Another sufferfest coming my way this Sunday. It's a Half Ironman triathlon and the first one for me since 'The Big Crash' of last year I was meant to do one in Canberra in Dec but I had to pull out after contracting the flu.

Anyway, been training for this one for a while and is a decent hit out before my really big race on Aug 8th, which is twice the length of this one.

So, I'm off on Saturday 'oop norf' for 'A Day in the Lakes'

http://www.trihard.co.uk/ADIL/ADILhome.htm


No Mrs T though she doesn't return until Jul 6th.

Good luck

Good Luck! I admire anyone who can do that stuff!!!!!!

Good luck! I still think you are nuts but, hey, go for it and enjoy!!!

Good luck Triboy, this will definitely keep your mind busy until your wife arrives

All the best for your sufferfest
At least you will be in a lovely part of Britain.

Good luck and no beer the night before!!

All the best, my sister in law has been doing Ironmans for a few years now.
I went to watch her a couple years ago, OMG, what a challange!! She started out with having never run before! She says it was her escapism of being unhappy here in Canada!
Now, she has travalled all over doing these competitions! Hats off to anyone that had the dedication!

I did my first half marathon last year and loved it, i'm doing another one in October and want to do a marathon soon after - got the bug!!

Good luck and enjoy!

Out of interest, where are you doing it?

Oop, just read your post again, oop North in the lakes - you lucky bugger, beautiful. I'm a northener and SOOO miss it! Beats the souless life of mass surbubia here!

You don't mean that K................

Thanks all. Here is my race report. I wrote it for my Oz tri forum so forgive the location explanations:

OK, I've thought long and hard about how to write this report so here goes.

The short version is I finished in 7:19.21 and whilst that is a shockingly slow time for an HIM, some context needs to be set up here. The outright winner did 4.51.xx (which for the benefit of MBTTUKers is very slow) so that should give you some idea of what is about to come.

The location: As the name suggests 'ADITL' is held in the Lake District. This is way up in the north of England and only about an hour from the Scottish border. For those of you that have been to the UK but mainly London and the south, the countryside you would have seen is patchwork quilt rolling hills, lush greenery etc etc. The countryside and landscape in the north of England especially around the Lakes is way different, much more dramatic, rugged with hills and mountains coming straight out of the ground and going (what seems like straight up). If you haven't been to Scotland then think more NZ. I'm probably not doing a great job of describing the landscape. Anyway, suffice to say, everywhere is dramatic, steep and imposing.

The Lakes are about 500kms from where I live and with Mrs T away in Korea I had plenty of time on the drive up to think about what lay ahead! Anyway, 5hrs later I was checking into a lovely little village pub B&B about a mile from race central, which was staged in a lakeside caravan and camping park at the foot of two, err, well let's call them mountains. It felt weird packing and driving to a race without Mrs T and knowing that I wouldn't be seeing any of the 'usual suspects' at the race.

The lake that the race was staged at is called Ullswater. Late Saturday afternoon I went over to register at Ullswater with the intention of having a quick swim. There was a lot of commotion going on, cops and helicopters everywhere. Apparently a teenager was kayaking and got into some difficulty, capsized and had gone under, came back up, made a grab for the kayak, missed, went under and was never seen again. This had happened a couple of hours before but because the lake is very very deep and has an under current the body hadn't been recovered. It was happening over the other side of lake and a few people were swimming. I had a swim, without a wetsuit, it was about 18deg and felt good in the heat of the day (about 28).

Race Day: It was forecasted as being the hottest day of the year at 31C! (which turned out to be true blink ) I didn't know, but it was touch and go whether the swim went ahead as they couldn't find the body of the boy, but in the early hours he had been found. All our thoughts went out to the boy's family and there was a period of silence. I suppose it is at least some comfort to the parents that the body was found because the lake is very long as well as deep.

My sister and Mum came up from Bucks to cheer me on and it nice to meet them around transition. Got my gear sorted and wettie on and was ready to rock! Two waves were allocated (370 entrants). We had to submit our estimated swim times and got a coloured cap according. Red = Fast, Blue = slow. I put 43mins down and somehow ended up with a red cap, EEK! 5 mins between waves in a one lap swim.

