Sounds like mayhem was inevitable then! How many people were there, must have been best part of a thousand?
Well done, @Sparky 
Smashed it there 
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yeah, 800 starters in the end
Yeah ⌠youâll probably need a blanket, some snacks and a hot chocolate for this one!!!
Had a nice weekend, all packed up early on Sat â so much stuff needed for a tri. Mrs GB was out riding in the evening, so chilled with mini #1, watching tdf highlights with a nice AF beer. Was feeling tired at about 9pm so thought Iâd capitalise and go to bed the same time as the little one. Listened to my audio book, and sort of drifted in and out (maybe) for 20 mins or so, if that. Then heard Mrs GB get home and that woke me up. Think I basically had a micro nap which messed me up. Lay in bed for the next 2.5 hours listening to music trying to not go on my phone until Mrs GB came up. Knew I was going to annoy her so I went down to the sofa. Watched John Wick 2 hoping to drift off, I didnât. Gave up at 1am, had some toast and just cracked on.
Was the 1st in the car park/field. So just took my time, got ready. Had my soaked oats etc. Was very calm and collected. At the start at 5.45 ready to go off at 6. Found @chickenboy and had a good laugh with him, his lovely wife and some of his team mates. Also really nice to have caught up with an old school friend that was doing it. Lake was clear as you like at 0500. Then the mist descended and just sat there. You couldnât really see more than 50m away. âSwim delayed, weâll review in 20 mins, should have cleared by thenâ. This happened 4 times.
Eventually swim gets binned. Wetsuit off, grab the bike and funnel out of transition. Clocks start on the timing mat. Chaos. Garmin went flying off itâs mount within 5m of crossing the line as I was fiddling with it. Stopped and went back to grab it from the road. Settled in as best as I could within power range. Lots of overtaking and being overtaken for the first ten mins. Was going a bit hot, so resolved to ease things down. Within those ten mins found myself in or near with another 5/6 athletes of a similar ability. Iâd go past (surge in power), settle in to planned power and theyâd overtake. Quite frustrating. After a while I resolved to dropping off the back and riding at a lower power, unless they really started to slow. Some athletes fell off the back after a bit, some pressed on ⌠totally coincidentally at time when groups of faster riders came past us! Hmm. âChrisâ was constantly on wheels. Was with 2 ladies for a fair bit, they must have been in the top few finishers, as they were going really well. They were playing it fair, big kudos to them.
As @sowler said. Even though I was honest and dropped off the back of any passing groups (didnât surge to connect to them as they came through) there is clearly still some benefit at 10/12m.
As we got to the end of the first lap, things had thinned out and it was much quieter. I was noticing that my HR was higher than it shouldâve been for the power numbers I was pushing. Which is weird as this power was pretty steady in training (I wasnât pushing myself). Felt like I was riding at the right âfeelâ though. Ended up on my own for big chunks of the 2nd lap, which I preferred. Power was seeming to be dropping slightly, and I was having to concentrate to keep it at planned rate, rather than it flowing naturally from my legs.
then the mistake happened. Cme to a roundabout, Marshall was waving left. Car approached, view was blocked so I went left. Apparently she meant keep to the left as you go all the way around. My own fault, I shouldâve a) recognised the roundabout from lap 1 and b) stuck the route on the Garmin just in case. Felt like the road was unfamiliar, but thought maybe I just wansât concentrating. Kept 2nd guessing myself and wondering what to do. Slowed down, sped up etc. Next thing I know Iâm passing a junction with athletes filing in, from the wrong direction. Then it hits. Chat with the marshalls, they donât know the area. I knew I was back on course now, but no idea how far. Only option was to just join back in with the race and carry on. No idea at hat point how far off route I was, how long it would take etc.
As you can imagine that totally threw me. Looked at avg speed for the first time and saw just under 37kph. 36 was my âAâ target. This made it all worse as I was super pi$$ed off. Didnât know what to do with myself. Shouldâve been 15 mins or so from transition. Had run out of hydration and a little bit of nutrition left. Soft pedalled for a few kms just chuntering to myself with lots of shaking of my head. Power went down to 185 from 215+. Didnât know whether to soft pedal in, or power it home or what. Shouldâve looked at the distance on my Garmin to work it out, but I didnât. So I had no idea how far I had left. Wasnât thinking straight. Eventually get back to where I shouldâve gone round the roundabout, and push on a bit. Loads of overtaking constantly and getting busy with cars etc. Got stuck behind stuff a lot for the last couple of kms.
Into T2 and I didnât rush @adam â my time was deliberately slow! 
Overall time was out the window, so I just slowly put my shoes on, grabbed my gels and set off. Right from the off something wasnât right. First km was too quick, but I had planned for that, and settled in after it. Even so, I just wasnât flowing. The legs just werenât right. When I did my last brick I was bobbing along at 3.40s off a similarly powered 2hour ride and it was dreamy. There was none of that. Nexts were the right choice of shoe. yes they werenât great on the grassy bit and I had a couple of minor slips in the muddier bits, but on balance the pros definitely outweighed the cons. Still, I just wasnât bouncing along. I was in a proper sufferfest hole from the start. First kms were on target timewise, but I was really really working for it, when they shouldâve been super easy at that point. Bad thoughts start hammering me and Iâm questioning why Iâm bothering. End up with an hour fight in my head of binning it vs. carrying on but getting slower and slower.
