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thank you thank you thank you, now i really know what being a pirate means.
spent saturday doing all the usual stuff, met a few pirates as i went over to the camp to introduce myself and my daughter. Had a great chat with SA Mrs SA and Jordy, directed Dawn Shadow to pirate camp and then as I was sorting daughter out for the 1.5k big swim met Cake and Bookie (sorry we didn't know who you were
), daughter had a great swim she was the one in the pirate hat, first ow swim and did it 29.15.
then to the big event, saw lots more pirates and wished everyone good luck, swim was right at the back and as a breastroker with dodgy shoulders 1.56 was expected.
out on the bike, realised forgotten all nutrition and decided to htfu, pirate support was fantastic at feed station and junction. a little windy so that slowed me down and then garmin started playing up, plan had been just to keep average over 14.5 at all times and check every 15 mins (got pulled off course last year at second southern loop).
Garmin now telling me I am averaging 12mph!!! WTF working bloody hard, now its 11.4, well thats it game over you muppet!! Gave myself a good talking to and it's not over till they pull you off the course, kept going and then realised my stopwatch hadn't stopped from the swim, quick mental calculation and bloody hell i can still do this.
Got to the southern loop for a second time expecting to be pulled off course, nope still going, pirate feed station 2 waters high 5 and banana still going checked watch and yes going to make this, still going strong.
Something like 93 miles in right hand bend, yes I can definitely make this then, BANG!!! Split second choice, metal road sign or hedge.
Took the hedge option, few cuts and bruises, got back up, bike out of hedge getting ready to get back on and front wheel jammed up, not rolling at all. don't remember Buttercup but thank you. Marshall says ok will get mechanic out to you, and then it took ages and it was race over.
Absolutely gutted after last years dnf, and thinking that i was going to make it to at least the run.
A few condolences with SA when got back, met up with family had some food and then decided that was it for long distance for me, even though they were all for coming back again next year.
Went back with family for finish line for last few hours dressed in pirate stuff, as was daughter and that fantastic atmosphere has made me even more determined to be back to finish this bloody thing off.
Sorry for the long post but thanks again to all the new friends I have met, years ago when I read Holgs book I wasn't sure it could be like that, but you really are what it is all about and sorry if I met you and didn't mention you, there were too many names to remember.
So what do you think....new pirate name of Hedge??
WTF did I type there...hahaha
Obviously that should read 'sub 12 was my A target and smashed it with 11:34'
Great to see loads of pirates there, big thanks to Cougs, Seren for getting me through the run. I cut my swim time by 3 mins to 1.15 and my bike by 30 to 6.14 from my 2012 time, my screwed up leg wouldn't let me match my 3.23 marathon finish of 2012 and had to settle for 6 hrs lol. Well done everyone! Great support as always
Short race report for my part in Team TBC...
Woke up before my alarm went off on the morning of the race, thanks to some techno music rattling away in the distance somewhere. Showered and changed then wandered over to HPP at about 5am to spend the obligatory 30 minutes faffing about with my bike in transition. Stood on the grass bank with various pirates to watch the swimmers depart, then killed an hour or so by sauntering about chatting etc.
Made my way down to the relay handover area, and waited for Mrs SA to come ashore. She duly arrived, having had a great swim, and passed me the 'baton'. I grabbed my bike and got on my way, as SA shouted some words of encouragement
I felt good going into this, and my legs seemed reasonably fresh considering I'd done IMUK the week before. The weather was good and I was really looking forward to the ride.
The course was so flat, compared to others I've done and to where I've done most of my training rides in recent months. This wasn't unexpected, as I'd spoken to a few people and they'd described the course to me. I mistakenly thought flat = easy, but now know this isn't the case. Being so flat meant that I spent 95% of my time on the aerobars, so my shoulders were aching a bit towards the end. Also, at least with riding hills, there is a certain amount of free speed on the downs, albeit with more effort needed on the climbs. With a flat course, it does feel like a constant grind sometimes to maintain momentum.
That said, I managed to keep up a reasonable speed and averaged just under 21mph over the course.
Passing the pirate feed station was fantastic. The noise, the encouragement and the sheer number of pirates manning it was just brilliant - made me proud to be a part of it all
Also passing Horse, Razor and Lofty at the junction just after the feed station gave me a second boost too - as they were really giving it some 
Passed a few pirates on the way round the course....Seren (told you I'd catch you
), Raf, Barley and others that I can't remember now, to share an 'arrrr', or a 'go pirate'. Very impressed that Seren even started the day considering how poorly she was, but to get a PB was superb - well done coach!
Made it back in 5:23, so pretty chuffed with that. Handed over the timing chip to our superstar runner UltraKaz, who went on to hammer the run.
