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Pirate DIY Half IM, The second coming!
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really enjoyed the bike course this year, doing 12 laps gives you chance to learn and practice techniques on hills and bends etc. my sister had donated a twat hat to my cause, so thought I'd give it a go for a couple of laps, leaving my trusty, comfy rudy helmet on the feed station, just in case. When the time came that my ears were so sore I needed to change them over, to my despair, Q had decided I looked so comfy in it, that he'd take it back to base...aarrrggggg. My poor little ears were suffering more than my legs. Onwards and upwards, caught Mrs SA up on my penultimate lap, so we did a sociable, girly chin way lap, so much more than Boeing on your own, I know that's not the point, but broke the tedium.
legs trashed by when I got back to base, due to doing all on the big ring, as I'd been instructed to, I need to use more power and less spin, apparently! Ha.
So, onto the run. Really, really did not want to do this, and as I set off my legs agreed with me! The wobble invests in my arse and thighs felt immense! Horribly painful, managed 2 laps then gave it up as a bad job, demoralising and counterproductive to continue in that frame of mind.
pleased that I got as far as I did considering the last two weeks, had a fab weekend, from Friday night to Sunday night. Thank you so much to the SA family for hosting, and to all the other competitors and supporters who made it an awesome event! Bring on next year!
)xx
Photo Album
Quality photos Matt
Thanks to Mr and Mrs SA..great event..Only did the bike and that was hard enough ..so respect to everyone who did the full event....Great group of people, Marshalls cheerers and partisipants...great organisation and a very friendly bunch..thanks alot for a great day..
Okay, here's my race report. Hope its not too long.
After pulling out of Stratford Half marathon last week after 2 miles, just couldn’t get into it and right at the back on my own, this was meant to be a test of my metal and very patchy training. I’d only got as far as 1500m swim and 42 mile bike which was a month ago so my aim was to reach those distances as a minimum and practice fuelling on the bike.
So I arrived at Assassin HQ feeling relaxed without any of the usual pre-race nerves knowing I could just do my own thing. Perfect. Impressive organisation with T2 laid out with chairs in the garage and Mrs SA gave everyone a plastic bag for swim stuff with forum names clearly written. Very personal service indeed.
The swim: Allocated myself to the slow lane and started off at an easy pace to be very soon overtaken but that was fine. Cake was doing breast stroke and we would both stop at the end together to let the fast swimmers go by. Unfortunately I can’t swim in a straight line so all this was a bit useless because I would just end up crashing into them as they swam back up the other side of the lane. Sorry Seren, I think I got you more than anyone. I got to 1500m and felt pretty good, so decided to carry on for another 100m, then another 100m until there was just me and Cake in the lane so nice and quiet and I pushed on to the full 1900m. I think I took about 50mins or near enough. Result.
The bike: Came out to the pool to rain and a cool wind. Boo! Luckily I’d managed to ram everything including jacket into the bag. SA had described the course as undulating so I set off without much concern. Marshalls at every junction soon brought be to the start of the laps and a fast stretch of road where I was clocking an easy 17mph. Wheeee great I thought. Then came a drag of a hill, then another, then a really steep short climb that I needed to get down on my granny ring for. Then yet another long drag up before dropping down again towards the feed station. A few grumbles to Mrs SA that it was “flippin hilly” and set off again with trepidation knowing this time what was to come. No idea how many laps I’d done but eventually I got back to the (superb) feed station with about 38 miles on my garmin. Not quite the 40 I was aiming for so did another lap and as my speed dropped significantly up the hills I thought this is my last lap. Except I then decided to do another, might as well make it up to 50. By the time I’d got back to T2 my garmin said 52 miles and I’d been out for 4 hours. Result.
Bit of a dilemma at whether to stop while I was on a high or attempt some of the run. Supercaz and Mrs SA suggested I just do one lap to practice on jelly legs which sounded a good idea so off I went. I ran most of it, walking the uphills and run/walk on the some of the flat bits when I thought nobody was looking. Got back to base and thought sampling flat coke as a fuel would be useful so went off for another lap. Again did run/walk but ran the down hills and the flat bit near the feed station to avoid abuse. Was met by a wonderful wall of noise and cheers as I plodded back to HQ and couldn’t resist a finish with a Morecombe and Wise style skip, still feeling good. No idea how long it took but 2 laps, 6 miles, feeling good = Result.
All topped off with a can of Stella sat in the Assassin’s front garden, cheering in those still on the run. What a brilliant day. Can we do it again please?
Fantastic weekend. Mr and MRs SA might not be heros for organising the event
, but they were wonderful for allowing us to trash their house and garden over the whole weekend. They even let Cake and I attempt to burn their house down!
Swim on Saturday:
As I ws only doing the swim I padded off to the changing rooms to get into my cossie and by the time I got back everyon else was already swimming so I got in the lane that looked about the right speed for me.
