The race

Finally race day arrived…I got up at 5:40 after having a fairly good sleep, thank god for ear plugs!!!!

I quietly got ready while Bronson and Leo slept on. Then down for breakfast at 6am. I really find it impossible to eat on race mornings, but managed to get something in me.

The nerves where still all good. It was then up to the room to grab my stuff, then Martin drove us to the race. We headed for transition and got all our kit laid out. The vibe was great in transition, everyone in good spirits as the weather looked good for racing. Dry, but not too hot.

At 8am we cleared out of transition and headed for the start line, then we overheard the announcement, that morning the water temp was measured at 14 degrees, so the swim was shortened to 1400m. All the slow swimmers celebrated, I was not too happy. Well what could one do???

After watching the pro’s go off and the other men’s waves, the girls set off at 9:05 along with the blokes 40+ which made for quite a big start, the water was cold but once the gun went, it didn’t bother me at all.

The swim felt great, a bit of barging about in the beginning but nothing too worrying, I tried to keep my stroke long and slow, but don’t think I managed. I think it’s easy to do when you are swimming on your own in a nice calm lake. But when you swimming with 100’s of others and the chop is up, you just resort to what you know…and for me that’s my old waterpolo style of swimming from the shoulders with a stupid high stroke count, not efficient in a wet suit!!!

Anyway, I was out the water in 27:56. I saw Bronson and Leo as I exited the swim, I shouted my time, but didn’t have time to explain the swim was short, so poor Bronson thought I was super woman with a 27 min swim for 1900m…nice while it lasted!!!

The transition was on an Astroturf hockey field, and was a normal transition, i.e. not the usual bags etc. Took my time in T1, then out on the bike after 3:07. A bit slow, but as the hockey field was covered in sand, I tried to get as much of this off as possible before putting on my cycle shoes and socks.

The bike felt fast to begin with, I kept thinking if I keep going at this speed, I’m going to pay a price later…but I felt great so just went with it. The hills where fine, I even managed to overtake some people on them…I especial like it when it’s some flash git on an overpriced bike, never fails to amuse me!!!

I knew Holly would be on my tail, in fact I expected her to catch me before the first climb, as it turned out, she caught me exactly 1 hour into the ride, on the last cheeky little hill before the final decent and quick dash to the turnaround point. We exchanged some banter…or abuse, and then she was off.

I really respect Holly as a cyclist (and runner), that wee Welsh lass is nails, so I was pretty proud of myself for staying ahead of her for so long. In the end her bike split was only about 7 minutes faster then mine. Yippee for me, all those hours of training paid off.

Back to the race, I dashed to the turning point, watching my bike clock the whole time. I managed lap 1 in 1hr 28 ish, still feeling ok so off for lap 2. I started feeling quite tired on the second lap, especially the long hill, it just seemed to drag on. I did the second in 1hr 32 ish to leave me with a 3hr ish bike leg. I was really happy to discover on my results that the bike leg was 03:00:25.
I then pranced about in T2 again then off for the run. A 3 lapper. The first part of the first lap went fine, then somewhere between then and lap 2, the wheels came off a bit. Physically I felt fine but mentally I was knackered. I completely lost concentration and found myself wasting time. Had to have a real talk with myself, somehow managed to piece things together again and managed a 2hr 10 half marathon. So a total of 5:44:57.

I am really, really happy with that, even if the swim was 1900m, I would still have snuck in under 6 hours, which was my secret goal. I would have been happy with 6hr 30 min, I knew if everything went very well, 6hr was doable, but to get in under that was just heavenly. I will confess that I had a little cry as I crossed that finish line. It’s been a long old journey, so to finally cross that line was just glorious.

The race organizers where really well prepared, at the finish I got my medal, then went off for a well deserved drink, then we got our finishers T-shirts and a race certificate with all our splits on. It was then out to see Bronson and Leo, to shed some more tears…such girls we are!!! There was also a huge spread to tuck into, very much appreciated. According to my HRM, I burned 3300 odd calories, so set about replacing them.

Monday I felt pretty stiff and very tired, Tuesday a bit better, and by Wednesday I was mostly recovered. And now having trawled over the results for a few hours, I’m already thinking of another one. I’m sure I can shave some time off of that run and maybe squeeze that bike in a bit too….

I don’t want to sound like an Oscar winner, but I need to say a few thank yous because although I crossed that finish line on my own, it was thanks to several people that I got there at all. To friends and family for all the support before and after the race. To my training partners (you know who you are), much better then doing it on your own, thanx for the hours of company. To Clare who loaned me her wetsuit and bike food carrier thing, much appreciated.

Then a special thanks to Bronson and Leo, for the support and encouragement, for coming all the way to Switzerland for my race, for the advice and help with all matters technical and other. And especially for allowing me the time to do all the training. It meant the world to me!!!!