DGTri Athlete Report - James Harman

Full Boar Middle Distance Triathlon

The Full Boar middle distance race was the last Triathlon for me of the 2011 season. I had intended to have a good race but take it a little easier and just generally use the event more as a social outing to catch up with everybody at my local club 1485 and in the DGtri training camp and to be honest i had been a little fatigued with all the previous months training and finishing IM uk.

We got to the lake for around 8am which left us plenty of time to sort out the kit and transition area as the race didn't start untill 9:30am. I always like full boar start times as i get a lie in.

The previous few days had been really quite cold and wet with the weather report giving much the same forecast for Sunday so i opted to wear my compression leggings, Compression top and t shirt as i thought by the time i exit the cold water and got on the bike it would be difficult for me to get warm. How wrong was i!, Robbo signalled the start of the race and we were off to complete two laps of Bosworth lake. The water was quite cold so it took a while to get the lungs arms and shoulders warm and for the first 400 meters or so it was a bit of a struggle. I got around the first buoy and and received a kick in the face knocking my goggles off so i had to re-adjust but hey no drama's and it cost me very little time. The rest of the swim was pretty standard and i exited the water in 33mins.

T1 went ok but i had a little trouble getting wet socks on. I did use talc but it didn't seem to make that much difference and i thought i may as well struggle with the socks now instead of after coming in from the bike plus i didn't want to get cold feet with all that terrible weather that had been forecast.

The bike leg was Four laps of the Thirteen mile loop and i had been training on the bike course so i knew what to expect. There are not many hills on the bike course but the wind can cause problems as its pretty open in places. Especially along the A444 which can really grind you down however the conditions were as good as i had ever seen with little or no wind and still no sign of any rain. I decided to spin up on the few hills the first lap taking my time and then to push a little the second, Third and fourth lap. I really felt quite strong on the bike from start to finish and was really getting some good speed in places. Every time i looked at the speedo it was showing 19,20 or 22mph and even faster in places so i knew my average speed would be quite good and 18.5mph avg speed is pretty good for me. Hopefully the bike will start to come now as i had really been struggling through the summer months to see any if little progress. I finished the bike leg in 2hours and 50mins and was really quite chuffed with myself.

T2 went ok and after getting my trainers on and having a gel i was out of the gate to start the run leg. Short steps were all that i could manage for the first ten minutes or so but soon found my stride and settled in quite nicely. By this time the sun was really burning through and the weather and done completely the opposite of what had been forecast and i was still over dressed for the occasion lol. I was sweating that much and hadn't taken many electrolytes on so at the start of the second lap i was getting cramps in my hamstrings. I had to slow down a little on the run and try to stretch out a little but it didn't really help and i had to slow down a little. I came around the corner and on to the finish straight where my son was waiting for me and started to race me to the finish lol. I tried to sprint but my hamstrings were in bits and felt like they were going to just snap ouch!, So yes my 5 year old son beat me to the line and he is not letting me forget it. Mind you his little legs were going like butterflies wings lol. I finished the run in 1hour 43 mins
giving me a total event time of 5hrs and 12 mins. Happy days!

I am now looking forward to making even more progress with Dermots help next year. Enjoy your racing, Stay strong and keep pushing!

Jamie (aka Buzz)