Run course was more annoying than I recalled. Constant switches, turns, twists, narrow bits, going around people, slowing down etc. Hard to get a rhythm. Got stopped for bikes every time at the crossing. Guessed maybe I was under fuelled so started using gels earlier than planned. Would see a little spike in performance then went back to being slow; but took an extra one from the course as well. Realised too late that I was dehydrated. Started stopping at aid stations, grabbing a cup of water. Despite that, was in stupid race mode so still only took a minor sip, chucked the rest on my chest and back as I was really over heating, and carried on. Shouldâve just stopped for a min and gulped a load. Now my legs werenât only slowing down but the first twitches of cramp started coming on. On the 3rd lap and I had a booming headache as well. Did what I could, was still constantly overtaking people (only got overtaken once â but then I was way behind the faster guys I guess) which I tried to use to convince myself to carry on. If I had been going backwards in the âfieldâ then that wouldâve had an impact. Iâd have probs binned it!
I was just in this suffering, head shaking funk the entire time. I love racing, but I did not enjoy one single second of this run. Last kms and I was hopping and bouncing like a demented bunny as cramp fired into calves, hamstrings and quads. Stopped, stretched and then something else would go. Ended up doing some Lionel Sanders weird limp run to get over the last km. I canât remember a run like it. Aerobically felt fine, though HR was higher than expected (heat and dehydration Iâd guess) but still in a comfortable range for me, below 180.
On reflection. Dehydration did me in. Not enough fluid in the lead up caused by the 90 min wait. Obvs didnât know it was going to be 90 mins, otherwise Iâd have gone back to the car and got a spare drink and some food as I was getting hungry. No sleep caused an increased HR response to my bike power, coupled with dehydration.
First lap on the bike 219W 2nd lap (to the wrong turn) 217W. So actually not as much drop off as Iâd feared. Last 20km was only 188W.
I spotted the signs of dehydration too late, but explains the massive DOMS I have now and the absolute state of my legs off, what appears, to be a ride that went to plan. I knew I was cutting it fine with my hydration strategy in the first place. Iâm a heavy sweater and I was playing a risky game. With the other factors mentioned above, this just sledge hammered me. Basically a 3rd bottle BTS is an absolute must if I want to have any chance going forward. Fuel I think was almost right, just the 90min delay and the extra half an hour on the bike threw things out. But Iâm happy with that. I like the Maurten gels, I like the Maurten 320. But I had a bottle of Maurten 160 before the âswimâ. Didnât finish it as it was vile! Really shouldâve drunk more on the run, may have helped ⌠but may have been too late.
Next time â much more fluid. Have a backup plan for delays. Stick the route on the Garmin. Other than that, my training went well. First time in years Iâve been 100% completely niggle free for 12 months. Cross training clearly works for me. Need to get the legs back in shape and see if they have any form left in them whatsoever for a parkrun or something. 2 weeks ago Iâd have said I was in close to 5km PB shape. No idea how iâll be in a week.
Sorry bit of a long one, as expected and Iâve not proof read it (Iâll do that later as have a meeting now). Sorry.
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No youâre right, that run can get very congested later on, and itâs a pain. Thatâs why itâs best to get in an early wave normally. Same with the bike really; the Spine Road gets busy with cars as the morning goes on.
Sorry I havenât read you post yet.
I was taking the piss as the tracker had your T2 time as over an hour! Clearly a cock up on their behalf
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Oh haha!!! It was super slow though!
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I had a similar experience at the 113 run last year.
I had one 500ml of water for the entire bike as I had foolishly lost my nutrition pre race. I checked out and jogged round. Pissed off with the congestion etc
Also like you I love the 320 mix and the gels but canât stand 160 mix. Like @Poet says, swamp water.
Iâm gutted for you that you didnât get the race you wanted. Obviously nothing to be done about the swim. I saw on Facebook a pic of the lake at 4:30. Looked bloody gorgeous.
And a mass bike start was always going to be carnage.
Like you say hopefully lessons learned and onto the next time when ever you decide to dip your toe in again!
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Well done - some varied experiences from the day! Hope you got something out of it whether it went pear shaped or not!
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When the cramp strikes, the cramp strikes hard.
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Looks a bit like youâre trying not to trip over!
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Great report, missed these (off everyone).
Shame it went wrong but you kept going and still put in a bad run that nearly everyone else would have been over the moon with.
Maybe next time donât leave it so many years between races 
obvs thatâs been hard recently 
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Thatâs pretty much what I was doing! This one was my calf trying to reduce itself by about 80% in size! 
You lost the crowd quickly there, what the hell are they looking at behind you? 
Yeah i know! Thought my dance wouldâve been way more interesting!
I know the pain is real here butâŚ
Love this though. Your face! 
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Its like hes running on a carpet of lego
This equals the funniest finish line photo Iâve seen. I did a local sprint tri (pool based) so only racing your own time. But as I approached the finish a very much novice lady decided sheâd try and outsprint me to the line. Somehow she managed to trip and faceplant the ground 
The next photo was me dodging her lol
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@gingerbongo Iâll see your finish photo and raise you 
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Some good gurning going on here
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