It's just over two weeks since race day and I haven't done a minutes training. It's been great! This is probably the longest I have gone without training for about 3 years I think. but its been nice to not have to worry about missing training... especially when leaving work. It's a nice thought to know I don't have 2-3 hours training still to do.
The aftermath
Sunday night was odd. After getting back to the hotel around 9:30, I grabbed some food and settled down on my bed eating and watching TV. The adrenaline was obviously still pumping because apart from sore legs, I was wide awake! I finally forced myself to go to sleep around midnight and so followed a rubbish nights sleep, waking up a few times soaked in sweat (?) possibly due to the adrenaline still?
Monday was a tough day. After eating as much as I could for breakfast in the hotel I packed up the car and checked out of the hotel for the drive home.
My mind obviously thought I felt fine when I crossed the road outside the hotel and nearly got run over, I tried to run out the way of an oncoming car as I crossed the road, my legs were having none of it and it was a painful hobble to safety! I sore reminder of what I had done the day before.
To try and describe it to you, my legs had basically seized up reducing my steps to very small "limps". probably quite funny to watch, especially on stairs, going up stairs was hard but not to painful. But descending was horrible, each step down sent shocks of pain up my thighs.
My legs began to ease over Monday and Tuesday and I think if I had wanted to, I could have trained on Wednesday. I didn't want to thought, I was still trying to eat my weight in as many junk food items as I could find.
Over the course of two weeks I have eaten virtually all items of Junk food you can imagine. The best being fish and chips on the Monday night after the race.
What next?
I have already been asked numerous times if I will do the race again. On the surface my answer is a resounding yes! I enjoyed every moment of the race, including the stomach ache and the cramp in my legs towards the end of the run.
I even thought to myself during the swim "I'm really enjoying this" which I never normally think during a race.
Plus I have set myself a marker... that time is the time I want to beat now. That's just in my nature. I have thought about how I can improve the run so I don't have stomach problems and I don't run out of energy. These are the things that drive me to do another one because I wonder... how fast can I go?
But then on the other side of the same coin I have to remember all the hours I spent training, all the missed nights out, due to either being so tired I couldn't get there, or having training commitments that was stopping me dead.
Mentally it was all very draining looking back, trying to schedule training around my life and also trying to fit in everything else. Towards the peak weeks eating was becoming rushed too which I don't think it should be.
Also I need to think of seeing friends, family and girlfriend! I will need to be a lot more organised to keep all these people happy and also keep the training up to a level I need it to be.
So these are the two sides I need to weigh up before I decide to do another Ironman. There are lessons that can be learnt from this first time which would improve things I think, and also make the time management a lot easier to do.
The alternatives are to drop back down to Olympic, Sprints and maybe a Half Ironman. Which wouldn't be such a bad thing, as the hours would be less, but I could race more often which I enjoy doing.
A lot of thinking before a decision is made I think.
More Thanks
I thanked a few people in my race report post but I need to thank the people that have put up with me being grumpy for the past 7 months. Every time I have been unhappy, missed a training session and kicked myself or just lacked motivation, a few people have always been there to get me going again and remind me that I can still do it all and its just a one off.
Although I heard the same things quite a few times, they were always needed, and always very helpful to keep me going, so thank you all too, I hope my moaning didn't annoy you too much!
Sponsorship
The sponsorship is still going great and I have beat my original target of £800! We are now up to £850 with more still to collect, I am now hoping to beat the £900 mark. Which would be amazing!
I am now beginning to collect the money from people who have sponsored me in person rather than on line, which is normally a bit of a pain. But it's not, please seem happy to pay up which is great! Thank you to all the people who have sponsored me, especially the people who work with my sister, they are the ones who put me over the £800 mark.
The sponsorship link is still available at the top of the screen. Even though I am over my target it would be great to get more and more sponsorship... maybe I'm just being greedy now?
Thanks for reading! Next time I hope to have the final total for my sponsorship, and I might have been for a run too?
Originally a story of me becoming an Outlaw... What will happen after? Stay Tuned...
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
The Race Report!
