Ely Monster Middle 2014

I've finally done my first Triathlon; the Ely Monster Middle!

My aim, before my knee had taken a turn for the worse, was to complete it in less than 6 hours. It looked possible but I expected to be a handful of minutes faster at most, and when my knee got so bad I couldn't train I wasn't even sure if I'd finish. What time did I finish in? You'll have to keep reading to find out!

The whole race was a lot more brutal than I expected, right from the beginning I realised I'd been lulled into a false sense of security.

The Swim
The swim looked nice enough on the Saturday, but when I woke up on the Sunday it was cold and dark. After walking to the start line it was beginning to sink in how much I had to do, but the thing that a lot of us noticed (and was a definite talking point for us at the start point) was we were swimming upstream! I'm not a strong swimmer so when I saw I was going to be fighting the current I was worried if I'd even finish in the cut off time!

We entered the water and I my hands a feet went numb in seconds it was that cold, the look of shock on peoples faces would have been amusing if I wasn't so nervous. The course was very narrow and a lot of the time you were getting hit and kicked in the water or climbing over the slower swimmers.

The swim itself went well enough, except for the fact I swum into a boat... ouch! I was out the water in my expected 40-45 minutes.

T1
Having never done a transition before I wasn't sure what to expect. I spent a couple of minutes battling out of my wetsuit and trying to adjust my helmet straps. I was rushing and I ended up fumbling around.

The Cycle
I was told it was a flat and fast course, brilliant. There was some climbing (about 10 miles on a very shallow gradient) but overall it was flat, but covered in potholes. Needless to say my rear was a bit sore by the end.

A flat course sounded like a godsend in the description, but one thing became obvious quickly; if it's flat you can't relax and freewheel at any point because you would slow right down. It ended up being a very long, very tiring spin-fest.

If things weren't challenging enough, the weather came out to batter is. So windy you struggled to control the bike, raining so much you could barely see, and cold so much you couldn't feel your hands (I was struggling to shift and brake). I had left a cycle jacket in transition in case the weather was bad, but coming into T1 the weather was glorious and didn't take it so was in my one piece tri suit. Oops.

T2
More relaxed into T2 I was in and out as one of the quicker racers and having elasticated laces in my running shoes really helped. I just wish I hadn't stood around putting gels into my pockets and done it on the run.

The Run
The run was brutal, they must have picked every steep hill in Ely, you barely got to spend any time on the flats (my watch says 12 minutes over the whole half marathon was flat). That said it was a nice end to the day for the most part. I did struggle trying to avoid a toilet break, and the gels and drinks supplied on route didn't agree with me so towards the end I was trying to avoid vomiting, but otherwise an interesting route.

My personal best on a half marathon is 1:50, so my 1:54 after swimming and a tough cycle on a hilly course is, to my mind, a very good time.

I did learn some lessons for future triathlons.

• Bring some shoes to wear to the swim start; walking over shingle, through boggy ground, and over something sharp and thorny wasn't pleasant.
• Don't rush in transition, go in more relaxed and I'll be quicker as I just end up fumbling otherwise.
• Secure my CO2 canisters properly, I lost mine 10 miles into the race. Fortunately I didn't flat but if I had it would have been a pain pumping by hand.
• Drink more on the cycle, even if it's cold. I suffered after the race with cramps from dehydration.
• Trial the nutrition supplied before the race; I don't want to be fighting the urge to vomit due to the gels/drinks not agreeing, and water certainly doesn't do me any favours when I've trained with electrolyte drinks.
• Have a toilet break at T2; carrying that extra weight slowed me right down, my final lap after reliving myself was one of my faster, surprising considering how exhausted I was!

So how did I do overall?
Swim: 43:31
T1: 1:16 (run to transition) + 3:01
Cycle: 2:59:50
T2: 1:44
Run: 1:54:17

Total time... 5:43:37!

Nottingham 5km Big Swim, 2014

So I had my first ever open water swimming experience at the Nottingham Big Swim. The race wasn't really even a race for me, it was more a 'testing the waters' of open water swimming for my triathlons.

 

As we arrived and I saw the lake my stomach churned! I do 3k/4k/5k in the pool on Monday/Wednesday/Friday respectively so 5k in itself wasn't out of the realms of what I know I'm capable of, however when all you know it as is 200 lengths it seems reasonably short and arriving and seeing the lake I was to swim in, the sheer distance that I had to cover there and back not once but twice was daunting to say the least!
Eventually the nerves settled and I got ready, put my tri suit on, donned the wetsuit and waited in the cue to be called on, the nerves by this point had flared up again but was overridden by the adrenaline rush thanks to the atmosphere. After sweating half to death for 10 minutes during the race briefing we jumped in for a couple of minutes to acclimatise to the water and we were off.
The first thing I noticed was I didn't even need to tread water at the start, the wetsuit was so buoyant I floated in place, certainly a reassuring feeling that if I did get tired I could just float rather than, you know, drown! Once the raced kicked off it was like being back in the school yard, punches and kicks coming in from all directions, a total melee where no one was in any sort of order. Once this initial free for all was out the way the next feeling that struck me was how lonely it felt out there; in the pool while I don't talk to people you actually see others as you flip and as you pass them under the water, in the murky water you didn't see anyone and it felt rather solitary, this too passed though and was eventually replaced with a feeling of awe that I've not experienced since I first started cycling to new places; a total sense of freedom that you just don't usually get!
In terms of the water itself it was incredibly murky and green, you couldn't see your hand during the stroke let alone anything else, there were oddly hot and cold patches all over the water and the huge swan was rather intimidating, but the biggest issue I (and many others) experienced was the weeds in the water, so rife were they that I and a few other swimmers got entirely tangled, I was constantly fishing them from around my neck and on at least 1 occasion had both hands, legs and neck entirely in a bind.
The other thing which I figured might happen is the dreaded chafing of the wetsuit, and oh boy did it chafe. My neck is red raw and hurts like you wouldn't believe, but the whole point behind this swim was to learn what can go wrong and fix it before race day. Vaseline will be high on my priorities before the next race that's for sure!
So how did I actually do overall? Not as bad as I expected, I didn't die, I didn't need rescuing, I didn't even come last. Maybe 114/133 (134 including 1 DNF) isn't the greatest achievement I've made, but it's all a learning curve to me. I also managed to beat my 2 hour target by a couple of minutes!
All the race data can be found here. Photos are courtesy of my uncle.