Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
Pirate outing to Bala 2014
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
bloody hell i didnt see yo Dave you must have been having a piss maybe! ha all good fun! Catch you in Nice....
My First attempt of a race report! Be nice PEOPLE
So Sunday 8th June arrives! Oh crap its Bala? This will be my second race this year and my 3rd in total! The first being a Sprint in June 2013, the second being Coniston Olympic last week and now for a middle distance attempt! Do you see a pattern here? Next stop Ironman UK in July.
Set off at 5:30 as my sat nav stated it will take 2hrs 30mins to get there and after last week fiasco of arriving 45minutes before the race started I wanted to get there in plenty of time so that I could meet all the other mad people doing this racing wearing Yellow and Black.
Arrived a little after 7:30am as within a few minutes I could see a lot of expensive bikes and serious looking athletes! You could imagine my thoughts! Anyway I got my arse out the car and headed over to registration! On route I saw Dave wearing his un missable pirate t-shirt, (I introduced myself in the car park once I was all registered!)
I tried to approach every pirate to say hi, but there was so many that I didn’t get chance to say hi to everyone (sorry).
So to the SWIM! The good this about being a novice to triathlon is that you haven’t experience bad races or conditions, this was my case for the swim! It looked choppy and there was a noticeable wind and yes the buoys where far away!
My plan was to swim wide right out of trouble and enjoy the swim, good plan I thought as the course was an anti clockwise loop, but I breathe to the right! I set my Garmin to vibrate every 500m as it was a 2000m course so I could keep track, when the first vibration happened at 500m I thought “Christ have I only swam 500m? It felt like 1 mile” but then I started to worry! There was nobody around me! I was either the dogs dangly bits or really crap? Neither, I swam that far right I was about 50 meters away from everyone! At least I had clear water (bonus). The rest of the swim was uneventful apart from my watch vibrating for the 4 time and I still had 300m to go! Once in T1 I looked at my Garmin (2280m in 27mins 09 sacs!) ooops! Well it’s all training meters.
T1 – Wetsuit off cycling shoes on! A few press up! A couple of bicep curls (got to sculpture the guns!) do my hair and I’m off on the bike 2mins 38secs
A big thank you to the Supporting Pirate at this point it was great hearing the cheers every time a Pirate went by! The bike leg Lumpy and windy it the best way I can explain it! I was a bit worried about the bike leg as my training as been S**T when it come to cycling I’ve only managed 750 miles this year so far. The goal was to do the loop in under 3hrs 15mins, after wasting the first 2k trying to get the Garmin to change from swim to bike (the stupid feckin thing) it eventual played ball only for my from derailleur to brake after 5k, it was stuck on my small front ring the rest of the 75k bike leg! BO***KS
As I was unable to push any big gears I had to watch lots of people pass me on the flats as I was spinning my arse off on my small front cog! But it gave me lots of energy for the hills where i was able to catch back up! So the apart from the mechanical the bike when similar to the swim uneventful! I managed to finish in 2hrs 55mins (averaging 17.7mph according to Strava) under my target time but I was gutted as I think I could have knocked another 15 minutes of the time.
T2- make sure the hair is looking good and a few more press ups and I’m off again for a 12 mile plod (3 mins 08 secs).
My run training has been going well 300 miles ran so far in 2014, I knew I could run a sub 2hr run on this course but I have never ran this distance off the bike before! I knew nutrition would be the key for me on the run. In April I ran the Manchester Marathon and bonked at 22 minutes because I didn’t taken enough fuel on! So the plan was a gel every 25 minutes (in prep for Bolton). The First 3 miles went by easily averaging 8:15 minutes miles, I took a gel in transition and then one at 3 mile and a third one at the turning point! (2 gels left! All going to plan and I felt great!) then the Marshall at the turn point ask me if I have a spare gel as a women 50m ahead of me was on her last legs! Yes I stupidly said “can you catch her and give her one?” he asked (he meant a GEL!!!!) I did manage to catch her within a few minutes and Ii did give her a GEL. So one gel left and 5 miles to run, I’ll have it on mile 10 and have a strong finish or so I thought....