Well it's the post you have been waiting for! It's the Race Report from the
Outlaw Triathlon 2012. Be warned, this post might be long, like the race was
long! But hopefully it’ll be a decent read, and I hope I don’t forget anything!
Day before Race - Registration
So I registered on Saturday, the sight was busy and everyone looked relaxed. I was too to be honest, normally when I get to a race venue the nerves start, but they didn’t this time. I have been anxious to get the race underway ever since my taper started 3 weeks ago so I was just happy it was coming along soon!
The registration was all straight forward, signed in and collected all the race numbers and transition bags. Normally in the transition area all the kit is piled next to your bike for a quick change over. But for long distance races they tend to have bags in a transition tent for racers who want to completely change clothes. This was all new to me, but seemed pretty straight forward. We were given one bag for pre/post race kit, one for the change from swim to bike and one from the change from bike to run.
I had planned the content of these bags over the week before the race so I knew what was needed, took them back to my car and started to fill them with all the kit I needed.
Decided to do a quick ride around the lake on my bike to make sure it was all set up correctly and I was happy with it, this is where the fun started. Set off in shorts and t-shirt as the sun was beating down. Before I had walked from my car to the lake the black clouds had formed and it was raining! So in the 5 minute ride around the lake I managed to get soaked. I also got my first taste of how the wind was blowing down the lake. This will come into it later.
So now I was wet and annoyed, and the sun came back out. I racked my bike in the transition area and walked back to the car. Finished off my transition bags and took them down to the transition tents to hang them on the numbered hooks. I got lucky with this as my race Bib was 200, this meant I was right at the end of a row. My Bags were easy to find during the race, with 2000 bags (2 for each competitor) I imagine some people would have struggled to find their bags.
After this I headed to the hotel. had an hours sleep as there was nothing on TV before grabbing some food (pasta obviously) I knew I would struggle to sleep that night I always do before races but I had slept well all week so I wasn’t too fussed about a few lost hours, also the area around the hotel was quite loud. I think I managed about 3 hours sleep before my alarm went off at 3am! Yes there is a 3am! It’s not a nice time to be awake! Well it’s ok if you haven’t yet been to bed, if you have been to bed its horrible!
I forced down some porridge and a bagel that made me feel sick, no one should be eating at that time! But I knew I needed it. Left the hotel at about 4am so I could get there with time to spare and not be rushed. Proof I shouldn’t have been awake was the 5 guys in the resident bar very drunk and enjoying the end of the night!
Start and Swim
Got to the Lake as the sun was rising, clear sky and the wind wasn’t blowing too hard yet. This changed very quickly. Wet suit on, and I walked down to the lake side. Got there and realised I had forgotten my goggles! Nice start; ran back and got them and I was back in time. We got in the water at about 5:45am. The water was a nice temperature, not too warm but not painfully cold. |I managed to get a little bit of swimming in before being penned in for the start. We waited around for about 5 minutes. Then the buzzer went and we were off!! The first 100 metres or so saw 4 pens of different speed of swimmer converge into about 30 metres width of water, in other words it was mayhem!
I had decided to start in pen 2. The 60 min to 80 min pen as I have done the full distance in 1:05 in training. The swim start was nothing short of insane. For the first 10 minutes I don’t think I managed to complete a full swim stroke without my arm hitting someone, or being kicked. Over the course of those 10 minutes I think I was kicked in the face and chest about 4 times, none of them painful just a bit annoyed. During this time I think I may have kicked a few people as well, all unintentional.
After these first manic minutes the swim calmed down a bit and I managed to find a bit of free water and got my heart rate down to a more manageable level. The outward swim had the wind behind us which made it feel a bit easier and I soon reached the turn buoy. I looked at my watch and saw 31 minutes, which I was very happy with. Then at the turn buoy the mayhem started all over again! Every swimmer converged into a small space to swim the 90 metres across the lake to prepare to swim back, so I had another couple of minutes of interrupted swimming and searching for any free space I could find. After the turn and on the way back it thinned out again so I got a good amount of space again to swim comfortably.