Spent the rest of the day supporting, eating and drinking. The finisher chute at Outlaw is a really great place to hang out as it's possible to cheer on all those coming home aswell as those completing their laps of the lake.
Had such a great weekend, so thank you to all the pirates for making it so
p.s. Mrs Digger - you are one of the wickedly funniest people I have had the pleasure to meet - thank you for making me laugh.....lots!!
Excellent report Fudge.
Well done you.
Your Mum definitely needs to be a supporter at the next event - if only to see what other pirate names get morphed into!
What a fantastic weekend, it was better than I could have imagined, I'm still on a high now.
quick report: I am always late for everything, usually as I tend to talk to people a lot, this weekend was no different, we arrived in Nottingham on Friday evening and stayed at an old guest house type B&B owned by a lovely elderly Scottish couple who too enjoyed yakking, so once we got settled in and had a nice cup of tea it was bedtime, Saturday was spent rushing around and faffing with kit, registering racking, briefing, bed.
Race day was brilliant, I was really excited as it's my first biggun, I was really worried about making the swim cutoff as I'm a cack swimmer and didn't do a lot of training.
swim bit : I got myself in the slow bit at the back, the gun went off and I realized my flap at the back of my wetsuit was folded over so the Velcro was rubbing on my neck, after a few minutes of looking like an escapologist trying to get out of a straight jacket I got sorted, I alternated from breast stroke and crawl and eventually hit land after 2hours 1 min, got dragged through T1 by the awesome volunteers and before I knew it I was on the bike.
BIKE: I was so chuffed to get to the bike, I knew then that barring a disaster I had a good chance of finishing, I liked the bike course, it was tough, my legs were tired from the swim, it was a slog all the way round but the Pirate feed station was fantastic, gave me a massive boost, and the guys at one of the intersections, I think it was Razor and Horse? And another Pirate, what a great bunch of people you all are. My lovely wife and mum got the bus to the cricket pitch part to cheer me on, I stopped on the second loop for a cuddle and got a packet of crisps of mum. went past Buttercup who was looking strong, had a quick "go hard" shout, went past Cake who was having trouble with his bike, no breaks, I offered to help and asked if he wanted to pull over as I've got tools, no breaks he shouted, oh yeah
, I let the guys know at the feed station and the message went back to the relay team. I finally got into T2 and threw my bike at a lovely volunteer who smacked me on the arse and told me to keep it up.
RUN: After a nice rubdown from the lovely lady with the sun cream I embarked on my first marathon, this was my favorite part of the race, I meat so many fantastic people and the support was amazing, all the Pirates I chatted to on the course were fantastic, all the high 5s, hugs and offers of beer really got me round, I walked and jogged the first loop but I was reduced to walking the second, I really thought I was going to pass out on the furthest point of the loop, I got to the timing bit of the turnaround and really thought I'd need to sit down, I felt really sick and went cold, but I thought, Id have to wait ages for someone to find me so I might as well walk back, I joined a chap who was also suffering the dizzies and we became a support group as we swept up another on the walk back, all chatting about everything and anything the keep our minds off collapsing, and then out of the distance came my beautiful wife, wondering what was taking me so long, so as a group we all got to the lake together and started the lap of honor. On the final lap I came back to life, as I got to the finishing carpet I actually broke into a sort of trot, I high fived as many people as I could then saw the Pirate massive, I wanted to leap over the fence and hug you all, I tried to keep it together before getting to the finish line, bit of posing and posturing then into the medical tent where they asked me how I felt, I think I murmured something about best day of my life before Lumpty pushed me up the stairs for a bit of dinner, I was gutted I missed the last few in, by the time I hobbled down the stairs it was all over.
I was really proud to do Outlaw as my first biggun and proud to do it as a Pirate, you guys are a special bunch of people and I'm proud to be associated with you, god bless you all
Top reporting JP and Pudgeroo! Was amazing being a small part of it all. Even if just making you laugh lovely Pudge! Had a top weekend! Nice of Ratched to actually speak to me this year
Rocking report JP - that finish line was worth it tho aye? and Lumpty and your Mum were so proud of you for not giving up when it got hard! Boy did good
Top effort in that case
At least it shows I was paying attention!!
utterly broken
Cheers Symes.
Great reports everyone, in particular BudJude
I have been putting up my report on my blog,it's very long and only two parts up so far, the remaining parts should be done by the end of the day, probably. If you want a read of it so far it's here;
https://bluepeterironman.wordpress.com
When finished I will put a cropped version up.
Top pirating folks
I'll know better next time
Great reports, must put that onion away.
A great weekend, still smiling even through doing stinky camping laundry
Still working on my race report but have a few short videos to share
Outlaw 2014
JP - lovely report, I know how worried you were about the swim after talking to your Mrs, so had a bit of a tear in my eye reading that.
pudge - I had forgotten you had done IMUK the week before, bloody brilliant bike time! Lovely to meet you too
cake - hope your knee is ok?
sod the knee.... how's yer bike?
