Wednesday, August 05, 2009

IMCH race report from RW site - part 1

OK. Here goes - a little background. I came into this having raced just two sprint tris last year so while having stuck to the Don Fink 30 week plan, I had no idea as to how I would cope.

Swim - I was a little late getting to the start line as I had decied that rather than wait for the potaloos to be free I would go back to the hotel, grab a quick coffee, "go" there and come back. So my plan to be at the back and on the left hand edge at the swim start eventually had me in the middle desperately trying to get across 2200 people and then as I tried to get to the back, the first warning sound thing went and that was it. I was swept into the water hopelessly out of position and looking forward to a real scrap. And I wasn't disappointed. I can safely say that for the whole of the first lap I did not see any clear water ahead of me. Simply loads of neoprene Germans and Swiss zig zagging their way in front of me. At about 300m I doubted my ability to even finish the swim let alone the rest but after a few duckings around the turn, decided on lap 2 to be as assertive as I could be. Lap 2 problem was that within 500m I had cramp of the whole of my left leg. So to plan B.... but there was no plan B so ended up simply swim using only my arms both as paddles and weapons of war. Was stunned and relieved to get out in 1:13:56. Fantastic Pirate support on the swim exit and it set the tone for the whole day

T1 - there is nothing like getting your monies worth so I got changed and spent a full 6:30 in T1. Next time I will swim with my cycling gear under the wetsuit. But gear on, jels in pocket and taped to tri bars and off to bike

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