But this time it was into the wind. This made it harder and probably slower, but I couldn’t really tell on the speed without any landmarks to reference. The wind was really whipping up the water too so had a few waves to contend with nothing more than a few mouthfuls of water though.
The back leg of the swim felt slower than the first and the transition area at the end of the lake looked a long way away, but managed to get out the water in 1:06:44 which I was happy with because I was thinking around 1:10.
Transition
Made my way into transition letting my head get used to being vertical again. Sometimes swimming for so long and then running messes with your balance so I took it easy through transition grabbing my bike stuff and getting changed, exchanged a few words with a couple of other racers all encouraging each other before departing.
One side note that made me chuckle were the volunteer "wetsuit strippers" basically undoing wetsuits and ripping the suits off people as they sat on the floor. Very funny to watch, I didn’t take part in the fun though; my wetsuit came off pretty easy, a lot easier than it seems to go on.
Transition took a relaxing 5:54
Bike
The bike started nicely, had a nice tail wind along the duel carriage way out of Nottingham, it was nice to have a lane cordoned off to ourselves as well. So I took this time to get my legs into the race a bit and get them going. The wind was blowing, but as I said it was a tail wind which made the biking easy and quick. The sun was out at this time too so it was nice for so early in the morning.
It took a while to get my legs going and feeling like they should, had to get out the seat a few times to try and fire the muscles up a bit but after 30-40 minutes they were fine and I was going well. We reached the first and only hill they noted on the course, which wasn’t very nice. The problem was it had a hidden summit, so I powered up the first part thinking I was at the top, only to turn the corner to see it carry on further and steeper. I soon powered my way to the top, also overtaking a few people on the way up. The reward at the top of the hill was a nice decent for a few miles to get my heart rate down.
The next few hours on the bike were quite uneventful, struggling against the head wind sometimes and enjoying the break of the tail wind. The bike course went through some tiny villages around Nottingham, which had some great support from the residents, was really nice to have the support from full families, and gave me a nice lift.
There was an official spectator point on the course in one of the villages which was great, a few hundred people lining the road with banners and bells etc. Felt like I was part of the Tour de France! Definitely a boost from this on the two passes.
My plan for the bike was to do it in around 6 hours hopefully, but I wasn’t too fussed if it dropped down to 6:30. I was holding above 30km per hour average which was perfect for a 6 hour bike. The last hour or so of the bike was hard, hard work. My shoulders and arms were starting to really hurt in any position I was in, I was looking forward to getting off the bike.
Also from around 100 miles onwards was into a constant headwind that was soul destroying and leg destroying, took me from an average of 31km per hour down to 30, as I struggled against it. So I basically counted off the minutes as I went, reminding myself "there's only x minutes left" etc. This got me to the end. All this time I was wondering if I would be able to run, considering my legs didn’t want to bike anymore, surely they wouldn’t want to run. I had to think I would see how I would feel when I started running.
Then during the last mile of the bike as I started to relax and think how I would feel on the run, the heavens opened and I got soaked! I swore at the weather as I turned into the private road back to the lake and was soon off the bike.
I passed my bike to a race marshal to re-rack it and made the run to the transition tent while the rain poured down. Finished the bike in 5:59:12, again, as I had hoped, a "golden" time if you like.
Transition 2
This change over was a bit easier than the first one, basically it was a change of shoes and getting rid of the cycle helmet. I decided to keep my cycle jersey on due to the weather change and the wind. Stuck my cap on, and trainers, grabbed the mars from the bag (kind of a reward and feed) and started on the run.
Transition time 6:04
Run
My legs didn’t take long to adjust to running, normally in training it has taken a kilometre of two of running to get my legs as they should feel for running. This gave me a bit of a mental boost, and on the first 3 miles of the run I was soon within my stride, running well (possibly too quick) and I soon completed the first lap of the lake and the first out and back leg down to the Nottingham forest stadium, feeling very good.
This was around the 11 mile marker, and I worked out I was on for a 1:45ish half marathon. Which I was pleasantly surprised with. This was a bit of a false dawn I was soon to learn.
