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Outlaw 2011
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At the dismount line, I undid my cycling shoes ready to pull my feet out however, the right foot decided it wanted to play silly buggers and stay in the shoe and the shoe then unclipped from the bike!! I just chuck the shoe at the marshal and ran for the tent!!! (it was beside the bike on collection - I won that arguement!). So into T2, another toilet stop, suncream on and away I went. I was HOT!!! The cool breeze on the bike must have masked the real temperature. The suncream was not good enough. My back is the colour of a lobster!! Took it easy on the run for the first 20 minutes. Decided to get loads of gel in to the system and high 5 at the pit stops. Saw loads of people walking, in pain with cramp, even hopping... it was carnage!!
Made it to the lake (24.2mile) at 11 hours.. nearly made sub 11hours. Slightly gutted I didn't make it. Came in at 11hours 20minutes. Really proud of my efforts and of all the competitors I met along the way to the finish line. Truely atmospheric!!
The question is where do I go from here? Back to standard, maybe just a fun run or possibly another crack at the Iron? One thing I know for sure is that, I will wollow in my glory this week, pay tribute to those that have helped me along this difficult path and hopefully see my friends and family again!!! It was been a hard road but here we are, in the executives club!!
Well done guys.
Thannks for that but if I recall 2 things,
1. Your race report said you slept in your car!!(How did you not have backache)Much to cosy for me!!
2. London is a long commute from London!!
Midnight training, Hmmm thats a thought!!
Well I'm usually fine in my tent, but after lying listening to fireworks and other noise, my nerves told me to kip in the car, lest I get no sleep. It seemed to work as I slept some! The downside being (as you correctly noticed) back pain. Over the course of the bike leg it got worse, culminating in being in a lot of pain when down on the aerobars. Consequently a lot of the rouute home was ridden on the hoods, or standing up to stretch!
And London isn't that far a commute from London...
Oops. Need to read before submitting.
Now what you mean about back pain. I started hurting after about 80 miles. I put it down to being old, and possibly a poor bike fit. Unfortunately I can only change one of those.
Here you go folks, a slightly self-indulgent race report to read over your cornflakes.
After having completed last year’s inaugural Outlaw and enjoyed it so much, I was keen to come back for another go and see if I could improve my time at all. Turned up Saturday morning at the campsite, put the canvas Taj Mahal up, registered, came back & tweaked the bike then bagged, racked & race briefed whilst bumping into various pirates in the process before popping into town for a bit of food with the family & limiting myself to just the 1 beer. Quick chat with the assorted contingent on the campsite (too many supporters there drinking beer and I could feel my willpower disappearing) then a bit of sleep before the alarm went off at stupid o’clock.
Porridge pot, rice pudding and bagel eaten, quick trip to T1 to sort out tyre pressures and drinks bottles then back to finish ablutions and get wetsuit on before joining a bunch of fellow pirates and a throng of nervous looking people mingling around the transition areas. A gentle stroll to the lake (thanks Happychap for the motivational words), into bay 4 (for us slower swimmers) and a little wallow in the water getting cold before the hooter went off. I found the swim fairly boring, a lot less weeds than the previous year which was excellent and seemingly plenty of space meant I was swimming by myself most of the time, it was tough going mentally as loads of negative thoughts were bouncing into my head, why had I not done more swim training etc etc, so put in an effort to get onto someone’s feet and hung in there for a while but couldn’t hold their pace so ended up swimming by myself again and amazingly out of the water to see the clock showing 1:30 something, pretty much bang on last year’s swim time with less swim training done, result and in a much more positive frame of mind.
Swim 1:30:39 (2010 – 1:30:46)
Tested out the strength of the marquee by using it as a leaning post whilst trying to get the wetsuit off, luckily enough it stayed upright with the amount of people crammed in there (and yes I know if I could swim quicker it wouldn’t be so crowded), quick ruffle of FF’s hair, chat with Cornish Digger and out into a spacious (near empty) racking area and onto the bike.
T1 08:04 (2010 - 09:11)
Spun the first lap of the lake with positive shouts from the crowd ringing in my ears, only to find that part of my newly fitted aerobottle was making a break for freedom. Spent the next few miles trying to shove it back in and getting covered in sticky liquid (sounds like a script from a bad American teen movie) before settling down to some cycling.
