21st May 2011
Hayle Middle Distance Triathlon
So, for my first Triathlon of the season and I thought I would enter one in a beautiful area of the country. After a 300 mile perfect car journey we arrived at "The Field" in Marazion in plenty of time for the Friday night registration. Armed with Tee-shirt and all the ensemble of stickers and bands we set off to find the camp site, this it where things started to go wrong. My helper and newbie Triathlete Mark Jarvis (1st Triathlon was the Full Boar Novice a week ago), loves his cars. Whilst turning the BMW around in Marazion after taking a detour he curbed the front wheel (not a happy bunny).
Eventually finding the camp site we pitched the tent next to another Triathlete (eventual third place overall and 1st in 40-44 age group) with no dramas. It was still only 7:30pm so we set of back to Marazion for some well deserved dinner. Car incident number 2. On coming around a tight bend and would be Michael Schumacher in a pimped up Peugeot 106 came careering around in the opposite direction and scrapped down the side of the BWM (Mr Jarvis - Not Happy), after the initial verbal exchange, things calmed down and details were exchanged.
After a great meal at the Kings Arms in Marizion, the normal pre-race nerves set in, not helped by watching the 15-20MPH winds and choppy sea.
Back at the camp site I settled into my sleeping bag for hopefully a good nights sleep.
12:30am I awoke to some noise from the tent that had pitched next door while we were out for our meal (not the Triathletes in the other tent). I will not go into graphic details but they were either a newly weds, deaf couple or a couple who did not understand that tents are not sound proof. After 1 hour the show finished and a good nights sleep resumed.
A 5:30am alarm and it was race day. The tent next door was silent, surprise-surprise!!
We arrived at "the field" in good time for the race briefing and I got set in transition.
The event was being run with the Olympic and Middle distance starting at the same time with both distances doing the 1.9km swim before breaking off for the cycle and run.
With my new Xterra Vector Pro X3 wetsuit on I stood on the beach with the 150 other competitors looking at the sea swell and the wind thinking "what am I doing here". With my goggles on I could not even see the first buoy. The swim was set out as a 1 lap out across and back course. The hooter went off and everyone piled into the sea. I held back from the more enthusiastic starters looking to try and get some free space and get into my stroke. After about 200 meters I can honestly say that I was ready to roll onto my back put my hand up in the air and get collected by the recovery boat. A numb nauseous feeling came over me and all I wanted to do was stop. I thought to myself you cannot quit. Stroke-stroke-wave, stroke-wave-breath, wave-breath-salt water-stroke-wave,"I want to die", stroke on the top of a wave-slap splutter-breath-stroke. After what seemed and eternity I got to the first bouy, the field was strung out with people being collected by the recovery boat all over the place. The swim to the second bouy was a little better with at least a resemblance of rythm being restored to my stroke, the feeling of nausia had not gone though. I turned the second bouy in about a mid field position. I thought the swim in would be an easy surf home, Not!
I do not know wether the tide had turned or I was just so tired but on the final 800 meter swim to the beach from the last bouy I could see the bottom at times and as I stroked hard I was still not moving. At this point the fishes were treated some special "Fish Food" consisting of my Musilie breakfast, energy bar and my pre swim energy gel, Yummy!!.
Out of the water and onto the beach with around 50% of the field still in the sea I started the 200meter run back to transition encouraged along by the wind swept local crowd and my weekend helper Mr Jarvis. Into transition and off with the suit in good time. I had forgotten my elastic bands for transition on my cycle shoes so the first 100 meters I was wabbling around on the bike trying to get my feet into my shoes. The first mile is a slight up hill through Marazion and I passed a few competitors and was feeling good considering the nightmare swim. Out onto open roads and through the outskirts of Penzance I got into a reasonable rythm a felt comfortable with my pace, I had decided to race with no speedo or watch so I was just riding to a percieved effort. I got into a good tustle with number 156 and we passed and re-passed each other (whilst maintaining the drafting rules) on the undulating terrain all the way down to Lands End. A guick sight seeing tick in the box at the Lands End turn around and we headed up to the North Coast. The terrain started to get hilly with good climbs and fast technical down hills. It would have been good to have done the course before as on some of the decents I slowed where I could of continued "Full Boar". A steep climb into St Just then onto the coast road up to St Ives the wind was blowing and the terrain kept on a steady climb up to the highest poing at mile 35. A good descent into Hayle was a welcome break and then it was onto the final leg from Hayle back to Marazion, a 20km undulating ride dead into the 18MPH wind, time to nuckle down again an tick off the villages.My back started to ache a bit so I think I need to possible move my position around a bit for the future. Fraddam-tick, Rellubus-tick,St Hillary-tick. Back into transition with no Idea how long I'd been out on the bike, It felt like a long time.