I'm not sure when it started to go wrong, possibly on the second out and back leg but my stomach was not happy. I had no food strategy for the run so I was drinking and eating whatever I fancied at the aid stations. Although this felt fine at the time, as soon as it started hitting my stomach and sloshing around I started to feel a bit rough. Firstly sick from the water sloshing around and then later feeling very bloated.
At this point, I will start to write more carefully to avoid giving too much details... basically I had to stop at one of the aid station to use the portaloo on the second out and back run.
These stops and starts were doing nothing for my legs as I couldn’t keep a running rhythm up. This was also probably due to me having less and less energy to run, my walking breaks were becoming longer, starting at just aid stations, then to a minute or so every 15 minutes, to finally walking 5 minutes and trying to run for 5 minutes.
The wind was really blowing hard on the lake now. This made the running up the lake very easy, but back down towards the transition was hard and very, very demoralising as the wind howled around my ears and held me back more and more each lap.
When I passed the crowds around the bottom of the lake it made me feel great as it took my mind off the pain and lack of energy. People shouting my name (from off my race number) and encouraging really was helping a lot in those sections... also seeing friends and family cheering for me helped here.
The third and final out and back section should have been a celebration of the fact that I was nearly there, I had about 6 miles to go and I could smell the finish line. Instead it was daunting as I could see the top of the Nottingham Forest stand in the distance; I knew that after that point was my first goal. But the amount of time I was running for was dropping further still this was the point where I was taking 5 minute breaks and trying to run for 20 minutes.
During one of my breaks as my motivation rushed from me, I got a few words of encouragement from a lady who had run a lap less than me; she was also doing the same tactic and happened to be walking at the same time as me.
I can't even remember what she said, but the fact she took her time to help me really did me some good, I managed to run about 3 miles before I broke again, during this time I passed her again and thanked her for her help. I told her I would probably have walked the whole of the last 6 miles if it wasn't for her help.
I then made it onto the loop of the lake for the last time. Just 3/4 of the lake to run around and I was home and finished. But by no the lake looked bigger than ever. The end looked more than a mile or so away and the back straight, that I knew the wind was howling down, was hell on earth just waiting for me.
My legs were really seizing up at this point and I was having the crouch down to release my hamstrings, calves and glutes. It felt like an age making it to the top of the lake, and as I turned the corner I passed the "25 mile" marker, knowing I just had to make it back to the transition area a mile away to be home. But still I couldn't run, knowing the finish line was no more than 10 minutes running away couldn’t motivate me to run.
I walked about half of the back straight, trying to find any last drops of energy or looseness in my legs. Finally I reached a point where I could see the crowds around the lake building again and broke into a run; it was slow and painful at first, but soon built to an actual run... something I hadn’t done properly for about 3 hours! I passed the crowds for the last time, their cheers drowning out the pain in my legs, also seeing my friends that had come to support me and I thanked them as I ran past and I remember myself saying with relief "I've finished!” Finally I made it to the finisher’s area, where 3 times previously I had run past and carried on; I turned left and strode down the red carpeted area with what now felt like ease.
My parents, sister and nieces cheering me along from here, my oldest niece had seen people cross the finish line with children and wanted to run down with me, so she climbed over the barrier and we ran down to the tape together. With the pain now completely gone I thought to myself "why couldn’t I have felt like this for the last hour". But overall I was just happy to have got there and finished.
During the run I had been doing calculations on my finish time, based on how I was running. My predicted run time when I went through 10 miles feeling great was under 4 hours. I finally finished the run section in 4:29:52. This wasn’t too bad in the end, considering the toilet breaks and walking a lot of the last 6 miles. It also beat my previous marathon time by 20 minutes... and that was without the bike and swim before hand.
Finished!
So, I had finished in a time of 11:47:49. Having no goal time before the race (mentioned in previous blog posts) I was just relieved to have finished at that point! I didn’t really care about the time, and I still don’t really. I have started asking myself the 'what if' questions... particularly regarding the run. How close could I have got to 11 hours? But these are questions for another day... and another race possibly. All I know right now is that I gave everything in that run. I thought to myself as I entered the last mile, "I know I've given everything because I can't make myself run from here."
