Pre-Pre Race
I travelled on Friday. Leaving at midday, with an expected arrival time of 14:52. Thanks to traffic and bad satnav I didn't get to the hotel until after 16:30. Of the many things I have made sure I trained for, sitting in the car for over 4 hours and driving the whole way myself (Fiancee had to stay behind after her Grandad was hospitalised at the end of the week) was not one of them. Fortunately the hotel was great, very close to the course and handy for several restaurants. And they didn't bat an eyelid when we rolled our bikes through reception after our recce of the course.
Pre Race
As my team mate and I rolled into the registration area and parked our bikes I saw the enormous queue, but also saw that people coming out of the queue all had their wallets out and were tucking away their race licences. And of course mine was safely in my wallet, safely back in the car at the hotel. I spotted an athlete I knew and asked him if they were checking and it turned out they were. So I had another, slightly quicker, couple of miles on the bike, back to the car to get it. That actually made for a decent warm-up and burned off a little of the nervous energy I needed to get rid of.
By the time I was back at the course the queue was still enormous and they announced that the first heat would be delayed by 15 mins to give more time for registration and bike racking. That took a bit of the pressure off. Having registered and collected my number and had my Age-group written on me I headed out to rack my bike and set up transition.
It was only when I went to drop my bag off that the lady handing out the timing chips spotted me and asked if I had mine yet that I realised I didn't. Another potential disaster averted. I got suited up, checked my garmin was set to the right sports and went to watch the start of the first two waves while waiting for the third wave.
Race - Swim
The water temperature was 16 degrees. Easily the warmest I have been in this year. I was near the back as we entered the water, but as many of the others went for a short warm-up I headed straight for the start pontoon and got into a space I liked. The starter called everyone in pretty quickly and he was much smarter than at Knockburn last week. He gave us a 10 second warning, but only gave us about 5 until he sounded the hooter, making sure no-one got a false start.
I expected a lot of the same rough and tumble as last week, with a larger field on a tighter course. Instead I got a beautifully smooth swim. I was right one someone's feet for the first couple of turns. I wasn't quite going full gas but I was happy with the amount of energy I was saving and knowing that any move to overtake was going to cost me a lot of energy for only a few seconds of time. Down the back edge of the loch someone moved across to try and get onto the same feet I was drafting. Again I expected a bit of shoving but instead he got close enough to get some draft effect but didn't barge right in, so we were both benefitting.
Around the last turn and I realised I had a lot left in my arms. I pulled up alongside the guy I had been drafting and we exited the water together. My watch says 12:09. There was then a long run through transition to the timing mats so the official time is 13:07. I was 58th overall and 7th in my category after the swim.
I had a great run through transition, wetsuit came off easily and helmet went on clean, picking up 10 places, and passing one from my age-group, coming out in 48th and 6th.
Race - Bike
I nearly neutered myself with my first attempt to mount the bike. My second attempt was much cleaner and I was able to pedal cleanly out onto the bike course and get my feet into my shoes. I even managed to get the straps tightened before I got to the first small climb.
At this point I passed the first person from my category. Everyone having their category written on their right calf made it nice and easy to tell who was who. Over the first rise and I got into my time trial position only for 2 other H-category athletes to pass me almost instantly and then I passed a different one. It was demoralising to be passed so easily by the two guys who shot into the distance but there were so many people on the course that I was passing plenty of people and occasional H-category racers. It is hard to differentiate between the four bike laps. I was working hard on most of the climbs but losing places and still pushing the pedals and making places back on the downhill sections.
About half way round lap 2 a small group of G and H riders came past. I thought they were all co-incidentally passing me at the same time but it quickly became clear that they were all drafting as a pack. A friend of mine from my athletics days overtook me but couldn't get past the pack and sat off them to avoid a drafting penalty. I was seesawing a gap to him, losing on climbs and gaining on my more aggressive descents. I even passed him on one of the longer descents and ended up just off the back of the small pack on lap 3. I took a bad line in to the next turn and they pulled away again, rather than risk a drafting penalty trying to chase them I just let them go. And that was when the motorbike draft marshall finally showed up to deal with them.