Tried not to go too hard on Lap1, I found the headwind on the back of the lap tough so made sure I worked on the other sections to try and keep the average speed up around 17mph, a few chats as I swapped places with pirates, and some random competitors who I just thought I’d share the time of day with (did anyone else see the girl on the pink bike with pink fluffy dice on her handlebars, it put a grin on my face), kept the fluids going in & eating every ½ hour either ½ an energy bar (never get bored with chocolate zipvit bars) or a lovingly cut banana from the fantastic pirate feed station, what a boost that was each lap, even though they weren’t able to fulfil my wish for a beer on lap 2.
I was getting annoyed with some bloke sitting on my back wheel on Lap 3 on the descent into Southwell, so not being wise or brave enough to use Monique’s technique of getting rid of him, I resorted to taking a couple of the bends as quick as possible through the town and soon had lost him. Got a bit bored and tired towards the end of the long straight back into T2 as I just wanted to get out running but seeing the various pirate marshalls on this section along with a quick chat with Little Sister on the bike relay leg helped. Turned into the watersports centre to loads of cheering again and in making sure I didn’t lose it over the speed bumps didn’t see anyone but heard a couple of little voices shouting “Go Daddy” which was a great way to end the bike section.
Bike 6:32:18 (2010 – 7:08:08) - Shows where most of my training has been this year, it really is all about the bike.
Handed my bike over and ran straight into the Portaloo, to the sound of the commentator announcing this and then found it rocking precariously as one of the Pirate relay runners decided I needed to splash my feet (Cake & HH could well be the guilty parties on this one I think, thanks guys
). Change into dry top and socks, get smothered in suntan lotion and off onto the bit I’d been looking forward too.
T2 06:25 (2010 – 06:06) – I’m sure the extra time was from messing around finishing off my gimp look with the compression socks this year.
..........And just realised that the run part of my report is on the laptop at home so that'll have to wait till later..... in summary though I ran and it hurt far too much!
Reading race reports is very dangerous, In the Blue!
Jaffa's mention of the gimp look reminded me that I loved STIL's report and his comment about 'gimp socks' . They are vile aren't they? (I will be wearing calf guards - such a good look on my stumpy little legs. They give my knees muffin tops).
Don't worry, I got my revenge when they both got high fives on the run course
I have got the most amusing 3 way tan line marks, shorts all day, cycle socks for the bike only and gimp socks for the run leads to very tanned knees, slightly tanned calfs and pasty white quads!Feckin' brilliant, and for those in any doubt Pirates do well and truly feckin' rock.
I may have to swim back for next year's reprise, especially if it's the big Pirate bash of the year ...
Yeh! Kanga to do Outlaw 2012.
(there will be loads of people to conga over the finish line with)
You can come back with us in March Kanga.
<Goes off to check protocols regarding smuggling convicts in to the country>
Ah Jaffa, you can't leave us there! Great report Azattack.
I'm feeling depressed I won't be there next year as I signed up for Austria which is the same day as Outlaw 2012
I haven't even gotten through this year yet.
On the button, Tiago. My wife smoked me out on this yesterday by sending me a link to an ad for a TT bike, suggesting that it might help me get under 12 hours. I stupidly replied that i just need to train better, and drink less Shiraz on the night before. Hook, line & sinker! The female of the species and all that.
So I'm thinking about enrolling for IM Wales... but a few of my experienced mates reckon it's a high risk event.... impact of bad weather on a sea swim in the Bristol channel???. Or The Big Woody, but that seems like a race reserved forto those blessed with the hairiest of arses. I'm not sure if you're allowed to wear shoes, wetsuits, suncream and i believe they whip you with nettles if you're too slow up the hills.
Going to do Etape Cymru in north wales in October if anybody fancies.
Loving the chat about Compression "muffin tops". Perfect image. If we wore full-body compression suits would we get big fat heads and feet???.
Only if you farted ... a lot ...
Good work fellas! Just wait til next year though....
Did anybody else see the gimp suit fella on the bike route?
He had a gorgeous TT bike with full carbon dick wheel on the back and a penguin hat. Other than that, he had the aerodynamic properties of blancmange.
Hope i haven't just offended anybody
There is no turning back now matey.
Kanga you worry me sometimes.
But very, very, very funny!
