On Saturday 9th of September both myself and Neil took part in the Vitruvian half iron distance triathlon along with quite a few other lincsquadders. I raced as part of a team, whereas Neil braved the whole thing.
So for those of you who don’t know where vitruvian is raced, it is based in and around the beautiful Rutland waters. The swim is a 2 lap swim, followed by a 2 lap bike which circles around rutland waters through the local villages, then the run is 2 laps running on the pathway that surrounds the lake. It’s a very spectator friendly race, with plenty of opportunity to see the racers and cheer them on.
Way back at the beginning of the year Neil decided that he would give vitruvian a go, and as I knew that I would be racing the week after, I knew that I didn’t want to do the whole thing but thought that if I could get a team together then that would break up the day a little, I could race, cheer my team on and cheer Neil on. So I asked on lincsquad FB if there were any ladies out there who would like to race. I intended on doing the swim but wanted a strong cyclist and runner. A team was born and we entered as lincsquad ladies. Not long before the race we lost a member due to personal reasons so Ruth Wilson found us a runner from gainsborough striders. Now I was the only lincsquad lady in the team and to be honest I can’t really describe myself as much of a lady either so lets gloss over the team name.
I can only really talk about the swim so that’s what I’ll do.
The alarm set for 4.30am is always a shock to the system but my swim was a 6.30 start so 4.30 it was. We had camped over so it was just a matter of having a cuppa and porridge, putting my kit on and just making sure Neil had everything. It was dark and cold so we were pretty much questioning our sanity and discussing that maybe we should finish our race season in August next year. At the race briefing the guy told us that the water was a balmy 17 degrees, at which we all laughed at and there was lots of mutterings of ‘yer right’. There was no way it was that warm, we were freezing and I even had my bobble hat on. My wave got called into the start and we were told we had 10 mins to warm up.
So the 2 lap swim was described as a 1900m swim which consisted of a running start and then a run across the beach to start the 2nd lap. Well im not sure you can describe it as a beach. Its a very small section of very painful stones. I made some very unlady like noises walking on them to get into the water to warm up and thought that there was no way that I would be able to run on them to get in, Im such a wuss. Getting back out after the warm up I found the far side to be slightly less stony. That was where I was going to totter in.
The water was actually as warm as they had said and was also lovely and calm so the actual swim was nice and pretty uneventful. I got into a group a 5 guys and got drafted around nicely on the first lap. Getting out after the first lap was made up of a lot of ouch’s and then getting back in with another load of verbal ouch’s. In fact if you’ve ever watched a walrus enter the ocean then that was pretty much me. I decided that the stones just hurt to much so in about 10 inches on water I belly flopped in and try in wiggle on my belly until I could actually swim away with grace. Not sure what I looked like to the spectators but im sure it gave then a laugh. 2nd lap again uneventful. I pushed on abit more and finished my second lap with more ouch’s. Looked at my watch and saw the time, not happy at all. Why was it that slow, put my skates on and ran like the wind to transition. Ruth aced the bike and Laurna absolutely smashed the run.
Once Ruth was on her way I checked my garmin and saw that the distance was just over 200m longer then it should have been. I checked with a few others and, yes, the swim was long, phew, my swim was fine.
31 teams entered and we finished 7th, and as the top teams were mostly male dominated we were over the moon with our position.
AS NIC SAID,WE ENTERED THIS RACE EARLY ON IN THE YEAR AND I HAD INTENSIONS ON MAKING THIS MY A RACE FOR THE YEAR. WELL THAT’S ALL GREAT IN THEORY ISNT IT.
COMING OFF MY BIKE BACK IN FEBRUARY AND BREAKING MY RIBS, THEN STRUGGLING WITH A RE-OCCURING CALF INJURY PRETTY MUCH MENT THAT I WENT INTO THIS RACE WITH VERY LIMITED TRAINING. IT WAS A MATTER OF JUST GETTING ROUND IT AND HOPING THAT MY CALF WOULD HOLD UP ON THE RUN.