Ghost.those videos are brilliant.....I love the one where I stopped with pudge
Brace yourself, another race report coming. And unlike the others its a long one.
My Ironman report card going into the event was so poor:
2009 Finished Ironman Switzerland
2010 DNS Challenge Roth
2011 DNF Ironman Regensburg
2012 DNS Outlaw Long Distance Tri
2013 Withdrawn from Ironman Lanzarote, DNF Outlaw Long Distance Tri
2014 DNF Ironman Austria
I had to finish this one. I had to. I don't think I could physically bear another failed attempt.
And I was willing to do anything I had to, to get there. I hired a personal trainer, lost 40lbs and had a whole years worth of good training behind me.
The day before we headed down to Holme Pierrepoint to register and re acquaint ourselves with the venue.
We bumped into many pirate friends we had not seen in a while and lots of our running club friends we had seen only days before. Our running club had submitted three relay teams and another solo entrant (the wonderful Sara who would go on to come 4th in her age group in an amazing time of 12:55:09).
Our friends daughter competed in the 1.5k swim and did really rather well. We all cheered her in, and once she had regained her breathe, were keen to hear her views on how it all went. 'It's really green' she said. 'Hmmm' we said. Not surprising, I thought. British lakes always seem to have a green tinge to them, the Worthersee in Klagenfurt this was not!
Swim
At about 2 minutes past six the next morning I fully understood what Morgan had meant. Green did not really do the full grossness of the lake justice.
It was thick with weed.
It covered just about every part of me. Draped over my head, snagged in my feet, pulling great lumps out with every stroke. It rendered the whole swim in a dense blackness, with no vision in places. And then, just when it started to clear, it would come back, a whole mattress of weed.
And the smell. Oh my goodness. In the attempt to clear as much as they could, huge swathes of it had been cut and left to rot. It was vile.
That said, I had a really good swim. I started in the back of bay 1 (of three bays). Supposedly for the faster swimmers, but I figured if I started at the back and just got swept along then that wouldn't be a bad thing. And for the most part it worked. Approaching the exit and prepared for the annual face plant, I started to lift my legs out of the water then got distracted by the RAF blokes stood in the water shouting something at me. By the time I'd worked out he was shouting 'mind the step', said step had taken my knees out and I was once again fully submerged, face down staring at the nice matting they had popped down to facilitate an easy exit. But, before I'd had time to think 'Golly, not again!' the nice RAF man had hooked me under the arm and whipped me up onto my feet. 'Golly...' I thought again, but before I got any further, he'd whipped my zip down and had me half out of my wetsuit and sent me on my way.
The whole couldn't have taken more than three seconds. He was a keeper!
Swim time 1:55.23
Bike
I've struggled with a bad back sprain for the last five weeks. Over the last couple of weeks they had eased sufficiently to bring me confidence of a finish. Unfortunately, this morning it chose to come back with a vengeance. As I popped myself onto the bike and started to pedal away the muscles around my hip and right leg started to spasm.
There was no way I was not going to finish. But I had to be sensible and come up with a strategy to get there within 17 hours. It was clear that I had no power in my legs at all. I had to trust in all my training and not to panic. So, rather than my usual slow cadence and high gear, I swapped to a lower gear ratio and increased my cadence. I knew that I would need as much time as I could buy on the bike for later on. And I felt strangely optimistic that I could achieve 7 hours on the bike. Despite the pain, my head was in a very good place.
The pirate feed station was a great first target. So, I settled into a rhythmic cadence at a target heart rate of around 145 and started to play tunes in my head.
I was very much on my own for the first part (the joys of being a crap swimmer) but slowly I started to catch and overtake the slower cyclists. Making a point to say hello and exchange a few words with each I started to look forward to these encounters and used them as a focus. My back was really sore but manageable for a long time. I think I must have put myself into a trance to block it all out as I barely remember anything about the bike leg. At times there was a massive headwind revealing the downside of a flat bike course. Very little in the way of free speed, just a constant grind of the pedals. I had to work for every mile.
I was conscious that I would need to grab every bit of time I could so when others were coasting down the hills that were, I would crank up the gears and push as hard as I could down them to maintain whatever speed I could get.
The grind became particular apparent on the way down to the second loop. All I could manage was 13 mph for miles and miles. I caught the sight of Toucs cycling past in the opposite direction, I was so happy to see him looking comfortable. In the end he had the most amazing ride finishing in 5.37. I was so looking forward to the hill coming up just for a bit of variety. In the end it was very short and not that sharp and a bit of a disappointment. But did come with about five miles of long sweeping downhill, finally, a lovely section that I really enjoyed.
