Yes, I know.
I couldn’t see him though! As he was always a few seconds in front of me, it was just far enough for me not to see him.
I got stuck behind a group of people in the last 500m, which was annoying; that contraflow section is short, but a PITA.
We need to work on our hand-eye-coordination, totally missed that high5 
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I was massively surprised to see you so far behind me, to be honest!
RE: WAVE STARTS
I loved not getting swam over and utter clear water for my first open water race back.
I didn’t mind the bike loneliness, as this is exactly what Outlaw was like for about 100km. Possibly more, as it was looped.
The run loneliness was also fine, but not being able to see who was in front twisted my melons!!! When I realised running under 1:30 and under 4:30 total was easily on, I lifted off a bit 
Bala and Vit are both Out and back runs, Meant you could count placings.
I see why people have spotters now - having that carrot in front of you really helps maintain pace.
But I wasn’t far off what I’d predicted/hoped for; you were the surprise! I would suggest you’re in possibly better shape than 6-7 years ago. Guys who go under 4:30 on that course are generally sub-10 with a bit to spare. Al was a bit slower than usual, but he’s low 9:30s in Barcelona.
Yes, I am definitely in better 70.3 shape than 6-7 years ago. I said that above, or some other thread.
This was my A Race. I trained solely for this distance.
I haven’t done this before for a 70.3.
Every session I did had a purpose, I knew what it was and what I wanted to get from each session.
getting in two four+ hour rides per week helped massively.
Building up the base fitness with some long and slow distances was great.
Yes, they say double plus an hour is conservative. I’ll email OSB and see if they can sort me out 
So I’d better do a potted synopsis of my race then.
Done this 7 times now, so (overly) familiar with it. My only pre-race drama was that soft tyre caused by the loose core which I remedied with 15 mins to the start That cost me 5 mins in nervous energy alone
Swim went same as usual really, I kept left and away from the crowds for most of it; a lot of people seemed to be going quite wide to the right; especially on the long stretch along the far shore. I didn’t really follow any feet at all. The swim is always a bit hit & miss timing wise until you hit dry land. When I saw 31:** again, I thought I maybe had another crap swim, but seeing Poet still in T1 when I arrived, I realised maybe I’d not been as bad as I suspected. I think the swim a is little more accurate than pre-2018.
Out onto the bike, no issues. It was clearly colder than I realised, as on lap two I really faffed trying to get the bungee on my rear bottle free. The ride was definitely quieter than previous years; I think the swifter people were spread out over the waves a lot more this time. The turns meant you could constantly see where others were. I could see Poet up ahead by about 2-3 mins, as expected, and wasn’t really focussed on trying to close on him, not least because my legs just didn’t feel that fresh for the whole ride; just on the verge of going lactic, never light. So I kept it steady so the run wasn’t a drama. I got caught by a few bullets on the second lap, going like a train from wave 2. Managed to get my rolling comfort break in on the down ramp onto the Spine Road; this meant a couple of guys caught me, and I sat off the back of them for the last few kms back to transition.
I promised myself to start the run steadily, and as I left T2 the legs felt okay. So when my watch buzzed an opening 4:14 km at me I audibly let out a ‘Oh FFS’ 
I then focussed on steadying the pace. I definitely go through ‘patches’ on this course, depending on the ground underfoot and location. The rough sections tended to spike my HR, so I’d have to back off (wanted to keep it below 145) then that section from the finish area to the top-end I really loathe! The wooded section on the smaller second loop is also a bit of a nause underfoot. This is definitely not a fast run as far as underfoot conditions go - you never really get into a good rhythm. I certainly think it costs me a couple of mins over something smooth underfoot and with less narrow twists & turns and traffic on later laps.
I saw Poet as we crossed over on the contraflow section; he was headed to the finish, and I had the last smaller loop left to do. We attempted a High5, but failed miserably! It wasn’t until coming through the village for the last time that I actually looked at cumulative time on my watch; I saw that my target 4:38 or better was a bust - so no need to chase the clock. I hadn’t wanted to use total time earlier for that very reason. At the end of the day, I’d done this event so many times, and it is part of a bigger picture. Again I managed another cramp-free run which was pleasing on this rough terrain…especially that F*g log!!! Crossed the line - straight to the massage queue. I know the score
So really it’s onwards & upwards to IM Hamburg now. Need to practice my pack riding skills…
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Yeah, this is never going to happen for me! Maybe 1x 5h for a few weeks, at a push. We have so much organised over the weekends this time of year, with the kids. At this rate I might have to burn a couple of (half)days leave; fortunately I have 39 this year!
