Human Race/ Ultra-FIT Tri Challenge - Dorney **+REPORT**

[Ewan]

Hey folks, on a whimsey a couple of days ago I signed up for the Ultra-FIT Tri Challenge at Dorney Lake on Sunday.

I'm doing the 3/4 of Olympic distance, in the men's under 40s wave (HA... I'm 25!) at 13:30. I'm number 321, but I don't have my beautiful BCTTT kit yet so I won't stand out from the crowd much.

Anyone else racing?

Ewan

[Ewan]

Just me?

Starting to think that running 30km today might not have been the best preparation!?

[apnoea]

hey ewan...good luck
did the half distance tri at eton yesterday
had a fit of inspiration on monday and entered a bit last minute and all that!
water was properly warm, and weather was great. today looks the same!
have a good race

[Ewan]

Thanks Apnoae,

Similarly, I got an email on Monday and entered on a whimsey despite having an intensive week of run-focused training planned.

All in all this was my 4th ever Tri and since all my training over the last two years has been geared towards going long I was pretty nervous about coming up against all the speed demons who frequent these shorter races. Consequently my preparation was all of a muddle and I found myself still completely unprepared 15 minutes before the start gun. I pulled on my wetsuit as fast as my sweat-sticky arms and legs would allow while i simultaneously nibbled at a slice of bread and Jam (my only breakfast) and tried to take on some emergency fluid to try and stave off what would surely be the inevitable dehydration on such a hot day. At the last minute I splashed into the water only to realise that the guy who had done my wetsuit up hadn't fastened the neck properly- CR*P quick adjustment, splish splash on into the water, arrive at the waiting mêlée as the starter called "just under 10 seconds" - CR*P I hadn't cleaned my goggles… too late for that now! I don't remember the hearing the "go" but suddenly the nerves vanished and we were off!

I set of strongly but was very aware that I didn't want to exhaust myself for the next two legs so I never opened the throttle completely. After a couple of hundred meters I suddenly became very aware that there was no aqua ruck… SH*T had I swum off in the wrong direction in all my excitement? I took a couple of strokes to have a proper look around me and to my horror I found myself out in second place with the leader 5m in front of me and the rest of the field some 15m back. This definitely wasn't the plan… after my 30km run the day before I had just been hoping to finish! Off to my right were another pair who were moving quickly but taking a slightly squiffey line to the first buoy. As we converged on the 1st buoy the other pair seemed to be moving at a similar speed to me so I let them round the turn first and sat in their draft all the way back to T1. Its amazing how much of a difference drafting makes, at times I felt I couldn't swim slowly enough but we were still putting space between us and the rest of the field. I felt a little guilty about making the others do all the work for me, but then again it was a race and I sprung out of the water in 4th place fresh as a daisy!

T1 was a disaster and was accompanied by lots of swearing as I found that my fellow rack mates on both sides had laid out their stuff on top of mine and knocked over my water bottle leaving it to rehydrate the nearby tarmac. Out on the bike things seemed to calm down again and I really enjoyed the flat Dorney course. Given the scorching heat I realised it was important to take on lots of fluids so as soon as I had settled into my rhythm I tried some lucozade… Bam! It came back up instantly, just as I was moving up into 3rd place. I tried to drink again at the same point on laps 2 and 3 but both times it came strait back up again - laps 4, 5 and 6 I switched to Nuun (which I also had) and that worked a dream. [Note to self… Lucozade is too strong when trying to push out 40km/h in 27 degrees]. Come lap 4, or was it 5? I realised I had no idea how many laps I'd done! I slowed to ask someone how long the course was so I could compare it to my gamin "6 laps!" he called back "I know that… I lost count… How many km??", "er… dunno…" Idiot! thinks I, how can anyone not know how long the course is?? Eventually I found someone who could tell me the course was 30km and I could see from my speedo that I was just reaching the end of lap 5… one to go.

I jumped off the bike in T2 having gained one place and lost another (to the eventual winner). My legs had felt fine on the bike and all the while I felt as if I was holding something in reserve for the run. However, since I rarely bother with brick sessions my legs had other ideas. I wobbled out onto the run and it was very apparent the 72km I had run over the previous 4 days was going to take its toll! This was definitely just going to be a case of holding on for as long as possible. I saw a couple of guys come past me and eventually crossed the line in 7th position.

I was absolutely delighted, a top 10 place and 3rd in my age group! Great fun and very unexpected!

To celebrate, (and also as an act of self flagellation for doing so well) I got changed into my cycle kit, hopped back on the bike and cycled the hilly 70km home! All in all a very exhausting day!




oh dear… after all that, the provisional results have me in 12th place (although there are a couple of fishy looking times ahead of me - the apparent winner seems to have averaged over 80km/h for the bike… hmmm!)

My times were:

1000m Swim:-----00:15:04
T1:-------------00:01:35
30km Bike:--------00:50:35 (35.6km/h)
T2:--------------00:01:06
7.5km Run:--------00:31:44 (4:14min/km)
OVERALL:----------01:40:06

[malteser]

very un-BCTTT like but fantastic result mate!!! Quality times!

[Tarka the Nutter]

Great result, Ewan. Especially after all that run training. Well done