I did this event last year and really enjoyed it. A nice little race run by Dengie Events with plenty of local support and a fab pub about 50 metres away for some well earned post race fodder. I'd got a free entry from winning last year so hoped to knock a nice chunk off my time - previous time 4.08, so how about sub 4 hours??
The race is a 1.9km tidal sea (inlet) swim, 90km bike and 18km partly offroad run. I'd had a pretty good race last year but suffered with terrible back problems on the bike which slowed me down a lot over the last third of the ride.
The weather was pretty good - nice and calm and just enough sun to get the shoulders nice and crisp by the end of the race, and a slightly better start time (8.40) than last year's (pre 7am).
My swim was good. It's 2 laps around the moored boats out in the water - I went off hard and got away from everyone pretty early. I was very glad to have the canoe to follow as the sun was very low, making sighting very hard. I felt pretty good in the water and had a big lead coming out (3 minutes-ish). The time was a lot slower than last year but I can only assume that was tide related, or a mis-measured course.
Swim time - 25.50
Out onto the bike - it's a pretty flat course but also fairly exposed. I've been still suffering massively with my back and cannot seem to get it even vaguely resolved. It's purely a bike issue, and a lot worse on flatter courses, or when there's a lot of wind. Therefore the tactic was to go harder with the wind on my back, and ease off on the return leg to try and delay headwind induced back problems for as long as possible...
It's a 2 lap bike, which I started in the lead and rode on my own. Pretty uneventful really - nutritionally alternating 1/3 Stoats Oat Bar , 250ml sports drink every 15 minutes with another bottle of water with salts during the ride. It was uneventful until 10 minutes from the end, where I reached the last T junction and was told by the marshalls that the route had been changed and I couldn't go that way. "Had I not been told...??" Well evidently I hadn't. It turned out later on that the basic roadworks on the out leg had turned into full on dug up road during the course of the race. Unfortunately for myself and Roy Young in 2nd this led to a 10 minute extra loop to get to the new route (+ a couple of minutes for me of asking marshalls where on earth I should be going).
Bike - 2.33.19, in reality around 2.24, 3-4 minutes quicker than last year
I started the run in 2nd (with the marshalls fully aware of my extended siteseeing bike leg). Immediately I wasn't comfortable. It's a 4 lap run, and halfway through the first I started getting terrible stomach cramps. I have a lot of GI issues in training runs but miraculously have suffered very little during races. This was my first though, and halfway through the 2nd lap I told myself I really couldn't continue. The cramps were so bad that what started as a run/walk strategy turned into having to stop and stretch out every couple of minutes as it was just too uncomfortable. I was still in 2nd and told myself I'd just get to the end of the lap and stop. However, of course I then caught the leader so thought what the hell - let's push on through.
The cramps eased off (mostly) on the 3rd lap, but by then I hadn't got a gel down my neck and really couldn't speed up to any great level. So slog on through to the finish it was - not pretty, and not particularly enjoyable, but job done!
Run - 1.20.56, around 4 mins slower than last year
So, a win, and 4.21.59.
I'd say there was an improvement on last year, despite the 13 minutes slower clocking - taking into account the difference in swim times (I know I'm swimming faster than last year) and the bike detour I'd say around 3 mins up on last year, but with the issues on the run it could have been sub 4 hours...
........................
I've pretty much had a week off after the race as I'm suffering my usual late season fatigue (and that was as good a reason as any to soak up as much of our fabulous Olympics as humanly possible). Now it's time to knuckle down and get some decent pre Vitruvian training....
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