A Day in the Lakes - quite literally!

The green caps half way to the turning point

Jim prepares for battle

As the wind and rain battered my tent on the Saturday night before Sunday's A Day in the Lakes Half Ironman Triathlon, I was sort of glad that I wasn't running this year, having experienced the run in similar weather conditions 5 or 6 years ago. The Harriers were well represented in two relay teams this year. In the Calderglen M50 team we had Martin Duthie on the swim leg, my brother Robin on the bike leg and first timer at ADIL, Eddie Reid on the run leg. Following a debut victory in a similar event at Loch Lomond last year with a work's team, Jim Holmes had somehow conned encouraged those same colleagues into joining him in a team for ADIL, never mind the distances of all the legs were stepped up from the Loch Lomond event. So Jim took the swim leg and his colleagues David and Colin took the bike and run legs respectively.

Earlier in the week, we had been advised that the 13 mile run leg had been sanitised to a certain extent, replacing the second and larger of the two off road hill/fell ascents with a run up the valley between the very severe fells and back again to join the original route along the lake side road. This was still not what could be considered a flat route but was welcome news to Eddie.

Martin arrives just in time

Martin and Mandy made a huge effort to be at the race this year having had a prior commitment on Saturday which meant they arrived in the Lake District very late on Saturday night. Half an hour before the event was due to start and Martin was still not at the course. If it had been anyone else I would have been concerned that I might have had to substitute for Martin in the swim but without a wet suit! I wasn't worried though and two minutes into the pre-race briefing, Martin appeared running through the field in his wet suit ready to go just in time (or early as Martin would probably say).

After a detailed briefing explaining all the different ways you could be disqualified, we headed down to the slip way to watch Jim and Martin step into the uninviting and increasingly choppy waters of Ulswater. Shortly after, the mass of green swimming caps were set on their way on a 2-lap 2km course. However by about 10 minutes into the swim it was clear that all was not well. A few swimmers had already surrendered to the conditions and been pulled out by the rescue boat and now the large inflatable buoys nearest the shore were dragging their anchors in the wind driven current and were moving rapidly in the direction of various moored yachts and cruisers. Despite the best efforts of the rescue boat to rescue the buoys, we heard the race director ask the rescue boat to relay a message to the swimmers to come out after one lap. Conditions were just too dangerous. As we all know, giving instructions and directions to runners during a race is difficult enough. Try doing it to swimmers in rough water! Neither Martin nor Jim initially believed or understood the instruction but the sight of others heading for the slip way after lap 1 convinced them to head for shore. Meanwhile, I had run back to transition to tell our cyclists that they only had a few minutes before the swimmers would be in.

Robin exits transition

Martin emerged from the water and passed a few on the 100m run to transition, crossing the timing mat in 20:09 in 6th place and handing the timing chip over to my brother. Jim was not too far behind in 24:09 and 28th position (note that there were only 5 or 6 relay teams in the competition, so these positions are for the overall field consisting mainly of individual triathlon competitors).

Jim found this to be a horrendous experience, swimming across the wind on the long way across the lake, he couldn't breath as the waves were smashing into the left side of his face, the side he breaths to and he couldn't see over the waves to see where he was going. Turning briefly down wind at the far side of the lake, it was almost like surfing, he was being blown along so fast but then there was the inevitable turn back across the lake. At least he was breathing away from the wind this direction. He wasn't sure he could have managed a second lap. Well done Jim and Martin for the most horrendous leg.

This was the third time my brother has done this event and he was reasonably confident of the course. However, the marshals had been instructed not to direct the cyclists at a particular junction where the cyclists joined the two lap course and left it for the finish after either one or two laps depending on which distance they were racing (quarter or half ironman). The reasoning behind this was that the marshal could not know if the cyclist was on their first or second lap so the cyclist had to work that out for themselves. As two cyclists had gone straight past this marshal ahead of my brother, he followed them. When they arrived at a motorway roundabout leading on to the M6, they realised they were off course! This detour also involved passing through temporary traffic lights twice, which were naturally at red! As Martin had been disqualified a few years previously for passing a red light, my brother duly waited, growing ever more impatient. Eventually, after a 2.5 mile detour, he was back on course and pushing a little too hard, setting many Strava segment personal records on the first lap trying to make up lost time. He almost held it for the second lap but blew up 2 miles from the finish and was absolutely done in when he crossed the line into transition and handed over the chip to Eddie. Robin covered the 50 mile hilly course in 2:40:19 and 36th on the bike leg. A few minutes covered many cyclists though, so without that off course excursion he could well have been in the top dozen. Jim's cyclist David had no navigational problems and handed over to Colin in 3:07:36.

David sets off.

Eddie had been well instructed to take it easy on the first kilometer which was flat and to ignore anyone who sped past him as they would most likely be walking up the steep hill that followed for km's two to three! Indeed this was the case and Eddie made good progress up the hill onto the high track which unfortunately turned directly into the strong winds. After about 10k the course headed up the valley into even stronger winds which Eddie reported made it almost like running on the spot. During this part of the run, Eddie held off a challenge from what we thought was another relay team and had a relatively clear run back along the lakeside to the finish which he reached in 1:53:13. Colin was also charging around the course but stood no chance of making up the almost half hour gap, crossing the line in 1:49:00.

After another soaking awaiting the prize giving, we were pleased to hear that Calderglen's M50 team had won the relay category. There is no truth in the rumour that our illustrious club president phoned up to ask how we got on and on hearing that we had won had uttered "what, you won with Eddie in the team!". Shocking! Well done to the guys.

The winning relay team

Jim's team (Calderglen Beasties) were not far away from the lead, finishing third relay team. No doubt they will be more wary of suggestions from Jim in the future though.

Jim's team, the Beasties

The final event of the triathlon is of course packing away the tents in gale force wind and rain. Never an easy session but one which we all completed.

A well earned seat for Eddie

Tent wrestling

A few more of my photos are in this album. Many more official photos here. Thanks to both our teams for making this another fun weekend, despite the weather. I don't think any of us were deterred from competing next year!
Alan