That was all I could do, and I'm proud of doing that.
The Aftermath
Well after finally getting back to my hotel in Nottingham around 9:30pm on Sunday night, my legs were sore, but not too bad. I had some food and went to sleep about midnight due to the adrenaline and left over sugar still coursing through me.
Woke up Monday morning (this morning) walking very slowly and taking very small steps, stairs are proving to be a pain, especially going down them... which is proving difficult in my second floor flat!
My calves are especially sore, probably down to me shuffling rather than running. They should start losing soon I hope. But it's not too bad and all worth it in the end.
My neck and top of my shoulders are also sore from the bike but that’s not too bad.
Thanks!
I need to say thank you to quite a few people overall, but at the moment I'm just going to thank people for the race day help (the thanks for the months of help during the training will come in a later post I think).
So thank you to My Mom, Dad, Gemma, Ruby, Daisy, Holly, Alex, Laura and Ed for taking time out of their weekend to come to Nottingham to see me race. I never expected other people to be interested in my mental pursuits. So this was great to have the extra support and encouragement during the run.
More general thanks go to the scores of supporters on the race course and in the surrounding villages, the race volunteers and the marshals. You all did a great job in making it a great day for the thousand people who took part.
Thanks also to the unknown lady on the run course who kept my spirits up when I was struggling to keep myself going and also the few brief conversations I had around the course with people, nothing much was said, but it certainly helped take my mind off the pain for a few seconds!
Sponsorship
Had a great week leading up to the race in the way of sponsorship. I now have a confirmed £727 with an estimated £100 still out there to be collected on sponsorship forms. All the people who sponsored me deserve a thank you too because I kept that money in mind and some individual names during the run to keep me moving forward.
Sponsorship is still open, the links on the top right of the page, way up the top now!
If you have made it this far, you have done very well! You deserve a drink or something; go treat yourself and thank you for reading!
I hope I have inspired, made you laugh or just made you think "This guy is nuts!”
Finally... The End!
Day before Race - Registration
So I registered on Saturday, the sight was busy and everyone looked relaxed. I was too to be honest, normally when I get to a race venue the nerves start, but they didn’t this time. I have been anxious to get the race underway ever since my taper started 3 weeks ago so I was just happy it was coming along soon!
The registration was all straight forward, signed in and collected all the race numbers and transition bags. Normally in the transition area all the kit is piled next to your bike for a quick change over. But for long distance races they tend to have bags in a transition tent for racers who want to completely change clothes. This was all new to me, but seemed pretty straight forward. We were given one bag for pre/post race kit, one for the change from swim to bike and one from the change from bike to run.
I had planned the content of these bags over the week before the race so I knew what was needed, took them back to my car and started to fill them with all the kit I needed.
My Race Number
Decided to do a quick ride around the lake on my bike to make sure it was all set up correctly and I was happy with it, this is where the fun started. Set off in shorts and t-shirt as the sun was beating down. Before I had walked from my car to the lake the black clouds had formed and it was raining! So in the 5 minute ride around the lake I managed to get soaked. I also got my first taste of how the wind was blowing down the lake. This will come into it later.
So now I was wet and annoyed, and the sun came back out. I racked my bike in the transition area and walked back to the car. Finished off my transition bags and took them down to the transition tents to hang them on the numbered hooks. I got lucky with this as my race Bib was 200, this meant I was right at the end of a row. My Bags were easy to find during the race, with 2000 bags (2 for each competitor) I imagine some people would have struggled to find their bags.
After this I headed to the hotel. had an hours sleep as there was nothing on TV before grabbing some food (pasta obviously) I knew I would struggle to sleep that night I always do before races but I had slept well all week so I wasn’t too fussed about a few lost hours, also the area around the hotel was quite loud. I think I managed about 3 hours sleep before my alarm went off at 3am! Yes there is a 3am! It’s not a nice time to be awake! Well it’s ok if you haven’t yet been to bed, if you have been to bed its horrible!
