Today the chickens came home to roost, at 6.30am Andrew arrived to pick me up (race started at 8.30am , ridiculous I know) and we duly arrived at the river Doone where it meets the sea in lovely sunshine with no wind, but midgies in force. Registration completed with numbers 16 Andrew and 17 me inked onto our left hands and right calfs making it official we had to do it now , one of us was ready for anything, the other was wondering who said yes those few months ago.
A wee brief before the race at 8.15 basically said don't run with I-pods and apart from that "enjoy yourselves", then it was into the river for a wee warm up splash. The swim course was 2 loops of upriver /downriver with a dividing line in the middle, with competitors wearing white, red or blue swim caps according to their estimated swim times, with white being fast, red intermediate and blue the back markers. Andrew and I know our places, he was white and I was blue.
At the off it was all a bit off a fight for your place scenario, legs and arms seemed to be everywhere and I did not really settle down until the end of the first loop, after which things went swimmingly. Andrew settled down at the end of the first 50yards and needless to say I only saw him in the passing after that, him passing me on the way back on the bike, though he did wave and then again on the run, me on the out leg him on the return.
Transition - is when you try to change out of a wetsuit into cycle shoes and gear, this is supposed to be fast and seamless and to some people it may be. I obviously need to work on it a lot more. I was informed after the race by a seasoned tri expert that "baby oil" rubbed on your foreams and from knee to ankle facilitates getting your wetsuit off in a jiffy, now you know what baby oil is for.
Anyway eventually on the bike and the route was out to the A719 and up to the Heads of Ayr then down into Dunure, up out of Dunure and back to complete the bike section. The write up said "undulating", right enough it was, but undulating upwards for a good bit, to the turn into Dunure and then a nice wee downhill followed by a couple of kilometres uphill back onto the A719 , then the last few kilometers was a good downhil run to the bike finish. I must admit I quite enjoyed the bike there was no wind and apart from one section out of Dunure the road surface was okay, also though it was not a closed road cycle there was little traffic. In fact I even managed to pass tractor at one point.
Finally into the run, I thought I am Harrier I can do this, - forgot to tell my legs to come out of bike mode first and spent about 5 mins re-educating them into a proper running style. 5k after swimming and biking, it seemed longer than Victoria Park and was also hillier, it was out for 2.5k then round a marshall and back the same way, I did not realise 2.5k could seem so long to the turn but got there and back to finish still in perfect weather and happy not to be last.
Overall it was a good experiance (will I do another - never say never) and the Ayr Tri club deserve congratulations for setting it all up and organising it so well. We were treated to tea, sandwiches and lots of edibles after the race and it was very relaxing in the sunshine to wind down after our efforts.
Now we have done it and have the T-shirts to prove it.
Finally the nitty - gritty , the stats.
Andrew - 6th place overall -time 1hr 06mins 25 secs. Swim- 11mins 51 secs - 5th place. Bike - 37mins 23secs - 11th place. Run 17mins 11 secs - 1st place
Billy - 53rd place overall -time 1hr 24mins 10 secs. Swim- 16mins 29 secs - 49th place Bike- 45mins 59secs - 58th place. Run 21mins 42 secs - 29th place.
Was a total of 89 finishers.
Billy
1 comment:
Well done Andy and Billy. This reminds me of Ironman Switzerland where Billy, I and others were there in a supporting capacity but where Billy declared that an Ironman was on the cards for him. I consider this sprint to be the first foot on that ladder!
Alan
Post a Comment