5km into the bike because of a massive thunderstorm!!
Gutted for everyone out there.
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Outlaw 2019???
Maybe they can get everyone to run a half marathon flat out instead…
…gutted for @Matthew_Spooner
Oh no 
Oh no, gutted for @Matthew_Spooner.
Skipper now can’t race Helvellyn either 
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Technically, he was working in Davos and often travels abroad for work.
In theory, he could be exempt from quarantine.
But…optics
I thought that rule only applied under very specific circumstances*… and wouldn’t in this case?
*mainly government roles, lorry drivers and people who commute on a consistent weekly basis to a single country for work?
EDIT: Just Googled, and the following seems to suggest that he’ll need to quarantine
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May have been relying on the ÂŁ1000+ prize money to pay the fine.
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Yeah - I thought it was “often” and not once.
Shame on me!!!
” People who live in the UK but work in another country and travel between the UK and country of work at least once a week”
Skipper has said he will race Helvellyn.
Someone suggested Outlaw X but he said no as no prize money.
Skipper was probably very relieved. While waiting in freezing cold in driving rain, he couldn’t get warm. On the swim he went off at the front of the pack, and was suddenly unable to breath, and his HR went through the roof, he started to breastroke, but HR was still not coming down. After the 2nd buoy he called to be rescued. When I spoke to him after, he said he thought he was going to die. It took him about 5 mins back on dry land to get his HR back down. He advised me to do some sprints on dry land before getting into water, and to go really easy for the first 200m to warm up properly.
I think that he was experiencing symptoms of shock
If the race had gone ahead, it may have been carnage as other experience the same symptoms
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That doesn’t sound good
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The weather forecast was absolutely dire for saturday… after a summer of warm weather and very little rain (except on the day I did Triverest of course), conditions on saturday in Davos was torrential rain, and 7 degrees. Due to the social distancing measures, we all had to congregate at the lake in a pen 45 mins before the start. There was one small tent, that was absolutely packed, so I spent most of my time running and jumping to stay warm (to be honest I was cold, but not too bad).
Just as we were lining up to start, less than 1 minute before the gun went off, there was a vivid lightening strike and a massive crash of thunder around 3 seconds later… which means that the storm was around 1km away (not good). Naturally the start was immediately postponed.
The pros were allowed to finish the swim and get on their bikes, but 15 mins later the announcement came that the whole event was cancelled. Apparently a second storm had developed on Fuela Pass… the last place you want to be in a thunderstorm is sitting on a piece of carbon on an exposed mountain
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Not good at all, hope he is ok. Where did you get up to Matt? Did you complete the swim or was it canx before that?
I’ve had that experience in 2015 at Salford Tri. For some reason I couldn’t breathe and was calling for a kayak. Was swimming well at the time but after 200m I went into absolute panic mode, heart beating out of chest.
Took ages to calm down and only because I knew the guy in the kayak from swimming there regularly and he calmed me down and assured me I was a decent swimmer. A truly horrible experience.
EDIT - just read your last post.
He seemed fine, although was really shaken up when he first came out of water. It did bring it home to me when he said if support boats weren’t there he could have drowned… Skipper is an experienced pro and a great swimmer (at least relative to the rest of us), just reminds you that the swim can be dangerous for everyone, and never get complacent
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Yep was just thinking shows can happen to anyone as I was reading down. My first ever experience of open water was a run-swim-run event at Salford Quay. Hit the water and lost all breath, had to breaststroke and backstroke for 30s while I managed to calm down.
Sounds terrible. How disappointing for everyone. Hope everyone is ok! Sounds like a very unlucky weather day…
They don’t have much luck with this race, swim cancelled this year.
Now a duathlon.
2018 Swim cancelled and Bike shortened due to snow
2020 Cancelled due to Thunderstorm
2021 Swim Cancelled due to cold
I think that challenge need to accept that holding a race in the mountains in late August / early September isn’t a great idea. Its not bad luck, its bad timing
Fuela pass is shitty at the best of times. This year, around zero degrees at the top, with sleet forecast and driving rain on the descents, it will not be a fun race.
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That’s bad advice when the water is cold. You need to get in early and acclimatise; sprinting about getting warm on land will only increase the temperature differential when you get in. He’s not the brightest spark.
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Yep, a cold water specialist once said to me that raising core temperature before getting in was potentially life threatening. There was a documentary a number of years back with that Lewis Pugh guy who was jogging before and he was really critical of the poor advice from a so called expert.