As I approached the water station at the 10 mile marker I was just about to open my last gel as another women looks at me as she is being held up by a Marshall, next thing I am drinking a cup of water and running again (gel less) at this point I can see the water buoys in the lake and hear the announcer at the finish and surprisingly I am still feeling good. The last 2 miles where a nice jog home finishing in 1hr 43min 47secs giving me a total time of 5hr 32mins 25sec, which I am happy with but what if????
Anyway it was brilliant getting a load cheer from the pirates at the finish only to be told that they thought I was somebody else!
Great report BS - well done on what sounds like a tough course.
Top marks for managing a 27 minute swim too
ooops 47min swim (i wish) may be next year!
T0 Drove from Brum on the morning expecting rain off and on all day and approaching Bala the storm clouds seemed to support that forecast.
Did the usual faffing, choosing the wrong front wheel, putting the number tattoo upside down on my arm, collecting another Bala towel and off to meet the other poor sods.
Swim
A few of you know just how much I love swimming and that love of swimming started at this very lake in 2007 with a boat ride from the furthest buoy. Sat on the pontoon dipping my toes in the 14.1C water listening to the commentator tell everyone how the water conditions will make it a struggle for some of the swimmers, cheers mate.
Took longer than I thought based on my swims so far this year but it all helps me get used to being in the water for a while in France in three weeks. Swallowed a few mouthfuls on the way round but no real steering issues even with the chop and flow of the water.
Time spent: 58.29 - 291st of 300, a massive 45 seconds ahead of the next person, how bad must they be feeling? I can only assume they quit the sport there and then
T1
Cold hands made this a bit of a problem otherwise better than some, particualrly the person who clearly stopped to make a warm Bovril or similar spending a wonderful 14.04 here.
Time spent: 4.24 - 234th of 300
Bike
Took a while to get going and apart from the three massive wheel wobbles (wrong wheel choice) all went well, got to see a few Pirates, got told to fuck off for overtaking someone on the steep hill while taking a drink and had a bit of fun generally.
Time spent: 2.46 - 103rd of 300 - 6th in AG yay
T2
Speedy by my standards
Time spent: 1.59 - 178th of 300
Run
Didn't have a plan apart from to try and get to the turnaround before walking, managed to get to 10 miles so happy with that, a couple of power walks on the upslopes and back to the finish.
Time spent: 1.43 - 107th of 300
Overall 5.34.41 - 157th of 300 and 15/33 in AG
I can now relax in the knowledge I never need to go near that lake again. Am I ready for Nice in 19 days, as far as the comedy tan lines go, yes as we ended up with a sunny late morning/afternoon, as far as the 'race', probably not as much as I could be, but as ready as I can be based on life getting in the way. I have a sneaking suspicion that once again my swim may have let me down but again life is currently stopping me doing much about that and anyway it's so much more sociable to be at the back and see over half of the field as you overtake them on the bike and run even if you do get told where to go by grumpy slow people. Great to see Pirates old and new as ever, look forward to doing it all again very soon.
great report......I love bala
Nice one Symes.
It was lovely to be overtaken by you Symes.
I hope I came across as being humourous and not grumpy. *frets*
Fear not, twas a grumpy chap later on, you were your usual happy self
symes. that was a really really shit swim.even by your standards.........have you been taking lessons from Ted
Thanks, it wasn't that bad! I was 11 minutes quicker in the pool 3 days before
what happened to the 1:30 a couple of years ago at AT
Err, try 1:25
Kinda helped that I was swimming regular days as opposed to the real world nowadays which only lets me go once a week
well done all, great to see a few regular faces and some new ones, thanks for all the shouts and if I didn't know you you will just have got an 'aaarrrrrggghh' or something similar. The supporters were once again outstanding, apologies we couldn't stay to the end, Millie decided that she didn't like the clothes she was wearing so crapped all over them in an attempt to get fully changed, exploding nappie means quick exit.
Best of luck to all racing Nice in a few weeks, at least the swim will only be that rough in the first 10 mins with the helicopter overhead !!
I have added a few more photos from last weekends race at the Bala Middle, they can all be seen on Flickr.com just follow the link below. If anyone wants their photos just drop me an email, photos for fellow pirates are free when they are pictures of you. If you want any of the general photos, or the landscapes then we will work something out
Plus if anyone wants a picture removing then also let me know and it will be done!
www.flickr.com/photos/62171879@N07/collections/72157645184390193/
I hope you mean miles and not minutes