Full Boar Tri

I've been recovering. I wanted to be really careful after the full Boar Tri not to overdo it or do too much. With a mental work schedule and a minimal amount of time in which to do it, training has taken precedent during my time off.

The Full Boar gave me the perfect opportunity to practice for my middle distance event without killing myself to the extent of actually doing it. This is a familiar feeling from long ago being so unsure of the outcome of an event that one fears doing it before the actual day.

With a rother valley swim the day before the race I didn't want to do too much there but the water was so pleasant, I didn't want to get out either. I splashed my feet in the water and chatted to Steve Judge. I'd even managed to move myself to ride out to RV. At only 5 miles to the lake, I hardly deserve the heroic feeling that came with riding out to OW swimming so I mowed the lawn to add to the feeling of glory. That lasted until the lawn mower broke.

Before the start of the race, I got a little phased by the general chatter of qualifications events.... And this being one. I took advantage of the opportunity to get in the water before the race. Whilst this turned out to be a bad race day call (the start was 45 minutes later and they only just got the buoys out) I felt it was good for the time I am most likely to spend getting cold at the middle distance.

The swim start was good but wherever I looked there seemed to be space in front of me so I kept myself to myself for a while. My sighting was so much better than previous and when I got caught by people I took a lift from time to time though it was really difficult to keep with just one person in the murky water. It appears any progress I've made with my swimming has been in distance not speed and as ever I was close to last out of the water. However, the quality of the field suddenly dawned on me out on the bike as I completed 1/6 of the course without catching a soul.

I was cold and going slowly I thought. I got caught, caught back on the descent, thinking my legs had warmed up, then got caught again. nothing... For ages... It was the second lap before someone appeared on my radar. Two people were caught on the deceiving hills of Market Bosworth. A third was on the horizon. I made ground on the descent and passing through the park (no overtaking) and timed the capture perfectly. Right on the dismount line where passing was allowed and he stopped to fumble at getting off his bike and I sprang past with a flying dismount to TSK's call of "text book!".

T2 was disorganised to say the least. i had everything with me that I needed but I had extras and I had stuff with me that I didn't need... Like my bike pump, protein drink and gloves. I also left behind stuff that I wanted like my sunhat and sweatband. I made a trip back and I still had to drop the drink by the gate as I set off.

The comentator shouted something great about Sheffield then started talking about breadcakes.

The run hurt. There's no other way to put it. I set out fast, tempered my speed then got on with running slowly and finally warmed up. that's how it felt. What actually happened was I ran about the same speed all the way round. More encouragement form random marshalls and TSK every lap made me very happy.

As ever, when I crossed the line I was tired but I also had a bit left. Something let me jog through the car park afterwards. Something gave me the energy to sit around chatting, not just get up and wander off into my rabbit hollow to lick my wounds.

Despite trying hard, I didnt' stretch myself too much and all previous standard distance records, for me, are slashed. I was pleased to find out that I beat more people on the run than I did on the bike - so all the hard work has paid off then.

Results:

Swim: 34:33 - On schedule 72/76.Women 14/15

T1: 4:34 - Bloomin' cold fingers. (awesome! The slowest out of everyone though not a surprise as TSK noted, I still had my wetsuit zipped and hat on when I got to my bike)

Bike: 1:31:44 - taken easy 67/76. Women 10/15

T2: 2:09 Crap - ther'es someone called Adrian Childs next to me in the standing!

Run: 51:55 Toptastic - 28" on the first lap so 27" on the second! 63/76. women 11/15

Overall: 3:04:50 68/76. Women 12/15