George took it to Ali as best he could today. Was with him up the struggle and into T2. He ran with him for a good while but Ali was relentless up to swiral edge.
Jack was our pick to do well, the lads have raced each other a number of times since Juniors. Jack has a GB mountain running vest and a weapon downhill.
A mad race, grim weather. He said he won’t be doing it again.
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Firstly, well done to all of you that gone round in those conditions, whatever the time, probably the joint worst I’ve seen it. Just a shame the weather forecast was so wrong 
It was good to meet Poet, Adam & Danny, might have seen Chris running down but sorry to the others I didn’t catch.
DNF for me as well, could copy and paste a lot of Poet’s report.
Been struggling with something all week, HRV hasn’t been good although I’ve not felt bad. Then as mentioned I aggravated my bad knee last night so that was in my mind for the run and woke up with a migraine. My migraines are nearly always ocular (zigzag lines) that usually go within about 30 minutes but leave me feeling a bit jaded most of the day.
Was just getting the wetsuit on when I had to make an emergency visit 
so I had to take the wettie off, run across the field… which then meant I was getting in the swim almost last and having torpedoes like Chris swimming over me 
My watch buzzed for 500m halfway down the back straight and I knew then it was going to be well over 1500m, I was just about coping with the cold at that point but got out and looked at the distance, getting on for 900m. The second lap and I could feel a combination of the cold and lack of swimming catching up with me, it was hard to keep any rhythm or stroke. I made the swim about 1800M.
I was quite cold by then but got to the bike and put on my jacket, gloves etc. and headed out. Was caught behind a Range Rover overtaking people and was also struggling to put any power down, then it started raining as we were going up the climb. By the time I got to the A66 I was pretty cold, soaking wet, couldn’t feel my feet and struggling to use my brakes. There was just a huge grey storm hanging over so I decided to turn back which meant another 25 minutes compared to 90+ including the struggle and Kirkstone.
Got back to the car and managed to eventually get dry (whilst also getting asked if I was going soon). Then I went and met my friend and watched the race with them. I was shaking and struggling to talk for at least an hour.
More frustrated than angry, on the plus side if I’d got round the bike I’d have probably done the run and made the knee worse, but I know my cycling and fell running isn’t bad at the moment so had been hoping for splits like 2:00\1:44ish, and if I’d got to the run the cold wouldn’t have bothered me as much, I just struggle to cycle in it.
Anyway, first world problems 
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I take my hat off to you all for racing in those conditions. I have done similar in the past and there would have been zero chance of me being out in that. I would have gone home without even thinking of putting the wettie on.
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Thing is, the three forecasts all pointed to 1-2mm rain at 9am, so I was prepared for that.
Not some relentless deluge.
If the forecast had given four hours of black rain from 0900-1300, then I wouldn’t have set off 
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Thank god for that!
Any links to the pro times?
Try to ratify off them…although it didn’t look that long from the shore?
I never thought of turning around
Damn it!!!
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@Chriswim in sixth with a rapid bike and 1.35 run 
And I finished…with a 2.37 run 
Swim deffo looks long with those pro times, which makes me feel better
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Joe Skipper getting beat by Nikki Bartlett
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Ali Brownlee has given half his prize money to pro’s who raced and didn’t win any £ and the other half to the Brownlee Foundation.
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I clocked it at 1770mtrs & the chat around me afterwards all reckoned similar.
I clocked it at 2,035m…but I dropped a bollock and swam towards the middle orange buoy on the back stretch, instead of the far one, on my first loop 
Not your day fella🤷♂️.
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Was it good to be racing and part of it though after all of the missed events?
For me…yes and no.
I’d probably not do another “Covid Secure” event if there’s no aid stations, bag drop or change tent.
Not fussed on showers, but I’m not wearing my Tri kit from 3am until start time and then back home again.
I fly solo and found the whole bag thing a debacle.
I enjoyed the swim, but not the rolling start.
At all.
I’ve said before I hated Worlds 2013 due to swim biff, but the lack of it is weird.
As is not all starting the race together.
Even in waves of a few hundred or so.
The rolling start just makes you sprint the first 100m even more to find some feet you like the smell of.
Not knowing where I was on the bike threw me off.
Coming into T1 and seeing a whole empty rack was heartbreaking 
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Campsite Helvellyn Vino Reporto.
Happy with my swim. Not as cold as I feared & I despite seeding myself with an optimistic 25 minute time at no time was I swamped. Picked some great feet & bilaterally relaxed for ⅔s of it
My lead out man proved particularly useful as he deftly steered us through the later starters we caught in the last quarter.
Time 29:03
T1 was a chugffing nightmare, couldn’t find my bike - I think I was confused by the fact all the nearby pros bikes had gone & I was being a complete doofus - & I got my first attack of cramp getting my wettie off. I pulled my arm-warmers on & then ummed & ahhhed about putting on my short sleeve windblock jersey as it was fairly mild. Thankfully I put it on.
T1 3:54 
Onto the bike as has been pointed out the rain turned out big style about 20 minutes in as we went down at was the busy A66. The chatter afterwards did seem to reckon the A66 was particularly busy as we - the Age Groupers - had effectively set off 45 mins later than normal to accommodate the Pro race. Anyway I got on with it & the rain seemed to peter out somewhere around Grasmere just in time to get a bit of traffic build up from a couple of buses. Enjoyed The Struggle, but got caught behind traffic on the descent which was possibly a good thing 
. Used the time to suck down the last of my gel/drink mixture 
.
Bike 2:04:01 ( I felt I put good power down do wet roads sap your times?)
As we approached T2 the heavens opened again & I decided to keep all my bike clothes on, but not my helmet like the fella who ran out of transition in front of me 
T2 2:04
Loved the run, I feared I’d overbiked due to excitement & trying to keep warm but apart from a couple of vicious attacks of le crampe I feel I smashed it…but I was bloody glad when it was over.
Run 1:40:58
44th overall & 4th V50 (by 3 minutes )
Great event & kudos to the organisers for letting us do the full run route, it would have been an easy & understandable decision to drop us onto the low level route.
Didn’t get to see many TriTalkers, but managed a quick chat with @Poet at the bottom of The Struggle & a good old dissection of the race with the complete gent that is @Adam as we were clearing transition.
Sorry to hear that some had a less than perfect day, but I had an absolute hoot.
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Well done @Doonhamer great performance.
@Poet I’ll be surprised if you get anymore mass or even wave start races, maybe some of these smaller ones but I think organisers also think there’s less chance of drafting. TBF, it’s hard to get an aid station on the run for the route other than very early\late and I think that’s one of the current conditions of racing? You’d normally be able to leave a bag in transition and the pro race complicated things today.
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Aid stations not in ref to Helvellyn, but to some others I’ve read about.
Ah, so bag in transition was to fulfil Pro rules?
I’d do Helvellyn again…once Covid is over.
Bike course reminds me of Bala - it’s not a climbers course, but it’s not a time triallers course either, sort of levels the playing field
Cheers @jeffb.
Sorry you couldn’t complete my wife gets the occasional migraine & I know how debilitating they can be.
On the other hand, if you were to have completed the race I may have been 5th V50 
I wouldn’t have been anywhere near that performance, 1:40 run is fell runner territory.
You were quite unlucky that an M50 broke 4 hours, he’s a different league (no disrespect). And Kev Dawson wasn’t a national bike champ for nothing, even if he can’t swim much.
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