Swim: Horn went and we were off. This was always going to be tough because of last year's crash and my shoulder reconstruction. I felt good, stayed out of everyone's way and managed to navigate ok (for once.) I knew I was pretty much coming last (2nd from last I think) out of the red caps and about half way around got caught by the blue caps, who were taking no prisoners and it all got a bit 'biffy'. I copped a full on smack to the back of the head looked up and it was girl, not sure how she was swimming (knuckles first?) but it hurt. She did say 'sorry' though. Got myself around the course, felt slow and plated/ screwed shoulder was screaming but stood up with 41xx on my watch, happy with that!

Bike: It's hard to describe how tough this bike course is, after about 20kms of rolling undulations it goes up Kirkstone Pass which is long, winding and is 20% for the last mile! and we had a severe headwind. For this reason I had decided to leave my TT bike at home and take my road bike which has a 36 on the front, I had no clip ons but took my aero wheels (HED Jet 60s). I passed a lot of folks on TT bikes even before Kirkstone and even more going up it, eventually I crested and took about 15 spots on the descent (sweet) . More undulations and then up another pass, this time 'Shap Fell' which wasn't as hard as Kirkstone but by this time the day had gotten very hot. This ride has no aid stations so you have to be fully self sufficient. I was surprised how many people I was overtaking and I didn't seem to be working that hard, sometimes in the drops, sometimes not. Eventually after 97 grueling kms I rolled into T2 (I think in 3:24)

Run: Run? Haha, some call the Trading Standard folks. Run my freakin arse! OK I really may need some help here. But if any of you are familiar with the term 'Fell Running' then basically that's what the 21km stage was. After about 2kms of very steep tarmac we turned into field halfway of what I thought was a massive hill (oh my ignorance of what was coming!). We all struggled to get any kind of forward momentum, but made it to the top, through long grass, tracks, marshes and streams. The it was the run down and down and down. I say run, but you can't run because of the rocks that keep twisting you feet this way and that. We had to ford plenty of streams and every time we did I dunked my hat and cooled off.

People were DNFing and flaking out left, right and centre with heat/terrain and one guy who I met the day before had 4 IMs under his belt, including France and Lanza (these are very tough IMs) had virtually given up (he didn't but i beat him by over 30mins). It was very very tough. But the 'best' was yet to come. There was a little aid station at 5.5 miles in, after that there really was a mountain to climb, and climb and climb! It was one of those 'crane your neck to look up' kind of deals. Imagine those TDF climbs, with no road, barely a track, random rocks strewn everywhere, rivers to cross and muddy marshes, then you get the picture. Absolutely nobody ran up here, some were on hands and knees, and to be honest if there hadn't been people around I would have burst into tears, my quads were on fire and my back was writing stiff letters of protest to my brain. In some places I had to use hands as well as feet to get up.


But after what seemed like an age I got to the top, where we had to run along the ridge of the mountain we'd just climbed, then down a bit, the up again on top another mountain then down, down, down again. This time though it was so steep that you couldn't run which didn't help the quad situation at all. I could see some of the local guys were handling the terrain much better than me, and others.

Eventually got to the bottom and came across the same aid station (which should be re-named 'Base Camp 1' !!), filled up on flapjacks and bananas (I was carrying my own water). From here it was a 3 mile road run to the finish. I passed a couple of people which felt could and ironically for the first time found my running legs!

I hadn't looked at my watch since the swim and was determined not to look at it until after I'd finished. Finally the finish line came and lots of folks were cheering me on, inc my family. I managed a smile, just. I was happy to see 7:19xx and was even happier to see quite a few bikes still in T2 that were yet to be collected by people still on the course.

Had a recovery swim in the lake which helped Then heard about the England result, which didn't!

I don't know what to make of it really. It was tough, tough, tough but quite an achievement (at least in my eyes). Lots of folks who have done both Wimbleball 70.3 which has the reputation as the toughest 70.3 say the ADITL is tougher. I'm not saying ADITL is the toughest HIM there is, but jeez it must be up there!

I think I came 74th out of 94 (inc 7 DNFs) out of Male Over 40s.

I'm glad I did it though and as a return to racing after last years horrendous injuries it was definitely a return to 'the deep end'.

Roll on Aug 8th.!

OMG - I am exhausted
(just reading it).

I'm in awe, Triboy!

Also think it has to be a form of insanity, but a bit of our own favourity insanity does us good.

Bev

Fantastic report Triboy - and congratulations on the finish, that is some achievement!!!! Imagine doing it when the temp was 10C and the wind was howling (as I am sure it has been on some years!) - dont know which would be worse! Looks like you are definitely getting back on form.

Hey - well done - brilliant achievement!