Yesterday L gets a leisurely 12.30 start for her triathlon. This
morning I am up even before Doggo. It’s 4:15am when I awake to the sound of
rain pounding on the roof. It’s the day of the third Outlaw Half and the first
to come with bad weather. Joy.
I suppose the rain doesn’t make an awful lot of difference
to the swim. Although the wind might, as there does appear to be a few waves
scuttling across the swim course but again you can’t really tell once you’re in
there. In any case, I’m capable of near drowning in a mill pond.
The swim is the usual combination of elbows in the face and feet
in the stomach, just all served a bit colder than last year. My swim disappoints a touch,
four minutes down on last year at 43:06. I’ll blame the weather.
My swim to bike transition is down on last year too, I take
a terribly leisurely six minutes. I’ll blame the weather for that too.
The bike is my favourite bit and still is, even in the rain
which has now become intermittent. Every time you think it’s stopped, it comes
back to give you another drenching. It’s not as bad as last year’s Sundowner and
again the rain isn’t really the problem unless you’re one of the poor guys who
overcooked it and finished the race in an ambulance.
The problem is the wind. It was often a case of simply head
down and pedal aggressively into it. All you could do was pin your gaze on the
bike and the rear end of the person in front of you, which are all helpfully named so
that you can curse ‘Wayne’ when he zooms past you and disappears off up the
road. You don’t follow too closely of course because that would be classed as drafting
or alternatively perving. Nonetheless I would like to pay thanks to the bottoms of
Tamara, Rebecca and Rob! Whom kept me going but whose faces I never saw.
My bike is four minutes slower and yes, I’ll blame the
weather.
I had promised myself to do a decent swim and an awesome
bike, so that I could take the run steady to preserve the knees for next weekend’s
Ramathon, which I really really want to do.
Having done a less than decent anything so far, Plan A is
already in the bin. I try and have a strong run whilst trying to run on the
grass as much as possible to protect my knees. Yes my run is also slightly down
on last year and I can’t blame the weather any more as it’s fined up now.
So I miss six hours by as much as I coasted under it last
year, yet still had a brilliant time as this is such a brilliant well put together
event.
I finish and immerse myself in the post-race wonderland,
where there is post-race chilli/curries/pasta etc on tap, teas, muffins, folk willing
to rub their hands over whatever you like (within reason) and Erdinger alcohol
free everywhere. Actually it’s a shame they couldn’t have got some Erdinger not
alcohol free in for afterwards.
That problem is solved later in the Peacock with a few OP’s.
Then we have a meal in Singhs, who serve a decent curry despite the annoying
adverts they show at the Broadway Cinema. Had it not been for those adverts we
may have tried the place months ago!
(Sunday 31st May)
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