Think mine is probably the last to go up so here goes
Where to begin? Lets go back last year to the Outlaw. I had such a great experience last year on the pirate feed station and seeing Jordy run down the finishers chute with SA that I thought to myself yeah I want to be here again next year – but as a competitor.
It was a few weeks into my training that SA suddenly announced that he wanted another crack at the Outlaw. We sat down and had a long talk about whether it was do-able. Could we both fit in our training with work and quality family time? Well we are now living proof that it can be done.
The training was going well and all of a sudden it was the day before the Outlaw and we were on our way to Holme Pierpoint. There wasn’t much chance to chill as we had to register, put all our stuff in transition, go to the race briefing and rack our bikes. I remember being chuffed to bits that amongst all the “bling” bikes there was another black and yellow carrera bike like mine! It was nice to meet up with a few pirates – flatfooted, jodly, slowengineer and irontractorboy.
And so to the big day. We got up at silly o’clock and yet again the toilet visit was in order (to say I was nervous is an understatement!!!) I am not a big breakfast fan – and having to force a ham, cheese and pickle baguette down at 4am reminded me of the Xmas episode of the Vicar of Dibley where the vicar is stuffing the sprouts in her mouth!! After a few more trips to the bathroom we headed off.
The time seemed to drag when we arrived. Me and SA found a quiet spot away from everyone and just tried to relax and focus (in between even more toilet visits – where incidentally I bumped into Melli who on noticing how nervous I looked gave me lots of encouragement. Thanks Melli. It was then time to head down to the start. The atmosphere was a mixture of nerves but also excitement. SA put his arm round me and whispered “you can do this”. I don’t want to get all sloppy but it just shows you what a fantastic man I am married to. On seeing how nervous I was he asked Monique (who is a God by the way!) to have a pep talk with me just before we got in the water. Thankyou so much for your advice Mon. It got me to the finish.
6am and the hooter went. The nerves just seemed to vanish as I started the swim. I had to stop a couple of times to readjust my goggles and to sort one of my earplugs out but I was really enjoying the swim. I have to admit I lost a little bit of concentration on the 1.2 mile stretch back to the start. I looked up to find the end of a canoe inches from my face. At the finish I had to be helped out as I was feeling a little bit disorientated. I tried to unzip my wetsuit but unfortunately my hands wouldn’t co-operate and I had to ask for some assistance. Swim time 1:27:06 Woo-hooo!!!
Now I am not known for doing a quick time in transition (SA says I spend too long looking for a plug socket to do my hair!!!) and I do tend to faff about a bit. I think I was 10 minutes in transition which is pretty damn good for me! Off to bike transition. It was at this point that I was surprised to see SA’s bike still racked as I had thought he was ahead of me in the swim. I turned round and just spotted him jogging to the change marquee. It turned out he had not had a good swim after nearly colliding with the bank!
Onto the bike I clipped in and headed off round the lake to the cheers from the pirate massive. I have to be honest I am quite a nervous cyclist and wasn’t really looking forward to the 112 miles that lay ahead of me. I took comfort in the fact that I had completed Flat out in the Fens a month earlier. My spirits were lifted when at 30 something miles I heard SA behind me. It was great to see him. We made sure each other was ok and he headed off.
The course was a bit brutal as the wind was literally in your face the majority of the time that made the ride a bit of a slog. The worst hill was just before the Pirate feedstation that you would have to tackle 3 times. “Come on my trusted carrera – you haven’t let me down yet. Please don’t let me down now” I saw the beast of a hill ahead of me and peddled like billio. Suddenly my chain came undone. OK don’t panic. I managed to replace it and headed off. Little did I know that this would happen a further 2 times. It was then on the second loop just before the pirate feedstation that I went to a very dark place. I wanted to get off my bike and walk. I was up on the pedals, my legs felt like jelly and I was breathing erratically. Everything hurt. I burst into tears. All I wanted was SA and a big hug. I was really missing him. If I gave up now it would be 9 months of training down the drain and I would beat myself up forever. I was amongst hundreds of fellow competitors but strangely felt very alone. It was then whilst peddling like mad up the hill that I saw one of the Pirates’ signs “ITS NOT A KNITTING CLUB”. Exactly. I gave myself a bit of a talking to and got to the top. The support of the Pirate feedstation gave me a huge lift and I continued on with just another lap to go.