Bike - after about 150 m of the bike course something sounded horrible and I looked down to see my front wheel was stuck - a SIS gel had come free and lodged itself in a number fo spokes. Major D came running up seeing me stop and asked what had happened. I am not sure I was that lucid but a few swear words later and I was off again - "GO PIRATES" ringing out everywhere (even chalked on the road). I am not a strong cyclist and new this would be tough bit for me. In summary I was overtaken in the first 30 mins by around 1000 lycra bling-cyclists. As they flew past I just gritted my teeeth, mumbled "crap swimmer" and carried on. Up to The Beast for the first time. I was quite excited. Having no hills here in Holland to cycle up I was one of the few I reckon who was dead excited about seeing a hill to cycle up. But it did go on a bit - then Egg which I actually thought was worse. Anyway, on to HBH where, it has already been said many times, the suppport was stunning. Chalked on the road on the approach was JFDI and HTFU. If that didn;t inspire you then nowt would. The hill itself was steep but the Pirate supporters were at their best. It bought tears to me eyes literally. The onto lap two. Not much to report apart from the fact that half way up Egg I saw a few Pirates (Bryan et al) cheering and clapping and I did actually burst into tears. It suddenly came home to me that after a year of training, all that effort was about to pay off as I was going to make it. Last time up HBH and I nearly cracked again (what a softie!) as a lady came across my path and shouted "Go - you are an Ironman!" Home in 6:34 which was about an hour quicker than I expected so again could ot quite believe it.
T2 - after a comical dismount which gained a round of applause, I ran to T2 and could not find my bike rack. Completely lost. I stood for a few secs undid my helmet and tried to remember what number I was. Immediately I was called over by a marshall for undoing my helmet before racking.....in all wasted 8:50 in T2
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