A few too many of us in the lane with a variety of different speeds but I like to think of it as experience of the washing machine effect that you get in mass start swim events
I can't count laps but I know the speed I swim at so I swam for 40 min and should have covered 2k. I couldn't use anyone else to count for me as I got in late and also with the amount of overtaking going on it was impossible to keep track of who was were. It took me about 50 lengths to figure out that there were two people with red hats - one faster than me and one slower - and not that the same person was chopping and changing places with me.
I spent the rest of the day having great fun at the two support stations. It was great to see so many smiles even though it was obvious that some people were strugging towards the end.
Swim on Sunday:
I decided this time to change in the car park as it would be easier than fighting through the changing rooms.
Everyone seemed a bit reluctant to get into the water. I think we were all a bit nervous about our speeds compared to each other given that we've never swum together before, so I decided to just get in and see what happened.
The plan was to swim for 40 min again and do another 2k, but after the first few lengths I was still at the front of the lane and it dawned on me that the others were probably expecting me to count so I decided to stop at 38 min and do 1.9k instead.
We were much better matched on speed this time with very little overtaking and it was a relaxed enjoyable swim.
Got out after 38 min and toddled off to transition to get dry and changed into my 'supporting' clothes. What happened to the rest of you? I was still the first out of transition and none of you were that far behind me in the swim
Another great day of watching everyone else push themselves to their limits. Although I will be back next time if the event becomes a regular feature of the calendar, I have no intention of ever joining you on the run and bike, but maybe I can do one lap of each next time.
Matt - some great pictures
great piccies matt..you were spying on me when i was getting personal with button mushroom
right...drove up friday morning with The family and managed to get everything in the car just......and then managed to get the tent up in the back garden just.......a great evening in the pub with the Sa's and some others who arrived friday..
I was suprisingly nervous on the saturday morning..........not used to split transitions....and then realised that i needed my garmin to lap count in the swim and that would cock up the multisport function.so borowed my hubbies garmin with the proviso i couldn't use his in the swim..........
The T1 was brilliant..marshallini had put up proper racking and so I managed to rack my bike and then leave going to the toilet to the very last moment.......this meant i was last to poolside and everyone had got themselves in the fast and medium lane.......with only 3 in the slow lane so i joined them.......I had my poolbuoy so was swimming quite well........but was so jealous of the peleton that had formed in the middle lane......6 of them swimming in one line as one.....the poor guy at the front was dragging the other 5 in his wake
I told myself that I was getting a good swim workout and was managing to keep a good pace...managed to punch the lane dividers a few times......managed to miss a soupy swimming down the middle a few times and only got kicked my matt in the next lane once......so a success............
biggest success was avoiding peeing in the swim and left teh water in about 42 minutes and headed straight to the toilets to avoid an embaressing T1
so it was raining and so hard to know what to wear...settled for armwarmers and a pitate shirt over the monaco ..a lot of faffing........overshoes on and I was out on the bike.........
first lap was strange.......I had driven it the day before with SA.....but it was more underlating on the bike than it was in the car......took me a few miles to get my legs going and then near the end of the first lap I misread a sign and turned right.....if i had looked up i could have seen the pirate feed station.but down the hill i went and around and manged to see some more signs......which turned out to be finishing sign and eneded up past teh SA's house..........so after stopping to ask for directions I finally got back on course with managing just a bit over 2 extra miles........
good luck meant that when i rejoined I was in sight of SA and so managed to get my speed up tocatch him up.......for about 8 laps we went around the same speed...never close enough to draft but if one stopped on a feed station the other overtook..or sometimes on the hills one would make a break.......
meant the time went quicker.....lost him somewhere on the 8/9 lap but he was a whole lap ahead of me...........
the hills became harder but i still manged to keep my pace up .the bike support was amazing and brightened up the laps......
so a total of 58.66 miles in 3:42....15.9 pmh.....pleased with that but couldn't have kept it going for much longer on that course
T2....such a great feeling to get into T2....quick change and a quick toilet stop and out on the run.my legs felt tired but got going straight away and ran the first lap feeling ok.....had some coke after lap 1 and second lap went the same.running it without feling too bad......
I always feel lap 3 on a 4 lap course is always mentally hard so i tried mind tricks to keep myself positive..but my legs were tired and i could feel myself tiring......had some more water....it was getting too hot for me to run and i really wanted the rain to return.........
didn't see mant people on the runat all.it was a bit lonely.......
back to transition after 3.and anotrher coke.,.....and a gel........struggled to get running this time and walked about 25m before I made myself get going again......kept running for the whole run but was getting slower.........
really pleased to get to the finish line and fginally get a lager...........13.17 miles in 2:24 ave 10.59 min mil.......
about 7 hrs in total..would have liked faster but it was a tough course.........had a good few beers.........
the supporting on the sunday was brilliant fun and I even managed a fast lap of the run to show my hubby the route..legs felt ok and recovered..........
had a great weekend.the kids enjoyed it as well as everyone made us all so welcome........my hubby realy enjoyed it as well.he doesn't get to meet the pirates ofeten.......and I'm sure I can persuade him to do teh swim next year as well
finished i think
Morning everyone
.