MY SWIM WAS PRETTY SIMILAR TO NIC’S APART FROM THE FACT THAT I TRIED MY BEST NOT TO LOOK LIKE A WALRUS, I THINK YOU CALL IT MANNING UP.
JONATHAN BOWERS WAS IN MY WAVE SO WE HAD A LITTLE BANTER TO BREAK THE PRE RACE NERVES. HE’D FORGOTTED HIS COLOURED SWIM HAT SO WAS THE ONLY ONE WEARING A RANDOM COLOUR. I THINK HIS WORDS WERE,” FANCY MEETING YOU HERE DRESSED UP IN RUBBER” MADE ME LAUGH. YOU CAN TAKE FROM THAT WHATEVER YOU LIKE!!.
NOW I LOVE RACING AND AS NIC IS ALWAYS TELLING ME, I GET A LITTLE OVER EXCITED BY IT. BUT FOR SOME REASON, THIS ONE JUST DIDN’T GRAB ME. THE SETTING IS GREAT AND SCENIC. THE SPECTATORS WERE GOOD AND THERE WAS PLENTY OF LINCSQUADDERS ABOUT ON THE COURSE FOR THE USUAL NOD, WAVE, THUMBS UP AND LOOKING STRONG COMMENT, EVEN WHEN YOU KNOW YOUR NOT LOOKING STRONG AT ALL. BUT THAT DOESN’T MATTER, ITS ALL ABOUT THE SUPPORT WE GIVE EACH OTHER.
THE 2 LAP BIKE WAS TOUGH. IT WAS WINDY AND THERE WAS A LOT MORE ELEVATION THEN I’D EXPECTED. YOU COULD GET SOME GREAT SPEED GOING DOWN, BUT THEN YOU REALLY NEEDED IT TO GET UP THE NEXT HILL. THE ROADS ARNT QUIET SO YOU DO HAVE TO BE REALLY ALLERT, ESPECIALLY ON A COUPLE OF THE MAIN A ROADS. I HAD TO TALK MYSELF OUT OF STOPPING AFTER THE FIRST LAP. MY MOGO WAS DEFINATLY MISSING.
ANYWAY BIKE DONE AND ONTO THE RUN. AGAIN IT WAS VERY WINDY AND BOY DID THE HEAVENS OPEN IN MY LAST FEW MILES. IT’S A LITTLE UNDULATING BUT VERY STUNNING RUNNING AROUND THE LAKE. EMMA WATTS AND JONATHON LOOKED GREAT ON THE RUN, CANT SAY THE SAME FOR MYSELF AND CHRIS JACKSON. WE MADE A PACT NOT TO TELL ANYONE THAT WE’D HAD A SNEEKY WALK. I DID HAVE A SECTION IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RUN WHERE I FELT PRETTY GOOD THOUGH. NIC CHEERED ME ON AND I SHOUTED TO HER WHAT TIME WAS I ON FOR. WHEN THE RESPONSE CAME BACK AS ‘JUST KEEP PUSHING ON’, I KNEW I WASN’T GOING TO GET THE TIME I WANTED.
IVE NEVER BEEN SO PLEASED TO FINISH A RACE. MY BODY AND MIND WERE JUST NOT HAVING IT.
THE VITRUVIAN IS A WELL RUN EVENT. THE MARSHALLS WERE GREAT AND THERES DEFINATLY PLENTY OF FOOD STATIONS ETC. IT JUST WASN’T MY DAY. NOT GONNA COMPLAIN ABOUT GETTING A HOODIE, T SHIRT,MEDAL, PINT AND BAG OF CRISPS AT THE FINISH THOUGH.
WALKING BACK TO THE MOTORHOME, NIC SAYS’ RIGHT THAT’S YOUR SEASON DONE, LETS STRIP YOU DOWN AND GET STARTED’. HERES ME THINKING I’D ALREADY HAD ENOUGH RACE GIFTS FOR THE DAY BUT IM NOT COMPLAINING. APPARENTLY SHE MEANT THAT MY RUNNING NEEDS TO GO BACK TO BASICS AND I HAVE TO START FROM SCRATCH.
HEY HO, MAYBE NEXT TIME EH?