Newtons on and a drink and gel downed I exited T2 in good time, there seemed to be alot of bikes back into transition before me though. Having been told that the run was flat I was supprised when I came to the first hill which climbed around the side of transition and up a narrow lane. Afer 2 miles we were out onto a 1.5 mile undulating stoney off road section through fir trees. Back onto the lanes and the return leg to complete the first lap and few of the leaders came past me on their second lap, with running on my own I had dropped my pace so with the leaders coming by I picked it up a bit. Passing the transition field down a steep hill I was onto the second lap. Another runner passed me and shared some fruit pastels with me (top man), he told me to keep going as we could still get under 6 hours. I thought that 6 hours was out ouf the question due to the hedious swim and tough bike. Spured on by the thought of getting under 6 I picked up the pace, at the final drink station I asked the marshall the time 12:30PM (30 minutes left to do 5km).My last 5km was my best and I finished the run in 1:57 and in 5:55 overall. A free Veggie Cornish Pastie and a medal were waiting for me. There were free enties for next year to the winners and age-group winners and very nice winners trophies. With pastie woofed down and medal and kit packed away it was back onto the motorway for another 300 miles to finish the weekend endurance mission, Job Done.
Lessons to be learnt from the weekend:-
1. Be prepared for feeling sick in sea swims, I'm not sure if sickness tablets can be taken before events? I'll ask the coach.
2. When it is going bad, keep going and set the goal as getting to the finish and getting the job done.
3. If the swim goes bad it does not mean the rest of the event will follow suit.
4. Take a stopwatch Doh!!! I'm sure that if I had known the bike had gone reasonably well I would have been a bit more focussed on the run.
5.When you ask the coach and Mr Livingstone about what the course is like read between the lines. Undulating obviously translates differently in Maltese and Southamese :)
A big thanks to Dermot for his continued support and expert advise with the training program, without the constant feedback and encouragement from him I'm I would not be in a position to be able to complete these silly events.
A very big thanks to Bill Livingstone for the loan wheels, Cosmic! as Rodney would say :)
A big thanks to Mark Jarvis for the transport, tent and support during the race. Mark is just starting his own Triathlon journey and will be competing next on June 5th in his second Tri.
A big thanks to Hayle Tri and Hayle Canoe club for staging a well organised, friendly and challenging event. www.hayletri.co.uk/
And last but not least thanks to the couple in the tent next door for allowing us to listen to their own little endurance event, I suppose you would class 1 hours as a sprint!. That leads me onto lesson number 6:- Take earplugs if camping.
You can find the whole bike route on:-http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/35026610
and the run route on:-http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4197614
The camp site we used was Wheal Rodney which is about 1.5 miles from the race start and is on the Run Route. www.whealrodney.co.uk/
Joe.B.
Hayle Middle Distance Triathlon
So, for my first Triathlon of the season and I thought I would enter one in a beautiful area of the country. After a 300 mile perfect car journey we arrived at "The Field" in Marazion in plenty of time for the Friday night registration. Armed with Tee-shirt and all the ensemble of stickers and bands we set off to find the camp site, this it where things started to go wrong. My helper and newbie Triathlete Mark Jarvis (1st Triathlon was the Full Boar Novice a week ago), loves his cars. Whilst turning the BMW around in Marazion after taking a detour he curbed the front wheel (not a happy bunny).
Eventually finding the camp site we pitched the tent next to another Triathlete (eventual third place overall and 1st in 40-44 age group) with no dramas. It was still only 7:30pm so we set of back to Marazion for some well deserved dinner. Car incident number 2. On coming around a tight bend and would be Michael Schumacher in a pimped up Peugeot 106 came careering around in the opposite direction and scrapped down the side of the BWM (Mr Jarvis - Not Happy), after the initial verbal exchange, things calmed down and details were exchanged.
After a great meal at the Kings Arms in Marizion, the normal pre-race nerves set in, not helped by watching the 15-20MPH winds and choppy sea.
Back at the camp site I settled into my sleeping bag for hopefully a good nights sleep.
12:30am I awoke to some noise from the tent that had pitched next door while we were out for our meal (not the Triathletes in the other tent). I will not go into graphic details but they were either a newly weds, deaf couple or a couple who did not understand that tents are not sound proof. After 1 hour the show finished and a good nights sleep resumed.
A 5:30am alarm and it was race day. The tent next door was silent, surprise-surprise!!
We arrived at "the field" in good time for the race briefing and I got set in transition.
The event was being run with the Olympic and Middle distance starting at the same time with both distances doing the 1.9km swim before breaking off for the cycle and run.
With my new Xterra Vector Pro X3 wetsuit on I stood on the beach with the 150 other competitors looking at the sea swell and the wind thinking "what am I doing here". With my goggles on I could not even see the first buoy. The swim was set out as a 1 lap out across and back course. The hooter went off and everyone piled into the sea. I held back from the more enthusiastic starters looking to try and get some free space and get into my stroke. After about 200 meters I can honestly say that I was ready to roll onto my back put my hand up in the air and get collected by the recovery boat. A numb nauseous feeling came over me and all I wanted to do was stop. I thought to myself you cannot quit. Stroke-stroke-wave, stroke-wave-breath, wave-breath-salt water-stroke-wave,"I want to die", stroke on the top of a wave-slap splutter-breath-stroke. After what seemed and eternity I got to the first bouy, the field was strung out with people being collected by the recovery boat all over the place. The swim to the second bouy was a little better with at least a resemblance of rythm being restored to my stroke, the feeling of nausia had not gone though. I turned the second bouy in about a mid field position. I thought the swim in would be an easy surf home, Not!
