/miles, which meant I would run just over 90 minutes. This would have probably been doable if it weren't for the bugger of a hill we had to run up twice, and I mean very steep (for running!). There was even a really long upward drag to the start of this too, so that sapped a lot of pace and energy from everyone. I started the last descent, with about 3 miles to go, averaging 7:15 up to this point. Slower than I would have like but good enough to know it was all downhill and all I needed to do was finish strong.
The crowds were absolutely fantastic! Cheering your name (as it was written on your race number) and going nuts to everyone! I remember one guy, with about 1 mile to go, just shouting “Last mile Dan, give it everything!”
The finish straight was epic! Huge crowds either side, and the infamous Iron Man red carpet up to the finish arch. Crossing the line felt immense, and certainly numbed my calves which were on fire!
I found my girlfriend, after stuffing my face in the finishers tent, who would have given me a big hug, but I said don’t worry as I was absolutely disgusting!
A fantastic event overall, and we were so lucky with the weather, as the for the entire day beforehand where we were all registering and setting up the transition zones, it was miserable and really cold. It was a bit of a pain to have T1 and T2 in completely different places, but once that was all done on Saturday, it was still a great event. Really well organised, especially as 2600 people had registered to race!
In the end, I finished 104th– only 40 ish seconds of being in the top 100, with a time of 4:49:24. That also meant 15th in my age group (30-34) which is a pretty competitive field!
Just under two months until I do it all over again! This time somewhere a bit more local, and everything in one place! Cheers!
Yes I look like a complete wolly at the finish line, but as you imagine, I was pretty happy to cross that line!!
My first ever open TT win and the first club member to win the trophy since Chris Boardman which is a nice little accolade.
Bawls of steel!