I forced down some porridge and a bagel that made me feel sick, no one should be eating at that time! But I knew I needed it. Left the hotel at about 4am so I could get there with time to spare and not be rushed. Proof I shouldn’t have been awake was the 5 guys in the resident bar very drunk and enjoying the end of the night!
Start and Swim
Picture borrowed from the Outlaw Facebook page
Got to the Lake as the sun was rising, clear sky and the wind wasn’t blowing too hard yet. This changed very quickly. Wet suit on, and I walked down to the lake side. Got there and realised I had forgotten my goggles! Nice start; ran back and got them and I was back in time. We got in the water at about 5:45am. The water was a nice temperature, not too warm but not painfully cold. |I managed to get a little bit of swimming in before being penned in for the start. We waited around for about 5 minutes. Then the buzzer went and we were off!! The first 100 metres or so saw 4 pens of different speed of swimmer converge into about 30 metres width of water, in other words it was mayhem!
I had decided to start in pen 2. The 60 min to 80 min pen as I have done the full distance in 1:05 in training. The swim start was nothing short of insane. For the first 10 minutes I don’t think I managed to complete a full swim stroke without my arm hitting someone, or being kicked. Over the course of those 10 minutes I think I was kicked in the face and chest about 4 times, none of them painful just a bit annoyed. During this time I think I may have kicked a few people as well, all unintentional.
Swim Start (Also Borrowed from Facebook)
After these first manic minutes the swim calmed down a bit and I managed to find a bit of free water and got my heart rate down to a more manageable level. The outward swim had the wind behind us which made it feel a bit easier and I soon reached the turn buoy. I looked at my watch and saw 31 minutes, which I was very happy with. Then at the turn buoy the mayhem started all over again! Every swimmer converged into a small space to swim the 90 metres across the lake to prepare to swim back, so I had another couple of minutes of interrupted swimming and searching for any free space I could find. After the turn and on the way back it thinned out again so I got a good amount of space again to swim comfortably.
But this time it was into the wind. This made it harder and probably slower, but I couldn’t really tell on the speed without any landmarks to reference. The wind was really whipping up the water too so had a few waves to contend with nothing more than a few mouthfuls of water though.
The back leg of the swim felt slower than the first and the transition area at the end of the lake looked a long way away, but managed to get out the water in 1:06:44 which I was happy with because I was thinking around 1:10.
Transition
Made my way into transition letting my head get used to being vertical again. Sometimes swimming for so long and then running messes with your balance so I took it easy through transition grabbing my bike stuff and getting changed, exchanged a few words with a couple of other racers all encouraging each other before departing.
One side note that made me chuckle were the volunteer "wetsuit strippers" basically undoing wetsuits and ripping the suits off people as they sat on the floor. Very funny to watch, I didn’t take part in the fun though; my wetsuit came off pretty easy, a lot easier than it seems to go on.
Transition took a relaxing 5:54
Bike
The bike started nicely, had a nice tail wind along the duel carriage way out of Nottingham, it was nice to have a lane cordoned off to ourselves as well. So I took this time to get my legs into the race a bit and get them going. The wind was blowing, but as I said it was a tail wind which made the biking easy and quick. The sun was out at this time too so it was nice for so early in the morning.
It took a while to get my legs going and feeling like they should, had to get out the seat a few times to try and fire the muscles up a bit but after 30-40 minutes they were fine and I was going well. We reached the first and only hill they noted on the course, which wasn’t very nice. The problem was it had a hidden summit, so I powered up the first part thinking I was at the top, only to turn the corner to see it carry on further and steeper. I soon powered my way to the top, also overtaking a few people on the way up. The reward at the top of the hill was a nice decent for a few miles to get my heart rate down.
The next few hours on the bike were quite uneventful, struggling against the head wind sometimes and enjoying the break of the tail wind. The bike course went through some tiny villages around Nottingham, which had some great support from the residents, was really nice to have the support from full families, and gave me a nice lift.
There was an official spectator point on the course in one of the villages which was great, a few hundred people lining the road with banners and bells etc. Felt like I was part of the Tour de France! Definitely a boost from this on the two passes.