I do not know wether the tide had turned or I was just so tired but on the final 800 meter swim to the beach from the last bouy I could see the bottom at times and as I stroked hard I was still not moving. At this point the fishes were treated some special "Fish Food" consisting of my Musilie breakfast, energy bar and my pre swim energy gel, Yummy!!.
Out of the water and onto the beach with around 50% of the field still in the sea I started the 200meter run back to transition encouraged along by the wind swept local crowd and my weekend helper Mr Jarvis. Into transition and off with the suit in good time. I had forgotten my elastic bands for transition on my cycle shoes so the first 100 meters I was wabbling around on the bike trying to get my feet into my shoes. The first mile is a slight up hill through Marazion and I passed a few competitors and was feeling good considering the nightmare swim. Out onto open roads and through the outskirts of Penzance I got into a reasonable rythm a felt comfortable with my pace, I had decided to race with no speedo or watch so I was just riding to a percieved effort. I got into a good tustle with number 156 and we passed and re-passed each other (whilst maintaining the drafting rules) on the undulating terrain all the way down to Lands End. A guick sight seeing tick in the box at the Lands End turn around and we headed up to the North Coast. The terrain started to get hilly with good climbs and fast technical down hills. It would have been good to have done the course before as on some of the decents I slowed where I could of continued "Full Boar". A steep climb into St Just then onto the coast road up to St Ives the wind was blowing and the terrain kept on a steady climb up to the highest poing at mile 35. A good descent into Hayle was a welcome break and then it was onto the final leg from Hayle back to Marazion, a 20km undulating ride dead into the 18MPH wind, time to nuckle down again an tick off the villages.My back started to ache a bit so I think I need to possible move my position around a bit for the future. Fraddam-tick, Rellubus-tick,St Hillary-tick. Back into transition with no Idea how long I'd been out on the bike, It felt like a long time.
Newtons on and a drink and gel downed I exited T2 in good time, there seemed to be alot of bikes back into transition before me though. Having been told that the run was flat I was supprised when I came to the first hill which climbed around the side of transition and up a narrow lane. Afer 2 miles we were out onto a 1.5 mile undulating stoney off road section through fir trees. Back onto the lanes and the return leg to complete the first lap and few of the leaders came past me on their second lap, with running on my own I had dropped my pace so with the leaders coming by I picked it up a bit. Passing the transition field down a steep hill I was onto the second lap. Another runner passed me and shared some fruit pastels with me (top man), he told me to keep going as we could still get under 6 hours. I thought that 6 hours was out ouf the question due to the hedious swim and tough bike. Spured on by the thought of getting under 6 I picked up the pace, at the final drink station I asked the marshall the time 12:30PM (30 minutes left to do 5km).My last 5km was my best and I finished the run in 1:57 and in 5:55 overall. A free Veggie Cornish Pastie and a medal were waiting for me. There were free enties for next year to the winners and age-group winners and very nice winners trophies. With pastie woofed down and medal and kit packed away it was back onto the motorway for another 300 miles to finish the weekend endurance mission, Job Done.
Lessons to be learnt from the weekend:-
1. Be prepared for feeling sick in sea swims, I'm not sure if sickness tablets can be taken before events? I'll ask the coach.
2. When it is going bad, keep going and set the goal as getting to the finish and getting the job done.
3. If the swim goes bad it does not mean the rest of the event will follow suit.
4. Take a stopwatch Doh!!! I'm sure that if I had known the bike had gone reasonably well I would have been a bit more focussed on the run.
5.When you ask the coach and Mr Livingstone about what the course is like read between the lines. Undulating obviously translates differently in Maltese and Southamese :)
A big thanks to Dermot for his continued support and expert advise with the training program, without the constant feedback and encouragement from him I'm I would not be in a position to be able to complete these silly events.
A very big thanks to Bill Livingstone for the loan wheels, Cosmic! as Rodney would say :)
A big thanks to Mark Jarvis for the transport, tent and support during the race. Mark is just starting his own Triathlon journey and will be competing next on June 5th in his second Tri.
A big thanks to Hayle Tri and Hayle Canoe club for staging a well organised, friendly and challenging event. www.hayletri.co.uk/
And last but not least thanks to the couple in the tent next door for allowing us to listen to their own little endurance event, I suppose you would class 1 hours as a sprint!. That leads me onto lesson number 6:- Take earplugs if camping.
You can find the whole bike route on:-http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/35026610
and the run route on:-http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4197614
The camp site we used was Wheal Rodney which is about 1.5 miles from the race start and is on the Run Route. www.whealrodney.co.uk/
Joe.B.
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