At about 11am, I really, really started to thirst for a cup of tea. The water stations were fabulous and well stocked, but there is only so much Nuun one can drink. After the tea thought popped up, I couldn't rid of it. I started fantasizing about it, even to the point of compiling the best ten cups of tea I've had at sporting events, ever. I drove myself nuts.
At this point the pain was quite bad and spreading. It was getting more difficult to block it out (although it was a pleasant distract from the tea fantasies). I had a decision to make. If I took my ibuprofen it might help the muscles relax, but I might storing up digestive problems for the marathon later. If I didn't, it might be the end of the race. I took the tablets and it definitely seem to help settle it back into something more manageable.
I was conscious that I'd been out there for a while and with the increasing head winds I was slowing down. But, it also felt like I'd been out there for no time at all. I focused in staying in the moment, enjoying every part of being on my bike and the feeling of moving forward. I was still constantly passing people and that really helped too. Although we were all suffering, I was still making progress and that gave me so much confidence. Soon, I was back onto the south loop with the pirate feed station to look forward to and only 30 miles left to do.
The last 20 miles were hell. While a sub 7 was still on as I passed the pirate station (no tea there either and that was my best chance of a cup, sad face) it slowly started to evaporate with a head wind and a lot of uphill drags. But eventually I got back to the roundabout and the turn for home. My heart soared. I was close enough now to feel confident I was going to make it. Not in the time I wanted but in a time that was good enough (and also a PB).
Yay.
I gave Piri a little pat before dismounting and handing her over to the marshal standing waiting for us. We'd had a ball but now it was time to go do a marathon.
Bike time 7.13.09
Marathon
17 hour cut off, so roughly 7 hours and 30 minutes for the marathon. But, I'm the worlds slowest walker and I wasn't confident I could walk it in that time. So, I would run for a minute, walk for a minute for as long as I could and then revert to run 30 seconds, walk 30 seconds for as long as I could then I would walk the rest. Easy.
Heading out, I was filled with a sense of peace and calm. I really wanted to enjoy this part so much, so I plastered a smile on my face and relished once again just being in the moment.
And also, someone was bound to have a cup of tea somewhere on route. If Toucs could blag an ice cream (last year) then surely, somewhere.
I did my first loop, the run/walk going to plan. It didn't hurt any more to run than it did to walk. I was so happy about that. I smiled at everyone I could and took ever 'well done' and cheer and 'go pirate' and 'go Nicky' and high five. I was astounded to see how well people responded to my smiles and thanks. It was fabulous and I realised that despite the pain, I was having a ball.
Soon, I was approaching the finish funnel for the first time and was looking forward to seeing the pirates who normally form the masses at the finish. . But a big cheer from Trogs and the hordes of pirates from the feed station gave me a real boost as I headed off to pick up my first band and onto the next stage.
A quick hug from SA I think, at the end of transition and then brandishing my first band proudly at the marshal was directed onto the out and back leg. Each feed station had a sound system and I started to look forward to these very much. The sounds really help as a distraction (and to provide an ear worm to keep me going).
The feed stations themselves were phenomenal. Lots to choose from and in the absence of tea I selected flat coke and water. At one point I glanced down and saw a whole heap of bottles of cheapy, Asda own make cola. Now, 364 days of the year I wouldn't touch this stuff with a barge pole. But there are really no words to describe how delicious this stuff was. It also seemed to settle my stomach, and certainly didn't make it feel any worse.
Out on the course the support was the perfect mix. Pockets of cheering but quiet time to focus too. Fellow competitors were brilliant. Here and there there was banter and high fives and cheers and words of encouragement. The marshals were also fantastic. After all, they have an amazingly long day, often stood in the heat of the day so that we can enjoy ourselves. And without exception, each one had a smile and a cheer or positive word to say each time I passed.
So, I was in a bubble of positive thinking and now, in no doubt I would finish. But it was apparent that every time I walked the pain was getting just a little bit worse. Many people said to me 'just keep putting one foot in front of the other' and so I did. One foot, other foot, coke, water, boogie, shuffle, walk, march, just keep going.
Out and back and round again to pick up another band. No tea but deliciously, Toucs smiling and happy and he and Trogs finished in a great time. Another out and back and this time the route was much quieter. I stole a few slurps of beer from Cake (thank you
) and a bit more energy from each of the marshals. There were a few more high fives and many more hugs from fellow competitors coming the other way. A quiet chat with a family walking along the river (You've been doing what..?) and now no running, just walking. But I had plenty of time. I was going to make it.
I got back to Holme Pierrepoint with just one and three quarters of a lap to go. Behind me, daylight was leaching away into a beautiful sunset and now lit up under the glare of a huge spotlight on the other side of the lake was the finish line.