A Day In The Lakes Middle Distance Triathlon – 19/06/2022
Goals:
- To finish it!
While I don’t have an overall time in mind, I do have some rough times that I had in mind for each discipline, but having never done this distance before, and rarely covering these distances individually, they were just that, rough.
Swim – Under an hour
Bike – Around 3:30
Run – Around 2:30
Transitions – take my time, get them right, nothing crazy or technical
Camped over the night before with Andy and Jenny (and Peter on the same camp site), not much sleep due to a festival/wedding on the next field over, but well fed and felt okay come the morning. We registered the day before, so the admin was done. Already had my transition bag packed and all my water bottles prepped, I just needed to drop my electrolyte tablets into some of my bottles and ready to go. Jam sandwich and a coffee for my breakfast, tent packed away, jump in the car to go, nothing, car wouldn’t bloody start, dead battery, ffs! I must have left something on overnight, it wasn’t starting. Jenny’s husband was still at the campsite, but everyone else had left. Thankfully I was up with plenty of time, so I decided to ride my bike there, and sort the car later. Got my bike out, wheel and bottles on, checked and double checked my transition back, and went to the loo to get changed into my tri-suit. When I got back, Jenny’s husband had asked around the campsite to see if anyone had any jump leads, which they did, and managed to get my car started! Took my wheel back off my bike, put it in the boot, and drove to the triathlon. Parked up, set my bike up again, racked up, wetsuit on, ready to go with time to spare and got my first gel in. Excellent start to the morning!
Swim
It was a deep water start, which was great as it gave me a chance to acclimatise in the water for a bit, relax, get my heart rate down. Race started and remembering advice from Andy and Jenny, relax, focus on technique, I got off to a good start, got into a nice rhythm with my stroke. Had the odd knock here and there, but nothing that really put me off, just focused on my own swim. There was a woman in front which was going at a similar pace, so I got in just behind her feet and drafted on her until the first buoy, where she cut the corner off and went the wrong side of it (tutt tutt), so left her there and went the right way. Did the first lap, had a quick glance at the watch and was at around 22 minutes, that gave me a little boost, and made the 2nd lap easier. Pretty uneventful, kept on course pretty well, before I knew it, I was coming up to the last buoy, swam until my hands hit the bottom and then stood up. My watch read exactly 2100m, so I must have stayed on course very well.
Walked out of the water, unzipped my wetsuit and got my top half off, goggles, ear plugs and swim cap off, and started a light jog back to transition. The rest of the wetsuit came off without much effort, dried my feet, socks and bike shoes on, had another gel, helmet on, number belt on, and off onto the bike. Realised I needed a wee, but no time for that.
Bike
Relaxed start to the bike, no flying mounts, just a plain old leg over. A couple of km’s in, I noticed an arrow pointing left, on reflection, it looked completely different to all the other arrows I had seen so far, so I should have ignored it, I didn’t, and I ended up down some lane and in a dead end car park, brilliant. Back-tracked and back onto the actual route. Picked up some speed on a downhill section, and went over a little hump back bridge a little too quickly, and I am pretty sure I got air off it, as I slammed down pretty hard, and the bottle on my rear bottle mount came flying off. Had to step and walk back about 100m to dig it out of the bushes (it was the bottle with my tool kit etc in so I thought it was worthwhile looking for it). Back to the bike, and made a mental note to not do that on the next lap. Was passed by a lot of people because of these 2 things. Andy passed me shortly after, a quick shout of encouragement which was nice, and didn’t see him again after that. I found the bike very long, and was getting frustrated with it. The same thing happened here as happens on every race, flats and downhills, I overtake people, any kind of incline, they overtake me with so much ease as I am grafting away. It is quite annoying, I really don’t know if it is me or the bike. It got to about 60km and I realised that I still needed that wee that I felt after the swim, and I was in no mood to stop, take off my tri-suit, be overtaken by a bunch of other people, and add another 10 minutes onto the bike leg, so … I did it on the bike! Waited for a downhill so I didn’t have to peddle, and just let it go. It felt really wrong, but also really good, and the relief was off the scale. Another triathlon achievement ticked off, haha!
I did get quite cold on the bike at times, up on top of the hills it was quite windy, and not much sun. By about 75km, I was ready to get off the bike, stopped enjoying it at that point, the hills were killing me. Kept on top of food, gels and water really well. There was a little confusion with the marshalls after my 2nd big lap, and I was certain they had sent me to do another loop of the big lap, and I was getting more annoyed about it, but then got sent off course to the shorter loop after about 5km, so all was good, just really wanted to get onto the run. My knees were taking turns in hurting, and my back was in agony, so I was in and out of the aero bars to keep it moving. Back to the campsite, off the bike finally, and in T2. Bike racked, changed my shoes, race vest on, and off onto the run. Getting cheered on by Andy and Jenny gave me a little boost here as well, which was needed after the bike.
Run
Legs felt really good getting off the bike, there was about 2km of running before I hit the trail, which was uphill for quite a while, which I walked. My plan was to walk all uphills, and run anything flat and downhill, and I stuck to this quite well until the end. Got talking to a couple of other guys, which helped me pick my pace up more than I would have done on my own, but let them go on at about the 7km mark as I needed to walk and have something to eat (overtook one of the later on). I Saw Angela, who gave me a jelly baby, which was delicious and very much appreciated. I got to the aid station, topped up my water and had some banana, and then onto the out and back section. This was the worst part of the run, 3km out, and then 3km back to the aid station, it just seemed to take forever. Got back to the aid station on my way back in, made a few places up, had some water and more banana, and my last gel, and had just over 5km to go. Quite possibly the longest 5km of my life. The downhill from the aid station to the road was great. It felt good bouncing around the downhill, but as soon as I hit the tarmac at the bottom my legs just refused to play ball. Got to sign for 4km, and decided to walk 200m, run 800m, and this seemed to work. Got to the 2km mark and I refused to walk anymore, and ran the rest of the way. It felt quick, it probably wasn’t, but it did allow me to overtake a couple of people which felt good at this point. The 1km sign was a beautiful site, and when I saw the marshall pointing into the campsite, I was a happy man. I knew roughly that it was maybe a few hundred metres from him, so I upped the pace. I had it in my head there was someone coming up behind me, and I didn’t want to get overtook at the line so really dug deep for as close to a sprint finish as I could muster (turns out there was nobody behind me, and then next guy didn’t come in for another 5 minutes or so) and I crossed the line. Couldn’t speak for a good few minutes, and I couldn’t catch my breath, and I admit, I got a little emotional as well. Rach my wife was there to see me over the line, and had brought a flask of coffee with her, which I definitely needed.
The run was brilliant and the views over Ullswater were stunning, really wish I had a camera with me. Glad I took my race vest as I would have really struggled if I just relied on the aid station. The weather really came out for the run and I now have a great tan, and pretty sure a touch of sun stroke.
I would recommend this race to anyone, brilliant event, well organised, and I will be doing it again next year. It is much tougher than expected though. Without a doubt the hardest thing I have ever done in my life (so far).
Times:
Swim: 46:34
T1: 5:12
Bike: 3:48:54
T2: 3:09
Run: 2:49.32
Total: 7:33:20
Positions:
72 Overall
25 Category
Bonus Triathlon Achievement: Done a wee wee on the bike.