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Well done everyone!
It was a great day I thought. We were so lucky with the weather given what it was like the days before and now!
My own goal was to beat my PB time of just under 5:10 from my first half iron distance race, on a similarly pan flat course at the sundowner (SD) in 2016.
Swim was 33:13, about 30 secs down on SD. Only been swimming once (occasionally twice) a week this year, so wasn’t expecting any miracles. But I’ll tell myself that the SD swim was probably short, no basis to back this up other than to protect my ego. Went in wave 3 and it was a little busy when our wave caught up with the back of the previous wave but nothing crazy. The lake was nice to swim in and the buoys were a good size for sighting off.
T1 was a little crazy. My line of racking (closest to the lake) was very narrow (the other aisles seemed further apart when i looked at the end) so it was difficult to get past everyone. As I was running out a guy sat down in the middle of the aisle in front of me to put his shoes on and I ran into him with my front wheel. Luckily no disasters though.
Bike was really good for me, did 2:32:33 which was over 12 mins faster than SD. Although part of that was down to this course being a bit short and the SD course being a tad over 90km (according to my GPS). Also it was torrential rain in SD which would have slowed me up on the corners. Have been doing a lot of training on flat roads and the turbo working on holding race power in the tribars, this seemed to work as I didn’t have the same drop off in my power in the last quarter of the race as I did at SD. Saw a lot of drafting going on which was annoying, saw some real pelotons on the other side of the road but I guess these were slower athletes just getting round. One person was really taking the mick sat on my wheel for a lot of the first lap. Checked their race number against the results at the end and was pleased to see they still just missed the podium, so it didn’t help them take a prize at least. All in all I was very happy with my bike, me and my trusty Allez overtook a lot of people on some very nice TT bikes and I managed to hit my goal power of 230 watts. Does make me wonder what i could do on a TT bike or with some deep sectioned wheels, but i’d probably just be disappointed.
Run was surprisingly good, did 1:42:23 which was over 6 mins faster than SD and a half marathon PB (previous PB was set at 20kg heavier so this isn’t saying much). Was worried this was where it would all fall apart as I haven’t managed to complete a training run over an hour this year because of a glute injury. Plan was to set out at 5 min per KM and just see how it went - luckily it went well. Set out a little bit too fast at the start doing 4:45’s for the first couple of kms but settled down and managed to keep things consistent after that. Run course was busy but i didn’t really notice it slowing me down much, probably wasn’t going fast enough.
All in all i’m really happy with my race. Finished in 4:52:22 (over 17 mins faster than SD) and I think it’s the first triathlon i’ve done where on reflection there isn’t anything i’m thinking I could / should / wished had gone better or i’d done differently. Will definitely come back and do this race again. The organisation and communication from Graeme and the team was a complete different level from any other race I’ve done before.
Sorry this post ended up so long, well done if you made it to the end!
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Nice work!!!
That’s a stonking PB 
Great effort and good report.
This course faster than Sundowner?
Thought that was the fastest 70.3 course in the country?
I’d say Cotswold was probably the faster course with the bike being a bit short of 90km. Although maybe that was only the case this year with the route change.
Looking forwards to this evenings beauty contest:
https://www.charleswhittonphotography.com/cotswold-113-tri-9619
Thanks
May be getting involved in 2020…! Nice part of the World too.
Some days are just fast I guess, loads of Pb”s at Chester last week, yet it was chilly, light rain and quite windy later on…
Did anyone else see people running with earphones? I saw at least 3; two going the other way, and the other a guy who didn’t respond to my numerous requests for him to let me pass on his right. He was running down the middle of the track in his own world 
I hope the Ref spotted some of these people and rectified it. On this run course people need to be aware of others behind them in particular.
Would that be a DQ?
I thinks it’s a penalty. The Refs hang around transition in ‘smaller’ events like this (not IM) so they should just tell people to go and stash the earphones in transition, that will lose them time and maybe muck up their chip data - but that’s life init. Either that or 5 min penalty - but tbh people who use them are generally ‘completers’.
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One of the PT”s from my gym is doing IMUK, fit kid, big watts and can run abit too, but he’s “ down” to 94 kg… 6 ft 4 ish so he’s going to be a completer for certain.
He was amazed that you couldn’t use head phones…
The yuff of today…!
Pics are up. There are loads where the race number hasnt been added. Going through page by page and there are a few of Jorgan on page 522 if you havent seen them. It was the bike and the goatee that made me spot them.
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Note the unintended but perfectly matched shades/bike 
I finally took the Zipp decals off my 808 again last night; looks way better. They were put back on during a hub recall 
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