When: 14/06/2015
Organiser: One Step Beyond
Course details: Pool swim. Rural bike, paved run
Distance(s): 400m (heated) lido swim, 24k bike, 5k run
Marshalling: Plenty and happy, excellent traffic control.
Facilities: Camping/caravan pitches, changing facilities, showers, toilets, post race massage
Technical: Chip timing,
Freebies: T shirt
Weather forecast rain ... Bum. Late Saturday night absolutely honking down ... Bum. Woke up 3:45 painful, right calf cramp ... Don’t know where that came from, not been silly and had eased everything off at Pilates ... Bum.
Registered, racked, off to the pool.
I like to compare against an average of the top three in AG to see how I stack up.
Swim
400m in the 33m heated lido pool. Got in, swam. After a few minutes saw a hint of blue in the sky and woohoo a bit of sun. About 20m to go, had been stuck behind a breast stroker and went to overtake, drew level, eased ahead ... Bang .. What was that? Thought I’d swum into the pool side. It was an oncoming swimmer swimming in the centre if the lane in stealth mode, i.e. White hat, white tri top. Stunned for a few seconds and carried on. Exited, eye socket hurting like mad, man up.
Time 9:16 Average of top three 9:20
T1
Decided to put calf guards on as didn’t want to bugger myself up, took time but injuries take weeks to get over so for me the extra 20-30 seconds is worth it. Trotted out to tumultuous applause and cheering .. Well Jon.E and his wife Caroline
2:04 Average of top three 1:20
Bike
Crossed the mount line, leg over .. steady Kevy
.. right foot straight into the shoe and started to pedal in one motion, 10m left foot in, got up a decent speed, right foot strap done, brake, left out of Jubilee Park onto Stixwould road, up to speed, left foot strap done. Down on the bars, had a feeling this was going to be fun, 200m up to 30kph, right flick, no braking or slowing down onto Monument road, slight incline, over the next 2k 30kph av, 37kph max, HR dropped from 104bpm down to 85bpm. Right onto Sandy lane, next 2k again gradual rise, averaging 30kph, HR increasing to 116bpm. Left onto Horncastle road, next 2.5k undulating 33kph av 42kph max. Next 1.5k gradual rise 30kph av, 39kph max HR steady at 100bpm. Right, through Thornton 400m left, next 1.5k, again still rising 28kph av 32kph max. Almost overcooked it at a right bend, thought it was gradual bend but it was a bit sharper oops.
Left onto B1190 and gradual descent, a bit lefty righty, 39kph av 47.5kph max. Next 4k gradual descent, lefty righty, brakey, 37kph av 44kph max HR 100bpm. Left onto Moor Lane, slight uppy downy, 37kph av 45kph max. Next 2k more uppy downy lefty righty 35kph av 40.7kph max. Sharp right and final 1k, 31.8kph av 38,5kph max HR dropping to 65bpm, 100m to go right foot out, left foot out, right into Jubilee Park, dismount, not flying dismount as balance rubbish, stopped, stepped off.
Really enjoyed that. Passed quite a few but only had a decent tussle with a couple who gradually pulled away on the last 5k.
44.26 PB woohoo. 3rd fastest bike in AG, Average of the first three 43.40. 111 fastest bike out of 662 finishers. Average 32.9kph 47.5kph max. Got to be happy with that.
T2
Ran to my sighting reference point, where is my gear? After several seconds, bum, wrong rack, ducked under right rack, racked bike, shoes on, off.
What a tool!
1.22 Average of the first three 1.15Run
Out of T2, straight into a couple of pedestrians crossing and chatting ... ‘excuse me please’ I shouted. Did the trick. Just ran, felt good, within 500m had passed a few, another 500m passed even more. Kept running, running, feeling good, down the chute, checked my watch .. Woohoo
22.35 4th run in AG. Average of first three in AG 21:30
224 out of 662 finishers
Reason for woohoo on crossing the line ... Total time 1:19:42..PB.
4th in AG. 3rd placed beat me by 7s. Average of the first three 1:18:15
Placed 171 out of 662 finishers.
A good day at the office. Now waiting for the overall standings in the Midland Sprint series.
Then to cap it all, Jon.E and Caroline had stayed for the weekend at the Woodhall Spa Country Park and invited me to their podule where we had a wizard BBQ
. A smashing couple, a really good day. 
.
