London Brick Triathlon - 26 July 2015

After doing lots of sprint distance pool based triathlons yesterday was the day to step up to an open water race and also a major step up in distance to an Olympic Distance triathlon.

The race in question was nice and local and took place at Stewartby with the event based at the watersports club.

Kemlo was also taking part in his first open water triathlon but he opted for the shorter sprint distance race.

The morning dawned bright and dry but the forecast wasn't great with rain forecast for sometime during the race.

At the start of the 1500m swim there was a large mass of people in the water and I decided to give them a few seconds start to avoid getting caught up in a mass of arms and legs. Not that I needed to worry as they all shot off into the distance and i settled into my plodding mode near the back of the swim. The swim seemed to be endless but I am pleased to say that I wasn't last out of the water.

Onto the bike for 4 laps up and down the old A421 between the Marston and Wooton roundabouts (40K in total). This was really a game of two parts with the part going west into the wind far slower going than the part going east with it. Things didn't get any easier when it started to rain half way through and the wind strengthened. From then on the rain didn't stop.

Back into transition and my legs were reluctant to run but thankfully things improved for the 10K run which was 2 out and back laps within the Marston Vale Forest Park. 

I didn't see Kemlo at the end as he was finished his event well before me and understandably didn't hang around in the heavy rain. His times were:

Swim             750m                       18.27
T1                                                 3.25
Bike               20K                          47.47
T2                                                 1.08
Run                 5K                          27.24
Overall                                         1.38.12

My times were:

Swim              1500m                       41.24
T1                                                   4.25
Bike                40K                           1.14.59
T2                                                   1.32
Run                 10K                           47.13
Overall                                            2.49.35

It was a good experience but certainly a tough one despite the Brownlee brothers making it look much easier than it is.

Many thanks also to Lois, Ellen and Steve for coming over to offer support during the run element.

Chris                               

FlitwickTri Fantasy Tour De France

As a bit of a laugh this year we decided to have a FlitwickTri league in the Velogames Fantasy Tour De France. 

Things were nip and tuck right until the last day when Ellen just pipped Pete for top spot.

The final standings were:

Ellen                              6578 points
Pete                               6424 points
Fiona                              5739 points
Lois                                5651 points
Chris                              5033 points
Sian                                4876 points
Simon                             4552 points

Roll on next year so we can have another go.

Chris

Ironman UK - 19 July 2015

So I did Ironman UK on Sunday 19^th July on what was a very wet and windy day in Bolton.

The 1^st lap of the swim went well in 31mins but on the second lap the rain was coming down so hard I couldn’t see anything and I lost around 10 mins finishing the swim in 1hr 12mins. 

The Bike is very hilly in Bolton with around 5000ft of climbing and wind and rain so again I was slower than my desired sub 6hr bike coming in at 6hrs 28mins. 

Running is not my thing but I held on till around 18 miles when my little legs gave up and things deteriorated into a walk / crawl saving my sprint finish for the finishing straight!! 

Missed my target of being below 13 hours coming in at 13 hours and 17 mins but as always in Ironman it was a great day. 

Coverage of the race will be on Channel 4 this Sunday at around 6am!!

Garry

Bedford Parkrun - 10.07.15

A very pleasant morning greeted 261 runners to Bedford Parkrun this morning. With Pete Jones volunteering our sole runner was Sian Jones and her time of 38.38 was good enough for 243rd place.

Standard Chartered City Race - 09.07.15

On Thursday evening 11 of my colleagues and I joined 4573 runners to take part in the annual Standard Chartered City Race. This is a 5K race around the streets of the City of London and it starts and finishes on Moorgate.

It was a very warm evening and the sheer number of runners made it very hard to run normally as they acted like rolling road blocks.

I managed to finish in a time of 22.06 and that was good enough for 895th place.

Chris