Race Report: Swashbuckler Middle Distance

Being woken up at 2am by the howling wind outside the tent did not put me in a great frame of mind for doing a half ironman triathlon in a few hours.  I dozed and shivered until my 3am alarm, sat up and ate the pre-milked museli that I'd conveniently placed to hand the night before.  On my headtorch lit walk to the camp loos, it started to drizzle.  By the time Dan and I left the campsite, it was more than a drizzle.  The weather forecast had predicted overnight rain but it hadn't occurred to me that I'd, in fact, be up 'overnight'!

Arriving at race HQ at Buckler's Hard at around 4am, it was distinctly dark. There didn't seem to be floodlights and all you could see were weary, weather-beaten triathletes in the headlights, pushing their bikes somewhere. 

We found transistion fairly quickly but thank goodness for the headtorch.  There was no lighting and daylight had only just started to make itself known so goodness knows how torchless people coped with the faff of setting up transistion!  Before you knew it, however, it got light, the rain stopped and the wind seemed to die down a bit.  I squeezed myself into my shiny new wetsuit, downed a Torq Guarana gel (it tasted like Calpol and there was NO coffee stall) and huddled together with the other BADTri ladies. 

I'd been worrying about the swim.  The race organisers had sent out warnings about the strength of the tide in the river and how it was 'unsuitable for weaker swimmers', hmmm.  The hooter went and off we all went.  There was plenty of space so there wasn't the usual washing machine and limbs everywhere scenario.  I settled into a nice rhythm and the outward leg of the 2 lap out & back was with the flow.  On the way back, against the flow, you could definitely feel it, but it wasn't too bad.  By the second lap, the field had really spread out and I found myself more or less alone in the water except for this one lady who was swimming alongside me, but about 30m to my right.  The home straight leg was pretty tough and I had to give myself a talking to a few times.  I could see the high-viz jacket of the race director standing at the swim exit from quite far out but it seemed like an eternity before he properly came into view and I dizzily made my way out of the river.  I looked at my watch.  47 minutes, hmm not bad, considering the tide.  Here I am exiting the river, complete with weird grin and face.

I trotted up to tranisition where most of the bikes had already gone.  My wetsuit came off pretty easily but getting socks, arm warmers and gloves on proved less so.  I only half pulled on my arm warmers and decided to sort them out on the bike.  The sun was shining by now but it took a while to warm up on the bike.  I immediately starting getting a pain in my stomach which I hoped would pass.  3 miles in, my chain came off whilst changing gear.  Hmm, that's never happened before.  So I had to stop, get my hands dirty and remount on a hill.  It happened again 2 miles later.  I was getting annoyed by now and losing some places!  Eventually the gears and I settled and I started concentrating on nutrition.  The pain in my stomach hadn't gone away but I could manage to eat my energy bars and drink.  I didn't fancy any gel though so I concentrated on drinking often.  I eventually caught up with Gill and we had a brief but bizarre conversation about wind, bad stomachs, farting, immodium and burping.  This is the norm in triathlon.

I was going at a good pace but it seemed to be getting windier.  At one point I was riding on aero bars, peddaling down a hill at 10mph.  I was soon approaching T2 and I was happy to come in a few minutes under 3 hours with an average of 17mph! 


Aero on the bike.

Cycling shoes, helmet, gloves and arm warmers off. Trainers and visor on.  My first priority was finding a loo and thankfully there were 2 portaloos in transistion.  Heading out of transistion I saw Dan, probably mumbled something and set about shuffling.  My legs felt ok and the pain in my stomach was gone.  All those brick runs had been worth it.  Being at the slower end of the spectrum and on loop one of two, the first loop was busy with the speedies overtaking me all the way round.  I enjoyed this as I love to people and kit watch.  Gill caught up with me, we ran together for a while, but then she left me to it.  Loop one (7 miles) seemed to pass fairly easily and quickly.  Running back into race HQ, the support was great but it was pretty depressing to see so many people had finished already.  Ah well, on I went.  Clouds had gathered again by now and it was even windier.  On a lonely stretch of exposed road, I found myself shouting "F~*k off!" at the wind as I got buffeted and blown all over the place.  There were much less people out on the second loop but I did manage to overtake some.  I felt ok, kept the pace very steady and made sure I drank at each aid station.  I ate some shot blocks and finished my energy bar (from the bike!).  The last section of the run involved a very long and straight path through some woods.  This seemed to go on forever.  I homed in on a guy in front of me and eventually caught him.  Much to my amusement, he had a hole in the back of his shorts.


Struggling up the hill.

Finally I was nearing the finish but not before having to run the final few 100 meters up a hill.  Dan and all the BADTri lot were there doing some great cheering.  Crossing the line I don't think I did my usual arms aloft thing. I was just glad to have finished.  Check out the medal, one of the best on my hook.

On reflection, this was a great day's training.  I shouldn't compare it to last year's Vitruvian Middle Distance (which I did 13 minutes faster) as the course and weather were so different.  I also haven't been specifically training for this distance.  I was definitely pleased with my bike leg and amazed by the 17mph average!  I felt calm and fairly strong on the swim and probably had some left on the run (bike and run nutrition needs work though).  Next day, I felt tired from the 3am wake up call but had no aches or pains.

So onwards from here.  I'm hoping to do 90 miles on the bike this Saturday then the countdown to the Pyrenees training camp begins!