Oh wow! That’s looking calm!! 
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There were quite a few swimming as I walked over. Very calm atm.
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It’s quite grey here. I’m under a blanket on the sofa watching the world champs. Nabbed the TV before the kids are awake! 
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It’s weird I’ve got absolutely nothing to do.
Race starts at 7:40, All World Wankers go off first then ‘groups of three’ set off from transition. Going to be a busy course for me, hopefully channel my inner Spooner and get Maurten moving.
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Good luck… enjoy.
Looks lovely
Ive said Ill never enter this race, everytime Ive been down there is been as rough as f__k.
That looks great though.
Third and probably last time for me (never say never though)
Only managed the full swim once…
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Do you get to sort out before who you’re going to TTT with, or is it just luck…
Good luck @Adam , got to say that sea doesn’t look particularly like the swim needed cancelling but WDIK. Maybe there was a shark sighting or summut. Hope not too disappointed
Mmmm… “we have to make a call… okay cancel”, time comes… whoops it would have been fine, in fact probably the best conditions in years.
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I was wondering why it said not yet started, missed the swim being cancelled 
Bit of a shame as you’d have come out of the water fairly high. When I did Bustinskin at Weymouth quite a few years ago there was a fairly decent swell.
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Sundowner 2025
TLDR - 4:52:01 should have started the sprint finish earlier. Not claiming sub 5 though due to the short distances, particularly on the run. Decent race if a bit rough round the edges this year but hopefully they’ll sort them going forward, otherwise fairly nice low key event and the late start makes it a bit different.
I’d convinced myself it wasn’t really a Sub 5 course and decided not to really watch the time and hope for a better position as it wasn’t a very big field.
Waffle!
Got there quite early after getting my timings wrong so plenty of time to mess around and get ready. Weather was hit and miss, they’d said there’d been a lot of overnight rain but I don’t think it was actually that bad. But it was overcast and threatening rain with a strong SW and feels like temp of 12c 
The swim was 4 laps in a shallow lake and water temp was supposed to be 17c, certainly felt like it, we got in the water and to the start but the standard race only started about 25-30 minutes before so a lot of the slower swimmers were still in and I had a bit of sympathy for them getting swam over by the good swimmers in our wave. It was generally uneventful, couple of biffs and getting past the slower swimmers and on the last lap catching the slower 70.3 swimmers.
I actually felt like I was swimming alright, comfortable and sighting was easy, just a bit of traffic at some of the turn buoys, it was getting overcast and windier on the last lap as a bit of rain turned up. I got out just under 1.8k and 35:40, when I worked it out later I thought I’d been swimming a bit quicker but obviously not! And my wetsuit forearms were full of water 
Into T1 and I was cold in the wind and there was a bit of drizzle which looked like it was going to get heavy, so I’d left my Rapha Gabba type jacket there and decided to put that on and some gloves I’ve got, although it’s a tight fit it isn’t very aero and the gloves even less so! Due to the forecast I decided to just take the Propel as I didn’t want to have to clean the TT bike before next week!
The first 18k of each lap was into the strong breeze, there was a bit of surface water but it had generally stopped raining. I put a bit more effort in to try and keep warm, I caught a few people and not many went past me, and also caught a few of the slower standard racers as the lap went on.
The road surface was pretty good, probably as good as you’ll get in the UK but not European smooth tarmac, and only a few potholes to avoid, and only about 280m climbing, and I’m not even sure where that was!
I got round the first lap and stuffed a Mars bar down, I only had one 750ml bottle of Maurten, the aid station was actually a stop and refill your bottle and I didn’t stop on either lap. The first lap was about 1:17. Wasn’t too disappointed and knew it was going to be about 88k in total. Kept on going but then lost a bit of time twice, the first time I saw a sign on a junction that had been obstructed by a tractor and couldn’t remember turning, so went back and realised it was for the sprint race, that probably cost 30-40 seconds. Then a bit further on there was some temporary traffic lights that had appeared the day before, they turned red and a car was oncoming so I had to stop, I’d say another 40-60 seconds there including time to get back to speed.