He sat behind them for about 10 seconds before tooting his horn. this had absolutely no effect so he pulled alongside and gave them a verbal warning, and still no reaction. Then he pulled up at the next lay-by and got out his notebook. I expect all of them went in it but the penalties are not showing in the results yet.
On the last bike lap my garmin auto-lap buzzed and I spotted that even on the lumpy and twisty course I was doing over 20 mph. I still felt like there was something left in my legs so I dug deep on the last bike lap and coming down the last long downhill section I passed a few of the H's.
I came off the bike in 58th and 8th, but with plenty of H's around me and hoping some of them had used up their strong events.
Another slick transition and I was out 57th and 7th.
Race - Run
Out onto the run and this was the first time I noticed that the weather had warmed up. The sun was out and it was warming up nicely. I got into my running nice and easily and was passing people every 10-20 meters. It turns out most of those were stragglers from the previous waves though. I was passed by a few on the first lap but I was checking out their category coding every time they passed. A handful of G's (35-39) and a few E's (25-29) went past but I let them go and stayed at my pace for the whole of the first lap.
Then at the start of the second lap an H passed me and I had to make a decision. I felt I was running hard and with 2k still to go I could just track him round and try to outspent him. I settled on that as a plan but he started to open a few meters of gap and I had to throw that plan away about a quarter mile later. I decided with a mile left to go for a long finish and picked up to go past him. And the increase in pace started to tell. I had a twitch of cramp from my hamstring but it went away a step later. As we approached the last turn I tried to pull away up the short little climb and I could hear his footsteps drop back a little, but I hadn't broken him. He had stolen my plan A and was just going to follow me to a sprint.
As we rounded the loch I tried to up the pace again and had twitches from both calves and my hamstring again. I nearly settled and let him past. I could have contented myself with knowing I had pushed right to my limit and I was right on the point of risking an injury but then I got to a Marshall I knew and I couldn't have him see me lose a sprint. Then the family of the guy behind me started screaming for him to sprint and I heard him. After missing out on a silver medal last week in similar circumstances I wasn't going to let that happen again so I went right into my full sprint to finish.
I was up to 52nd overall, 8th Vet and 5th H(40-44). With 3 other H's in the 24 seconds behind me. That big push on the second lap of the run and the sprint to the line was worth every painful step.
Post Race
So first things first, the results:
The official results have me in 52nd overall, 8th Veteran and 5th V40-44, but with penalties still to be added. And that could completely rewrite the results as there was a LOT of drafting going on. I think I am clean, I generally didn't have to drop back when people passed me as they easily opened enough of a gap. I was definitely safe for the mount and dismount lines. I kept my transition area tidy, and they didn't have boxes so that would be a very tough penalty for them to justify anyway.
So my target to be in the top-4 Vets was always a huge stretch, so I am happy with 8th. My next stretch target to be top-4 in the 40-44 group was still a stretch and I am really pleased with 5th (subject to penalties). And my actual realistic target to get a roll down place looks good. I was 106.57% of the winner. That puts me right at the very top of the roll down list, with potentially 8 roll down spaces available. Unless there is a massive bunch all within 6.5% of the winner at Chatsworth Sprint at the start of July then I should get into the GB team for Dusseldorf next year.
After the race I headed back to the hotel, went for some lunch with my team mate, did a bit of tidying up and checked my other bike for Sunday's race. Then I pedalled back to the course, planning to watch the Junior races, but I got roped into a bit of marshalling as well.
Once I got back to the hotel in the evening I went out for dinner and then back to the hotel to do a bit of rollering, check out all my gear for Sunday's race, packed up my room to make my early check out easier in the morning and then sat down to watch TV and write this.
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