Swim
Comments: Managed to tear my wetsuit just below my left elbow when putting it on but thankfully the water was warm enough that it really didn't matter. In fact, it's position meant that if I dropped my elbow, I got a rush of water down my left arm. As for the actual swim, I started off fairly well and managed to stay on the feet of a couple of the guys who were only doing the half distance. After they got out on lap 2 I found myself pretty much on my own until near the end of lap 3 when I noticed I was on the feet of someone else. However, I discovered that if I sighted every 10th stroke I would go pretty straight. If I forgot and ended up sighting later, I would be way off course. Add in the fact that the race started at 6pm, the light was starting to fade a little and that it was raining made it difficult to actually see where the buoys were. Target time was 1:21, so not too bad considering rubbish navigation skills What would you do differently?: Remember to sight every 10th stroke and not a single stroke more! Transition 1
Comments: It had started raining whilst I was still swimming so my socks had become soaked which made it a bit trickier to get them on. Still, I managed the 5th fastest T1 time so it wasn't all that bad. What would you do differently?: Make sure shoes/socks are covered if rain is expected. Bike
Comments: The forecasted torrential rain finally started and kept going for about 2hrs. After the rain had stopped long enough for dry lines to start appearing on the road and my shoes to stop feeling like they were completely full of water, the rain decided to give us another good soaking. Thankfully the second bout only lasted about 30mins. By this point, the road side was littered with people who had pulled over due to punctures (65 people entered the full distance race and only 29 finished, with some people ending up having had 3 punctures!). Thankfully I managed to avoid any punctures but Lady luck had other plans for me. Near the end of lap 11, as I went to change up to my large crank, my front derailleur cable snapped meaning I was stuck in my small crank for approx. 50miles. Admittedly, this only reduced my top speed by about 2mph which was only achievable on 2 small sections of the course. To top it all off, with just 3 laps remaining, the wind picked up and was so strong that one of the sections that I was averaging around 17mph was suddenly limited to 12mph! Target time was 6:35 (with an ave. HR of 140), so even with the rain, wind and snapped cable it's fair to say things went perfectly What would you do differently?: Change both derailleur cables when one snaps (the rear cable snapped a couple of weeks ago!) Transition 2
Comments: Fastest T2 time of all the finishers! What would you do differently?: Nothing Run
Comments: Missed a turn on the first lap that ended up adding 7mins to my lap! Laps 2 and 3 went perfectly to plan and then everything started to crumble. About halfway through lap 4 my knee started playing up, forcing me to change to a 9min/1min run/walk strategy. By lap 5 this had to change to 8/1 and then 3/3. Lap 6 was reduced to 2/2 and lap 7 was 1/2! On the final lap I realised that I was going the same average speed as a woman who was walking briskly, so I decided I may as well just walk and chat with her for the remaining 5k. My target run time of 4hrs (with average HR of 163) and target total time of 12hrs went completely out the window by lap 4, but I'm still very happy managing to finish in under 13hrs (and considering less than half the people that started actually finished). What would you do differently?: Do more long runs! Post race
What limited your ability to perform faster: I guess it all boils down to my lack of ability to run! I thought I had it worked out in training but nothing really prepared me for how different the run would be after the swimming and cycling Event comments: This is organised by one man who wanted to create a cheap long distance race without cutting corners and it is fair to say that is exactly what he has achieved. The volunteers were amongst the nicest and most supportive people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Last updated: 2013-03-12 12:00 AM
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United Kingdom
The Bridge Events Dartford
Overall Rank = 18/65
Age Group = Open
Age Group Rank = 11/15
Double checked everything, from tyre pressure to making sure the straps on my cycling shoes were still looped through the plastic loop