My plan for the bike was to do it in around 6 hours hopefully, but I wasn’t too fussed if it dropped down to 6:30. I was holding above 30km per hour average which was perfect for a 6 hour bike. The last hour or so of the bike was hard, hard work. My shoulders and arms were starting to really hurt in any position I was in, I was looking forward to getting off the bike.
Also from around 100 miles onwards was into a constant headwind that was soul destroying and leg destroying, took me from an average of 31km per hour down to 30, as I struggled against it. So I basically counted off the minutes as I went, reminding myself "there's only x minutes left" etc. This got me to the end. All this time I was wondering if I would be able to run, considering my legs didn’t want to bike anymore, surely they wouldn’t want to run. I had to think I would see how I would feel when I started running.
Then during the last mile of the bike as I started to relax and think how I would feel on the run, the heavens opened and I got soaked! I swore at the weather as I turned into the private road back to the lake and was soon off the bike.
I passed my bike to a race marshal to re-rack it and made the run to the transition tent while the rain poured down. Finished the bike in 5:59:12, again, as I had hoped, a "golden" time if you like.
Transition 2
This change over was a bit easier than the first one, basically it was a change of shoes and getting rid of the cycle helmet. I decided to keep my cycle jersey on due to the weather change and the wind. Stuck my cap on, and trainers, grabbed the mars from the bag (kind of a reward and feed) and started on the run.
Transition time 6:04
Run
My legs didn’t take long to adjust to running, normally in training it has taken a kilometre of two of running to get my legs as they should feel for running. This gave me a bit of a mental boost, and on the first 3 miles of the run I was soon within my stride, running well (possibly too quick) and I soon completed the first lap of the lake and the first out and back leg down to the Nottingham forest stadium, feeling very good.
This was around the 11 mile marker, and I worked out I was on for a 1:45ish half marathon. Which I was pleasantly surprised with. This was a bit of a false dawn I was soon to learn.
I'm not sure when it started to go wrong, possibly on the second out and back leg but my stomach was not happy. I had no food strategy for the run so I was drinking and eating whatever I fancied at the aid stations. Although this felt fine at the time, as soon as it started hitting my stomach and sloshing around I started to feel a bit rough. Firstly sick from the water sloshing around and then later feeling very bloated.
At this point, I will start to write more carefully to avoid giving too much details... basically I had to stop at one of the aid station to use the portaloo on the second out and back run.
These stops and starts were doing nothing for my legs as I couldn’t keep a running rhythm up. This was also probably due to me having less and less energy to run, my walking breaks were becoming longer, starting at just aid stations, then to a minute or so every 15 minutes, to finally walking 5 minutes and trying to run for 5 minutes.
The wind was really blowing hard on the lake now. This made the running up the lake very easy, but back down towards the transition was hard and very, very demoralising as the wind howled around my ears and held me back more and more each lap.
When I passed the crowds around the bottom of the lake it made me feel great as it took my mind off the pain and lack of energy. People shouting my name (from off my race number) and encouraging really was helping a lot in those sections... also seeing friends and family cheering for me helped here.
The third and final out and back section should have been a celebration of the fact that I was nearly there, I had about 6 miles to go and I could smell the finish line. Instead it was daunting as I could see the top of the Nottingham Forest stand in the distance; I knew that after that point was my first goal. But the amount of time I was running for was dropping further still this was the point where I was taking 5 minute breaks and trying to run for 20 minutes.
During one of my breaks as my motivation rushed from me, I got a few words of encouragement from a lady who had run a lap less than me; she was also doing the same tactic and happened to be walking at the same time as me.
I can't even remember what she said, but the fact she took her time to help me really did me some good, I managed to run about 3 miles before I broke again, during this time I passed her again and thanked her for her help. I told her I would probably have walked the whole of the last 6 miles if it wasn't for her help.
I then made it onto the loop of the lake for the last time. Just 3/4 of the lake to run around and I was home and finished. But by no the lake looked bigger than ever. The end looked more than a mile or so away and the back straight, that I knew the wind was howling down, was hell on earth just waiting for me.