Ok ... found at SA Towers this morning:
Pirate baseball cap
Adidas blue/white union jack wristband
Black speedo swimming shorts (Mr Platts's by any chance
)
I'm quite happy to send these on.
Great photos, but it looks like I spent all day standing in the middle of the road
Brilliant reports so far
I can't understand why you would be so keen to get rid of these
Oh blimmin eck!
Sorry meant to say "happy to send all of these back" Talking of which, did Bobby Nobby pick up his bike pump that has been in our garage for a year?
yes.i saw it in his hand
wonder how i will cope next weekend.the scale is metres not feet
3000ft in 28 miles
Here's my report.
I set off Friday afternoon to get up to Macca on the Friday as I didn't feel like driving up on the day of the race. Upon getting there I could see that the camp site was full with Serens portable mansion in the back garden, but the SA's were kind enough to put me up in the living room which was great, especially as I am normally late getting to events
. Friday night at the pub was a good laugh meeting a few new faces and some I remember from either Wales or the christmas party.
Saturday came early waking up at about 6
. Then it was faff time, trying to decide what to take with me on the bike and to transitions etc. But I finally got organised and could then relax.
This weekend was really about trying out nutrition and race pacing so I wanted to try and run it as close as possible to what I would be doing on the big day, so times and stats were not important
. It was the taking part that counts...
The cycle up to T1 was a nice little warm up, and the bike racking provided by Marshallini was great.
The swim went well. Managing to do some overtaking and drafting on the feet of Tracey as I couldn't quite get the speed up to overtake her. A slight hicup with the Garmin meant that it was reading an odd number of lengths so to be on the safe side I did a couple of extra lengths, with the Garmin reading 1975m I was out of the pool in 35:03. Outside of the pool the heavans had opened so it was like being home in Wales, so it was on with the arm warmers and pirate gillet and off on the bike. T1 in 4:06.
Took my time getting to the start of the lap section of the bike course and for the first couple of laps as pushing it to overtake in the pool had taken a little out of the legs and I just wanted to settle a bit, so took an early gel to get some energy in. First couple of laps went without incident, it was nice to see SA had put a couple of lambs out on the course to make me feel at home, but the plan to try to distract me didn't work. On the turn on to the third lap the road was a little greasy and the rear tyre didn't want to play ball and after a few hairy moments I decidied to go past the turning and do a u turn rather than try to take the corner at speed. The rest of the bike went well, with good fuelling, and the fuel station providing some 4 in 1 when asked (who would be daft enough to ask for a high5?
). The bike course was great, and I was able to stay down on the bars for the whole lap and didn't need to go onto the granny ring. A big thank you to all the support at the feed station.
Managed to keep a consistant speed averaging 18.4 mph, with a top speed of 36.8 mph finishing the bike in 3:03:29.
Rolled into T2 feet were a little numb after wearing no socks on the ride, a quick dry of the feet, and an application a compede blister plaster on an area which always rubs on the inside of my trainer and it was out onto the run. T2 in 4:23.
The first lap felt pretty easy, I was taking my time to make sure I was going the right way, the second lap would be easier as I now knew the way, so wasn't really paying much attention until I started running past some shops that I hadn't seen on the first lap, so a quick turnaround and an extra 0.2 miles and I was back on track. By the end of the second lap my right foot was suffering from a blister, it was at this time that I realised that I had put the compede on the wrong foot
, a quick stop at the feed station to find another blister plaster and off again, the third lap went by with to problems, the forth was a little harder, owing to the fact that I hadn't done any running for 2 weeks. But finished the run in 1:47:04. Again the support from both the feed stations was great with some fantastic cheering from Jordy and the kids helping out.
Finished in 5:34:05. (ps the time is not important
)
Another great evening in the pub with refueling on a new protein regime consisting of chicken, beef, pork, bread with garlic, potatoes, and some more chicken
The Sunday was a little more relaxing, supporting from the side again it was great fun.
A big thank you to Mr and Mrs SA and Jordy for both putting this on and putting me up for the weekend. And to everyone else who took part, cheered, provided nutrition (cake, bacon and sausages and enough gels to swim in) was a great weekend and looking forward to seeing you all again soon
Race report in the form of self-talk:
Friday arrival: "Lea the Pea! I've missed that bawbag. Where's my t-shirt?"
Friday night meeting in pub: "Hey, these people are ace. What a fab bunch. I can't stop giggling at the name 'Button Mushroom'. Seren did an Enduroman? How is that marvel of a woman still alive? Where's my t-shirt?
