It would be cool to say i realised a dream I’d had for years but nothing is further from the truth. My journey into triathlons started at the Lincsquad adventure race. Not a swim,bike or run in sight! I was asked to kayak for a team for a couple of years. This then morphed into the bomber so i entered as swim/ kayak and thought that the atmosphere was amazing so wondered if i could possibly manage a sprint tri. With the help of Lincsquad and Parkrun I managed to just about crawl round the course, went home and died for the rest of the day but I’d done it!
This was the single most challenging thing I’d ever done. I wonder what could I do??? Fast forward a few years and I’m on the start line of the outlaw. How funny is that the little fat lad who can’t run to save his life about to do an iron distance race! The swim was wierd. Because it was so windy the organisers had changed the two length swim into 3 laps and because i hadn’t rained for a couple of months the lake was narrower than usual. This meant i was surrounded by swimmers the whole say round. Swimming is my strongest of the three disciplines by far but we queued to start, get out, get in, get out,Get in and get out again. Quite frustrating but surprisingly fast. I’d finished in the time I’d hoped for but it felt like if it was a simple out and back if have been at least 5 minutes quicker. Result!
Transition was ok then onto the bike. We had been warned about the wind at the briefing but to be honest for most of the course it didn’t massively bother me apart from one long straight between the North and South loops. Lovely smooth fast tarmac, head down, trying hard 8mph, not happy! Apart from that the bike was brilliant, the pirate crewed feed station were holding bike auctions while riders were in the toilets and all sorts of crazy people were around on the course to make the ride more pleasant, almost enjoyable. I had worked out i needed to average 14mph combined with my swim to get me inside cut off times allowing half hour for punctures. I checked into transition with 15mph. Happy days again.
Slightly amused in transition as I heard the announcer calling the name of an outlaw the had finished and i still had a marathon to do! Onto the run, really easy course to follow, the biggest gap in feed stations on the run was 1.5 miles. 26miles, 20 feed stations brilliant! With half the marathon done I thought I could do it, keep going, worked out l had 2 parkruns left and 2.5 hrs to do then in. Brilliant! I slowed down and enjoyed it chatting to lads of people on the way. Then came the finish. Because there wasn’t a great rush the organisers allowed me to finish with my family around me on the red carpet. What an amazing experience!
Bits you should know. Did a couple 100 mile bike rides but then tapered for about 2 months. My longest ever run is 6 miles without walking. Outlaw is awesome! We had rain for 16 of the 16.5hrs it took me and the marshals, supporters and feed stations were bouncing all the time.
I would like to thank Lincsquad for allowing me into your ranks. Without you this never would have happened. I’m not able to make most of the training sessions Etc but the support is still there I still feel part of something I never thought I would. You could say really i fell in with the wrong crowd. Andy Parrot, Rosie Brister at a swimmingly venue and some weirdo called Dave Wells! It seemed like an ironman was a normal thing to do. Even the guy flipping the burgers had the tattoo (hi Dobbers). All in what an amazing journey thanks to all who have helped and encouraged me on the way!
P.s I’m in outlaw next year. Who’s coming?????