The 2011 Swashbuckler - Or how to spend 5h racing

Sunday 22nd of May was my first big race of the season, and first middle distance race ever, an almost half ironman in the beautiful new forest, near Southampton. Here’s my race report…

It was all setting up nicely on Saturday afternoon with registration, briefing and cycle route reccing. Beautiful sunshine, a few scares at the possible amount of current in the tidal river the next morning, possible jelly fishes and some interesting ideas on how difficult the climbs are. Nothing really major, but enough to get the heart pumping those little butterflies that I always get before a big race. I’d been waiting for this race for a long time now, and it was the next day!!

After a dinner in one of the nice villages around the bike course and preparing all the kit, race food and taking the final decision on what wheels to use for the big day (possible risk of strong winds…), I went to bed with the alarm set at… 3am. Yeah, that’s a very early start, and seriously nothing I’d want anyone to admire. It’s wayyyyy too early if you ask me, but it’s been dictated by the tide of the river being as weak as possible, coinciding with a morning start, and leaving enough time for everyone to make the cutoff later on… Organisers didn’t have much a choice on that one! Race start was due at 5:15am…

Waking up to a beautiful (and typical) New Forest drizzly fog, I really though that was going to be a repeat of last year’s One Last Tri which we’ve done in the most appauling conditions ever. Arriving in transition after a very small breakfast only reinforced that view when the heavens opened for some proper downpour. I hate wet kit!

But after this wet setup, the rain stopped and it was time to get in the water. The tide was going out and we could feel the effect before the start as the marshals had to ask us twice to swim backwards behind the start line while people where getting in. Eventually we got underway, and it’s all been a fight for the whole 1900m.

Now, I had some rough swims in the past, specially remembering here my London triathlon Olympic swim where I had my goggles knocked off and been swam over at the start and at the first buoy. But This one was basically elbows and feet flying in my face, my arms and my ribs all along the 1900m. I really don’t understand the need for someone to blow a real kick (yes, a real “get out of my way” kick, not a poor swimmer’s kick) at someone else in an amateur race where there is plenty of space, and when we’re not at the front where things get usually a bit muscully. That’s not accounting for the ones that swim accross you and bounce in the side of a boat to swim accross you again. We’re here to enjoy it people! Calm down!!!

Eventually, I made it out in 38min, which is alright for my standards considering the bit of tide tide and it’s roughness, although I’d have expected slightly better. But nontheless, I wasn’t too tired out of the water, which was only going to be a good thing for what followed.

Transition was 3-400m away uphill from the swim exit, so it took a bit of time to get there, put my arm warmers, start my little camera (I’ve got a little film of the bike leg to come in a future post!) on and get going. I decided to go only for arm warmers this time after my desastrous 7min transition at the One last tri last year, which I still laugh about. However, this time, it wasn’t such a brilliant idea, as I got really, really cold on the bike, shivering badly most of the first 20Km.

It was a great start of the bike leg though, lots of scrapping around for position with other guys but it settled after 15K, only just before I got a puncture. Now, punctures are usually a matter of 3-5 min on the side of the road while fiddling with an inner tube. Not this time. I had chosen to ride my carbon tubular wheels, and with the wash from the rain earlier on, all the crap from the roadside came under our wheels. Before I got my puncture, I counted at least 12 guys on the roadside, some of them as close as 2Km from the start. To add to my problems, this was the first rubular change I faced, and I was so cold I was shaking uncontrolably without any power in my fingers, trying to get a grip on the tub to tear it away from the rim. I almost gave up at some point, but thinking of Ellen made me focus back on the task. She wouldn’t give up, and she would kick my ass if I had not at least tried as hard as I could, so I got back to it with a tire lever, working slowly the tub out of its glue, and I finally managed to remove it from the wheel. That was a real relief! 3 minutes and two CO2 canisters later, I had a new tub fully inflated on the back wheel, albeit not glued (!!!) and hammered it to try and catch the others! I did see Colin, Sarah and Gaby pass as I was battling my rear wheel, so I had some ground to make! I have been stopped for 29min :(

The rest of the bike was very lonely, but sunny and very fast! I eventually caught a bit more wind that I expected due to being late, but had a 2h17' moving time for 80Km, which I’m not too disapointed with.

Coming back to transition through the last snappy hill and the long drag to the line, I was in a good mood and feeling very well. No cows/horse/sheep crossed my way this year, and the non-glued tub didn’t prevent me from catching Sarah and do passages at almost 60kph with the tail wind at some point.

Off the bike and taking my kit for the run, quick feet, out with the cheers and straight up in the wind was the run start. A somewhat long 22.5Km, but passing people all the time made for a motivating start and I had to pace myself down a lot from 4'36" on my first K to a healthier 4'52" for the following ones. The wind was really bad on the way out of the first lap, around Km 5/6, and only a right turn under the trees at the firt aid station brings some relief. Body was feeling really nice on this first lap, and by km 9, I started to up the pace. I caught Gaby in the last Km of the first lap, and passed the line at a comfortable 4'36" pace. Having done the first lap easiluy, I knew what to expect on the second, and I knew where to push. There was no coming back from there on, and the prospect of catching up Colim, Ian or Matthew was keeping me pushing hard. I flew past the last water station without so much of a look, knowing there was only 3 K left and it was time for my fastest finish ever =) The last 200m were quite hard with that uphill finish, but I crossed the line in 5h16'15", including a 29min stop to change my rear tub! Not bad for a first middle distance!! The real goal on this distance will be now 5h!!! For a real ½ iron, it’s definitely doable!

The guys were still in front of me at the line, but not by much, as Colin, Ian and Matthew respectively finished 1'21", 2'10" and 4'02" ahead of me. That must have been as close as 400m for Colin! Well done to all of them too, and also to Sara, Gaby, Martine and Christine, all women of the club on the race! Great club results!

Official times are as follows, but individual disciplines include transitions:

Times measured on my watch, with separate transitions:

Garmin details are here (although not in one activity as their system seriously misses something it use to have…):

Swim / T1 / Bike (spot the puncture!) / T2 / Run

That gives me overall a good result regardless of the mechanical:

All in all, it was a nice race, a good test for long distance and I’m very happy to have managed my nutrition properly, which I strongly believe gave me that fabulous run! That was one of my main concerns and will still be for the iron man in October. Obviously, I’m more than happy with my ½ IM, and things did work very well. But How will I manage to store 10 gels for the bike? One thing I want to avoid above all is taping them all to the top tube like this:

Suggestions anyone?