I need to set the scene about today's event. A few years ago I started doing triathlons. These were of the sprint variety (i.e. fairly short) and I didn't really take them very seriously. Last year, Claire decided to sign us up to the Birmingham Half Marathon (the result of a bet or dare or something). At the time I thought that this was nigh on impossible and we'd have to walk most of the way but to our surprise we managed to run the whole thing.
Sometime around Christmas or new year 2015/16 I'd had a bit too much mulled wine and booked a load of events for us for 2016. Two half marathons, two Olympic distance and one sprint triathlon. Plus some other things that came up as the year went on. I'd got it in my head that I wanted to build up to do a half iron distance triathlon in 2017 - the year of my 40th birthday.
We did our first Olympic distance Tri in June in Pembrokeshire. It was really hard. So hard that I was considering giving up triathlons for good and doing something easier. But for some reason, within a few days of limping over the finish line in Pembrokeshire, Claire suggested that we could do a half iron distance Tri in August in the Cotswolds. This event is supposed to be about as easy as half iron triathlons come, with the swim in a small sheltered inland lake, the bike virtually flat, and the run totally flat.
This is the event we have completed today - the Cotswold Classic, with a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, ending with a 13.1 mile run (a half marathon). To be honest, we didn't really do as much training as we should have done. Especially running.
Although neither of us are particularly fast in the water (in fact, we're both pretty slow), we're both pretty relaxed about swimming so the swim was never going to be a big issue for us. And having recently done the coast to coast bike ride we were not too concerned about the cycling either. However, we were both a bit worried about how we were going to get on with running a half marathon after all the other stuff. The approach we took was mainly to bury our heads in the sand about it and go running occasionally.
We stayed over the night before (and after) at a campsite round the corner from the start line. The campsite was extremely busy, but this turned out to be mainly with triathletes, so it was lights out at 9pm ready for the early start.
This morning we got up at 4.15am! It was still dark and the campsite was full of triathlon zombies wearing Lycra, eating carbs and tinkering with bikes. We got over to transition and set our bikes and kit up at about 5.45am.
(We're not in this photo, it's just to give you an idea of what the transition area is like)
Our swim wave started on time at 6.50am. We both really enjoyed the swim which made a nice change from previous events. The lake was calm and clear and we could see little fish swimming around the weeds. The swimming was surprisingly easy and we both swam more or less the whole distance front crawl.
The bike ride was a two lap ride of flat country roads with only one hill of any significance, and that was over in a few minutes. We both found the ride was ok, although we were both a bit stiff after 3+ hours in the saddle with no coffee and cake stop like we are used to. There were a couple of bike crashes en route, one guy was out cold on the road which was quite a sobering thing to see. But we both made it round without any mishaps.
We were also spurred on by family members cheering us on during the run course (thanks Anna, Sam, Jen and Andrew). But on lap 3 things got a bit more difficult. Various body parts were hurting and the final 4.3 miles seemed like a marathon all on its own. I eventually managed to get round the run course in 2hr 30mins which I thought wasn't too bad under the circumstances.
Our final times were as follows:
Me:
Swim 45min, Bike 3hr 15min, Run 2hr 30min, Faffing in transition 12 min, Total 6hr 43min
Claire:
Swim 52min, Bike 3hr 17min, Run 2hr 53min, Faffing in transition 10min, Total 7hr 13min
So what's next? We have a couple of cycling events planned for later in the year. A full marathon in spring 2017 to kick off the mid life crisis. We have entered the London Marathon ballot, it would be amazing if that could be our spring event. Then Staffordshire half ironman in June, possibly followed by a full ironman in early autumn just before my birthday. We think we should be able to do it with the right training and attitude.
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