My legs were really seizing up at this point and I was having the crouch down to release my hamstrings, calves and glutes. It felt like an age making it to the top of the lake, and as I turned the corner I passed the "25 mile" marker, knowing I just had to make it back to the transition area a mile away to be home. But still I couldn't run, knowing the finish line was no more than 10 minutes running away couldn’t motivate me to run.
I walked about half of the back straight, trying to find any last drops of energy or looseness in my legs. Finally I reached a point where I could see the crowds around the lake building again and broke into a run; it was slow and painful at first, but soon built to an actual run... something I hadn’t done properly for about 3 hours! I passed the crowds for the last time, their cheers drowning out the pain in my legs, also seeing my friends that had come to support me and I thanked them as I ran past and I remember myself saying with relief "I've finished!” Finally I made it to the finisher’s area, where 3 times previously I had run past and carried on; I turned left and strode down the red carpeted area with what now felt like ease.
My parents, sister and nieces cheering me along from here, my oldest niece had seen people cross the finish line with children and wanted to run down with me, so she climbed over the barrier and we ran down to the tape together. With the pain now completely gone I thought to myself "why couldn’t I have felt like this for the last hour". But overall I was just happy to have got there and finished.
During the run I had been doing calculations on my finish time, based on how I was running. My predicted run time when I went through 10 miles feeling great was under 4 hours. I finally finished the run section in 4:29:52. This wasn’t too bad in the end, considering the toilet breaks and walking a lot of the last 6 miles. It also beat my previous marathon time by 20 minutes... and that was without the bike and swim before hand.
Finished!
So, I had finished in a time of 11:47:49. Having no goal time before the race (mentioned in previous blog posts) I was just relieved to have finished at that point! I didn’t really care about the time, and I still don’t really. I have started asking myself the 'what if' questions... particularly regarding the run. How close could I have got to 11 hours? But these are questions for another day... and another race possibly. All I know right now is that I gave everything in that run. I thought to myself as I entered the last mile, "I know I've given everything because I can't make myself run from here."
That was all I could do, and I'm proud of doing that.
Race Bling!
Well after finally getting back to my hotel in Nottingham around 9:30pm on Sunday night, my legs were sore, but not too bad. I had some food and went to sleep about midnight due to the adrenaline and left over sugar still coursing through me.
Woke up Monday morning (this morning) walking very slowly and taking very small steps, stairs are proving to be a pain, especially going down them... which is proving difficult in my second floor flat!
My calves are especially sore, probably down to me shuffling rather than running. They should start losing soon I hope. But it's not too bad and all worth it in the end.
My neck and top of my shoulders are also sore from the bike but that’s not too bad.
Thanks!
I need to say thank you to quite a few people overall, but at the moment I'm just going to thank people for the race day help (the thanks for the months of help during the training will come in a later post I think).
So thank you to My Mom, Dad, Gemma, Ruby, Daisy, Holly, Alex, Laura and Ed for taking time out of their weekend to come to Nottingham to see me race. I never expected other people to be interested in my mental pursuits. So this was great to have the extra support and encouragement during the run.
More general thanks go to the scores of supporters on the race course and in the surrounding villages, the race volunteers and the marshals. You all did a great job in making it a great day for the thousand people who took part.
Thanks also to the unknown lady on the run course who kept my spirits up when I was struggling to keep myself going and also the few brief conversations I had around the course with people, nothing much was said, but it certainly helped take my mind off the pain for a few seconds!
Sponsorship
Had a great week leading up to the race in the way of sponsorship. I now have a confirmed £727 with an estimated £100 still out there to be collected on sponsorship forms. All the people who sponsored me deserve a thank you too because I kept that money in mind and some individual names during the run to keep me moving forward.
Sponsorship is still open, the links on the top right of the page, way up the top now!
If you have made it this far, you have done very well! You deserve a drink or something; go treat yourself and thank you for reading!
I hope I have inspired, made you laugh or just made you think "This guy is nuts!”
Finally... The End!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)