Rest of the lap was pretty lonely, two guys came past me with about 15K to go on good TT bikes and slowly drifted away, one was quite noticeable with lime green calf guards! T2 was quite a bit quicker, and I knew I’d be alright running with just the tri-suit on. Despite this I’m fairly sure I was faster on the second lap!
Onto the run and for anyone that did the Sundowner previously the existing run course isn’t used. This was 4 laps that were either grass, narrow towpath track or gravel and it was hard work! Couldn’t really get the legs turning over and just wore a pair of Pegs as I don’t think there’d have been much benefit from supershoes and trail shoes probably weren’t necessary. It was also uneven so stride length was probably shorter than usual although nothing I’m not used to running on.
Went past the only aid station and there was no cups of water which was worrying as I’d only had one drink! Then got to the out & back turn point and headed back. After lap 1 it was obviously going to be pretty short, a bit baffling when there’s an out & back they just need to move about 150m, but TBH I was happy it was going to be short. I was running within myself and the first lap was 24:10 which was alright given the course.
Lime calf guards man was just ahead but I couldn’t catch him! Then on the second lap some cups had appeared at the aid station so I grabbed a cup each lap, also had a maurten gel at the start of the second lap as I was slowing a bit. Towards the end of the lap I caught and went past calf guards man but he stuck with me and went back again! Then on the third lap he started going backwards! I was going past a few people but it wasn’t obvious which lap everyone was on.
The laps went fairly quick and I knew it was going to be barely 19k, I started catching a few more and there was 3 people in front I thought were also on the same lap so with 2K to go I picked it up a bit on a grassy part and managed to go past them all 
I hadn’t looked at the time until the finish and noticed I was on 4:52:01 and the run was 1:35:01
Although the run was manageable I think the same intensity on tarmac would have been 4:45-4:50k’s. I knew I’d put in a decent effort though, but was disappointed I’d lost time on the bike with the jacket and bike combo.
Still waiting for final results but my splits were.
Swim - 35:37
T1 - 5 (sorry Poet!)
Bike - 2:34
T2 - 1:30
Run - 1:35:01
Still waiting for the official results to see how things compare but certainly the bike course favoured people on TT bikes with a good position.
Apparently I was second M50-59 and got a small plaque but want to see the final results first, not that I’d expect them to get it wrong. There was some very fast times though and the run being 8+ minutes short helped but also not sure if there’s the odd one that missed a lap or something.
Overall a decent event with promise but I think the run will put people off, I found someone on Strava from about 12 years ago and it was pretty much all on road, but getting permits for that is probably difficult these days.
The sub 5 is hard to call, clearly the short bike\swim was 5-6 minutes but they weren’t miles off and other races have similar distances. The run though at 2K short and that pace was 10 minutes, but the actual course was probably 5-7 minutes slower! I didn’t get the power off the bike as I’m still not convinced the PM is working and the Strava estimate feels pretty low!
Onwards to Belgrade next week, if I can race at the same intensity I’ll be close to Sub 5 if there’s no more freak weather!
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Great work @jeffb !
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Adam off the bike in 2:41:55, solid effort.
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unless I’m mistaken?
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Well done fella
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Well done.
I’ll save reading that in detail for later 
just scan read it for now.
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Well done!
#teamjeffrey
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Found the results, assuming they’re correct as quite a lot of splits are missing or not right, e.g. someone did a -51 minute run my bike split is blank.
Anyway, 17/114 and 1st M55, turns out green sock man was M50 and won our 10 year age group by 71 seconds
Edit: quite possibly the time I lost on the bike at the lights and doubling back!
Run doesn’t look too bad compared to others.
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Great report and race
I fuckin hate trail running ?!?
You’re right that puts me off … ish .. at least it’s flat ?
Good luck next week be interesting to see your time comparison
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Barely 10m of ascent on the run!
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