Luckily it’s a race you can enter about a week earlier depending on how you feel or if you have other plans.
There’s still the pathfinder with 15/25 mile options in October but it starts\finishes in Commondale, another decent route, I did the 15 mile version in 2022. I’m tempted with that but it’s a fortnight before the 70.3 in Athens I’m doing. Currently only a few entries as well but it might fill up before then, otherwise it could get cancelled.
How’s Roth going for folks?
Bloody great for them:
9:46
9:44
And a 9:27 from some of the hitters!
8:51 & 9:09 for our 2. The other was a very unfortionate DNS from a bike crash the week before 
.
Seems like a good day for it!
Been feeling brilliant in run up to Roth. Best numbers I have seen for 3 years, even my swim is much better. Taper has been great, felt brilliant yesterday
Was asleep by 9pm yesterday, felt good when the alarm went off. Just before the start I began coughing, didn’t think too much of it. As soon as I started swimming the knew something was wrong, buy halfway I was just surviving. I even had to breaststroke for a short time.
Onto the bike, felt awful, I had no power, climbs were torture and I was being passed by everyone. At 45k I decided to abandon and soft pedaled to the end of the lap where my car was. I have spent the afternoon in bed with chesty cough, runny nose and headache. Will take Covid test when home
What awful luck. Sorry to hear that, and get well soon. 
That is really really unlucky
We all know how fast you can go.
Plenty more races.
Get well soon
Yeah, bad luck, Matt, sounds like a good decision to withdraw as you’d have probably made it worse.
Get yourself entered for next year and a bit of retribution.
Sorry to hear that - hope you feel better soon .
Thanks, I am feeling much better today; I slept 10 hours last night. I am certainly not 100%, but seems like a mild virus - possible Covid.
It was a rather humbling experience being passed by so many people on the bike, the boot is normally on the other foot.
It’s difficult to find many positives from the day. I guess I am getting better at listening to my body, always important, especially as we get older, however, I am accutely aware that I am making more and more excuses (Back Yard Ultra, now Roth). I used to pride myself on never giving up, this year I seem to be making a habit of it.
What was the point carry on?
Your not the best swimmer ever so the 1:25 swim probably wouldn’t be setting off alarm bells initially, however your a very fast cyclist and I can’t imagine you get overtaken too often in races.
Going that slowly ( by your standards ) that early in a race is a huge indicator that something is very wrong, you could have toughed it out and finished but your time would have been crap ( by your standards) and God knows done what damage to your already weakened immune system.
You 100% did the right thing.
Glad your feeling better
You are correct 1h26 is poor, but on the face of it no major alarm bells, my swim has improved significantly this year, I was expecting 1h12m. Normally when I swim, I am not fast, but I not putting in a massive effort, this swim felt like survival. Once on the bike I knew 100% that something was really wrong: my bike fitness is excellent, at the end of June I did Lac Leman (176km) in 4h11m, I am setting PBs on Strava on local routes, yet in Roth I was struggling to do 150w. I could have completed the bike route in 6 hours, I have no idea whether I would have been able to run, but let’s assume I could do a 4 hour marathon - and finish in 12 hours and potentially put TCR at risk.
Well done on the swim improvements.
You will have chance to use them soon enough no doubt.
150 w is very easy for most of us if you were struggling with that way way below what you normally do imagine what the run would have felt like?
You could have lost a lot more than your TCR race.
Just a shame that it’s such a big race and obviously going in in great shape,I’d be gutted too.
Onwards !
Ok, because I’m on holiday, have some time & it’s been eating away at me like acid 
. I went through the entry numbers of the people who beat me across the 3 events to pick out their ages.
I was 3rd V50, but more importantly 1st V55.
There may only have been me in the V55 cat I haven’t checked that far .
A wins a win !
The fact that there was backstroke involved at any stage makes it quite glorious.
Nice work
5k race tonight, which I entered last minute. Really it’s my first race of the season if you ignore the XC I did in January a week after pulling my calf. Calf had me out of action for 2 months, and then been slowly trying to regain fitness since.
Put together a few decent weeks of training, for me, racking up ~40km for about 3 weeks on the trot, until last week when home projects took over. Had been getting the garden ready for our youngest’s first birthday party (I really need to do a DIY thread post at some point) on Sunday.
Was supposed to do a vets league track meet last week but too much on at home so had to pull out, which is when I decided to enter this race, which my second claim club had chosen as part of their champs series.
Per the PED thread woke up today under the weather; coughing and runny nose, so loaded up on cold and flu tablets.
Parkrun PB set a year ago is 18:15 and best at a 5k is 18:28 on a net downhill course, but which finishes with an uphill drag. quickest parkrun this year I think was a 19:15. Never done this one, Westbury, but it’s billed as a flat & fast 3 laps round an industrial estate. But aren’t they all!? 
Driving to the race (a good 45 mins away despite being in local road league) I was thinking sub-19 would be a realistic goal and sub-18 would be dreamland. Sub-19 would probably get me the club win as it’s a small club and not that many had actually entered.
Weather wise it was grey & overcast, but the rain held off. Was feeling a bit warm and muggy though. Did a warm up lap and to be fair the course did feel flat and fast. I was also feeling very good at this point. Found myself slightly further back than I’d have liked at the start, but soon caught up with the 18 pacer group. Looked at the watch to see 3:20/km but I guess that’s to be expected at the start. Pacer was slightly quick as we did 3:30 for the 1st and 2nd km. I was feeling surprisingly good and at this point was thinking sub-18 was on.
Pace dropped slightly I think to 3:34 for the 3rd km and at this point I was still feeling pretty good. Finished the second lap and eased in front of the pacer and one other guy next to me. Felt a bit of a headwind now and the pacer called out that this was the “uphill” section and we’d get the benefit later. It all seemed to catch up with me very quickly and was definitely not feeling easy now and I was querying my decision to go to the front of the group. Managed another 3:34. Very laboured breathing now and struggling to remember the course despite having done it 3 times at this point (did one warmup loop), the corners felt like they’d multiplied and the final bend took at agonisingly long time to appear. I often manage a decent sprint, but not today, was feeling very ragged but did a 3:26 for the final km for a chip time of 17:38
Not troubling any podiums at the race (22/146 overall and 8th V40), but was first finisher for my club.
Sorry for the long indulgent thread but am rather buzzing with that.
That’s absolutely rapid, congratulations and great report.
Fantastic running and a great result mate 
