Not sure what is going on now.
Car is still on its roof, passenger door slightly open, when I first saw it this morning only the tyres were above water.
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Haha, there’s a cheering zone/finish line where I think they started their run at 2:30 
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C U Next Tuesdays
Talking to someone early, “why are people” running with their race numbers on. The race is cancelled." Me 
.
A: they are tw@ts, I didnt say that, I said they are doing the Marathon anyway.
Shame they didnt do the bike, I can guarantee they would have… as we say ‘gone a pisser’ on the mud.
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When are you heading back @jeffb ?
I would have come down to meet today but there is mud after the floods everywhere.
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I’m trying to find my way to Barcelona for a hire car tomorrow, not sure how successful that will be.
I was out for a wander earlier and considered letting you know but kept having to divert where the tunnels were closed or blocked.
Depending on what happens tomorrow I’ll let you know, if you’re still about?
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Sadly, Im here til Thursday.
Ok let me know.
I was hoping for a bit of warmth and good weather which is why we where staying on.
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@jeffb dont worry about trying to mean up, it is hammering down again and very dark, the thunderstorms are back.
If it clears up I might jog down to Calella later, assuming I can get across the railway track without walking / running through a flooded under pass.
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Think I’ve had 2 phone warnings this morning!
Hoping it will stop soon so I can go for the hire car! There’s supposed to be a bus replacement service but the train is running from Arenys de Mar.
Failing that there are people leaving the hotel and might see if there’s any spare seats. It’s only 11k to Arenys and I’d consider walking if it stops raining
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Yes two alerts… worst until 2pm.
Full on sun now and blue skys.
Just walked to the town centre, roads still closed.
Run course still covered in inches of mud. I slipped on it and have jarred my knee, hope its not bad in the morning (my knee, the mud will still be bad in the morning)
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More doing the Marathon today.
They arent doing in on most of the run course, why not? Do it properly.
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You’d ruin your £300 trainers if you tried running on that
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Probably the same people saying it could have gone ahead with a 2 - 3 hour delay.
Tbf, there isnt anyone directly saying that, just a little hint so they dont get torn down.
I was hoping to take the bike into the local hills, Tuesday (tomorrow) or Thursday, but I might as well pack the bike tomorrow as I not riding through that.
I didnt mention Wednesday because its the wifes birthday. I’ve got her mud cake, hope its appreciated.
Come with me to IM Barcelona I said, you can spend your birthday in the sun. Whoops!
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You’ll be talking about it for years to come
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Had @jeffb mentioned doing a middle-distance today?
Anyway, it looks like he did 
& did a sandbagging sub-5hrs.
Legend.
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Of course he has. What a champ.
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Absolute beast!
On the other side of the scale my youngest did her first tri today. Just a little gotri, but great value at a fiver or so. Her swim has really come on lately, great to see. She was a little, Errr, leisurely on the bike (but enjoyed it which is the key of course) and had a good run.
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Haha, yeah kept it completely quiet but only entered about 8 weeks ago. Wasn’t sure how I’d recover after the Ironman and then lost interest a bit during week, think there was a bit of delayed disappointment, also done a lot of walking in the last few days.
TLDR: Challenge Vieux Boucau, had targeted sub 5 and official time was 4:56:33, run was a bit short though so debatable.
Due to the race being cancelled last week I’ve hardly trained for nearly 3 weeks so a mix of starting detraining but should have been fresh.
The swim is a saltwater slightly tidal inland lake that is fed from the Atlantic so pretty salty 
it was age group mass starts and over 50’s were first group after the pro men & women. There was probably just over 100 of us, but not all M55. It was pretty shallow at the start and could walk halfway to the first buoy. I got going but it didn’t feel particularly fast, after about 1K the next age group started to come through very rapidly!
There was an Aussie exit before setting off again, more walking though 
got out in 35:30, distance was accurate but I think the walking bits helped, it was hard to say what the tide was doing but after the race it was coming in fast near the swim exit, that would have cost a lot of time.
T1 was quite busy due to the numbering and age group starts but got sorted and out in just under 5 minutes.
Unbeknown my Garmin was having a moment, I’d hit lap but I think it was also doing auto change, so it completed the race as I started the bike 
I’d switched that off previously but an update must have re-enabled it!
Onto the bike and the roads were mostly open but traffic control was letting us through on junctions and roundabouts, didn’t seem to be any huge draft packs but I got regularly passed by small groups with a few riders blatantly sitting in. I did see a few riders serving penalties at the end though
The roads were generally very good but the speed bumps are a bit brutal. I was riding a fairly lonely race at what felt like a tough pace. About 45k I noticed the watch was trying to save the race, after a bit of faffing I managed to start it again and quickly moved past the swim and T1, I thought I was a bit further on until I saw the 50k marker and I got a bit downhearted.
The wind was picking up and quite chewy, it’s a really scenic course though and I thought there’d be more shelter. I had no idea of race time or bike split but knew I was still going about 2:33 pace. Finally got back to town, my neck was aching and the helmet was crushing my head a bit, I really need to ride it more
After the race the official timing split was 2:30:02, pleased with that on a solo leg, didn’t even get any slingshots really. Power for the last 55k that recorded was fairly low, so it was either a good return for effort or they’re a bit under.
Into T2 and I was having a bit of a nightmare getting the trainers on, it was longer than it looked and I think it was nearly 4 minutes again.
Started the run at a pace I didn’t think was suicidal, it’s 4 laps round the lake and town, it got a bit boring by lap 3 and there were lots of younger racers flying past. I was fairly comfortable but couldn’t pick up the pace. First 5K was just under 24 minutes and 10k was 48. But I was feeling it a bit and had a maurten gel at 10k.
Kept going and was happy to get onto the last lap and guessed it was a bit short, but had no idea what time I was on and there wasn’t even a race clock at the finish line.
Got over the line with 1:40 run which would have been nearer to 1:45. Once it saved I saw the actual time and calculated that as we’d started at 10:20 I was probably under.
Was a bit tired after but nothing like after previous races, and not too bad now. And after a year of knee discomfort I didn’t feel it once
Obviously pleased and the wind didn’t help but getting that kind of effort is getting harder. I think I could have ran faster if I’d been able to train better and more consistently.
I was 5th in M55 and only 7 seconds off 4th and 2 minutes off the podium.
It’s a nice course and beautiful part of France, especially the seafront’s. But deffo glad I hadn’t done Barca last week
I think it’s going to be a pro series T100 event next year so it’ll be interesting to see where they find 10k off the bike.
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you dark horse @jeffb, cant believe you never even mentioned you were planning to slip that one in
Great result 
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Versailles swim looked more like a walk
And they’d moved it to the larger lake as the original one didn’t have enough water in it