Saturday morning: "Pirate fiesta! Where's my t-shirt?
Race briefing: "Got my t-shirt. It's fab. Very chuffed. Now can I go home?"
Swim: "Hey, those master sessions are paying off. Oh shit, was that 76 or 67?
Bike: "This 12 lap job is playing with my mind. Mind you, keeps my thoughts off the agonizing, saddle-induced agony in my lady garden".
Feedstations: "You don't realise how much I truly love you for your smile, water and gels. I'm so grateful I could cry. This kind of really hurts, you know".
Run: "Oh dear, I forgot I had this part. There's SA. If I can just keep SA in my sights then I'll be...where'd he go? Okay, there's Matt. If I can just keep Matt in my sights then I'll be..."
Finish: "Hey these people are ace. What a brilliant and merry band of Pirates. Wrist warmers, sausage butties and cake. Did I say these people are ace?"
Brilliant report Les boules. Well done.
brilliant report les boules.....
Unfortunately my race report is turning into a novel of epic portions, it will go up soon, you have been warned
Hi to all the Pirates, back from my Mother-in-Law's lovely dinner, just going to put my little bit in now
Here goes: Would like to Thank all the Pirates that turned up over the weekend and a big THANKS to Q, Jo, Jordy and Marshallino for a quality DIY event!
Next year's one will hopefully be twice the size and more Pirates will do it.
Once again, would like to thank everybody who turned up. I better not forget to thank Honk and Slagiatt for helping me with my 3 punctures on the day!
Thanks Slag for letting me have your front wheel the finish the rest of the race, your a TOP MAN!
See all you Pirates at The Outlaw!
Here goes -
Friday night - freedom - yay!! Lovely time to break the ice and put some forum names to faces
Saturday - throroughly enjoyable day, marshalling (I was actually thrilled it was raining, as this was my first opportunity to use my pirate umbrella!), and then assisting / supporting on the bike and then the run feed station. Not sure why I was really cold all day, but at least my pirate buff kept me a bit warmer. Driving around the bike course was a bad idea - it was hilly, and watching pirate after pirate finishing looking like death warmed up raised my anxieties sky high. I don't normally get into a tizz about these things, but I was not confident ...
Dinner that evening was even nicer, because I'd made friends by then - ate with Les Boules and Lee the Pea, plus the rest of the bunch. I hoped that my beef and ale pie and crumble with custard would suffice for carb loading ... I rehearsed and packed for race day, then off to bed
Race day - Up at 7, first pot of porridge (Oats so Simple, just add water) with banana, coffee, get dressed, second pot of porridge then off to SA Towers.
For some reason panic then set in - I'd packed everything so carefully the day before and then promptly forgot where everything was ... I had to have a word with myself and stop fretting and then I did find my energy drinks stuffed into my cycle shoes (who the hell put them in there?). I started to calm down and got myself ready to go.
Swim: took the middle lane and didn't get swum over, or kicked, or anything, really. I reckon I drafted off another chap quite a bit (not sure who he was, sorry). An uneventful swim - out in 46.56 (4 secs than my last HIM swim which was down river in a wetsuit - so well chuffed with that), and off on the bike.
Bike: the first 10 minutes was about getting my bearings, eating malt loaf and finding the first lap. Then started the first hill - none of this big ring malarky for me, down the gears, and then down some more ... more hills - bottom gear now. But down the hills as well - that was the fun bit! Great cheering at the feed station, first lap done - now that wasn't so bad, was it? And so the circuits continued,up the hills, down the gears, eating, staying happy, staying positive. Quite frankly I was starting to enjoy myself - was down on the aerobars quite a lot, and loving the downhill sections. Even the up hills were so bad ...
I did start to get a bit bored around lap 8, but the pirate cheers were just lovely, and then the end was in sight ...
T2 - a big welcome at Chiltern Avenue and I took a moment or two to get my head together and my trainers on. A quick jaffa cake and I was off
Run: I say run, a bit of a shuffle at first, but I'd been here before and was patient with myself, knowing this feeling would pass. More ups and downs, but I had my head on and just patiently waited for it all to get easier. It did - lap 2 was a happy lap, I was running well, and looking forward to getting past half way. Lap 3 was harder, but a quick chat with a couple of young lads warning me about boys with BB guns perked me up a little, as did the young man with a guitar who cheered me on! On lap 4 I focused on being half way through a full IM run to fool myself into thinking I had to keep something back for later so as not to feel completely drained. More encouragement from the feed station - thanks to the kids especially there, and before I knew it was I turning into Chiltern Ave for the last time. Job done. It was 5.15, so that's 7 1/4 hours, which was fine by me.
An awesome weekend - loved every minute of it - even the hills, thanks guys!