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Tuesday 25 September 2007

New Forest Middle Distance Triathlon

Race of the year!! Fantastic race, great organisation, brilliant atmosphere, really friendly, tough racing, great athletes, everything that triathlon is about.
And I was feeling bloody rotten! Days before I felt lousy, cold coming on and I had a niggly couhg. On the Friday I went for a 4 mile jog and I stopped after 1 mile with a sore knee. IT band in left leg tight and sore at the point where it runs over the outside of my left knee.
Urgent ice and gel on it when I got back in. Saturday before the race I felt dreadful, and really I should not have done it. But like a real trooper I turned up on site at 5:30am in the pitch black to assemble my bike in the car park!
Once my wetsuit was on I was surprisingly well focussed and I got into the water with 321 others feeling ok. Off we went at 7:12 ish! The swim was lovely and for once I was actually passing people! I drafted a bit on a few and then when I was feeling strong and pushed harder to move passed to find the next set of feet to draft on! I exited the water and felt really wobbly, but ran hard into transition with my watch on 32 minutes! I couldn't believe it! Previous best at that distance was just under 40 minutes. I suddenly felt better and was spurred on by Tracey, Henry and my mum cheering me on. I flew through T2 being shouted at by someone to 'slow down it's a long race', but I was 'in the zone' and hopped on my bike and sped off. Got feet into shoes without a hitch, thank the lord for toe covers! Slightly damp on the road surface but first stretch was ok and I soon settled into a good rhythmn, picking off riders steadily. However, got to 7 miles and bang, my knee started hurting. It felt like someone had stuck a knife in me. What the hell was I going to do. Stopping was not an option as I was mentally up for the race. So I decided to push as hard as I could and try and post a fast bike time and then just stop and not run. But as I continued it just occured to me I couldn't go as hard as I wanted to, and I would just have to spin round. So that's what I did. Average cadence for the whole ride was over 100rpm, I had to spin up every incline, even the smaller ones, sitting high up with hands on the arm rests of my tri bars, sat as far back as possible to stretch out my legs.
Before lap 2 of the bike I did shout to my wife that I would not be doing the run. But shortly after I seemed to find a second wind - funnily enough that was just as I found myself buffeted back by a strong headwind! But I dug deep and powered through it. Made up a lot of time into that wind - helps being a big lad!
The end of the first lap was great, going passed the cheering crowds, really gave me a lift and I could not stop now. Raised the tempo on the second shorter loop and eventually was cheered back into T2 having ridden 2hrs 51 mins for just over 90k. Considering my health I was damn pleased and was confident that if I could go around 1hr 40 for the run I would get near to 5 hours. However, first hill saw my knee run away in fear! And then it decided to hurt, which was then followed by my legs at 8 miles, very sore indeed. mile 8 to mile 10 was dark for me. But I reached mile 10 with a smile on my face because I knew I would smash my time at Half Ironman UK by a considerable margin. In the end it was beaten by 45 minutes!!
I had a rotten run of 2 hrs 8 mins, but I did run for all that time, no walking, except for a wee stop! And picked up my son Henry to run over the finish in 5 hours 34 minutes and 21 seconds!!
I was delighted, on a real high!
Many thanks to the organisers Richard and Jo Iles, for putting on such a fantastic race, superb marshalls and great to be part of such a special race. Will be there next year!!!
Well done to James Gilfillan again for a well earned first place! 4 hrs 22, awesome!

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