Outlaw 2016 - a very average birthday

Outlaw race report – A very average birthday

I am, as you know, the worlds worst triathlete. In my first season in Ironman last year both races were finished in the dark and both were waaay down the field, mainly due to my complete lack of anything resembling a run. The difficulty is that in multi-disciplinary sport you should concentrate on your weaknesses – swimming and running in my case – but I love cycling so much that I kept being drawn back to riding rather than running or swimming.

So this year I have deliberately back off the cycling – although still ridden over 6,000km so far this year – and followed a run programme – the London Marathon intermediate program – and have clocked up nearly 1,000km of running so far this year – and actually enjoyed almost every minute of it, particularly the hill reps / interval sessions where you can feel the burn for hours afterwards. The programme I felt went really well, I struggled a bit with calf issues and more recently with sciatic nerve issues – but my times were tumbling and I was a happy bunny.

So going into this season of racing my two wildly unambitious ambitions were:

1)      To finish a race in daylight and

2)      To finally become average

The Outlaw has always had a really great reputation for a fun, friendly relaxed full distance race. Same distances as Ironman (3.8km swim, 180km bike, 42.2km marathon run) but much more friendly and chilled out. Also as it is held in July and starts at 6am I would pretty much hit ambition number 1 with relative ease!. Ambition 2 I felt was well within my grasp as well, I felt it I could finish in 12.5 hours or so that would be a great achievement. Others were suggesting I would go sub 12 which felt at the edge of my limits but not beyond grasp.

The swim start was a mass start. Ironman has pretty much eliminated mass swim starts now but I do love them so much, can’t beat a good bunfight at 6am in a lake to get the blood flowing. Out of the swim and the helpers shouted 1hr 22 which is fab for me, especially in fresh water.

You can see me here at the swim start – I am the one with the black wetsuit and white hat…

https://www.facebook.com/OutlawTriathlon/videos/1141512575913139/?pnref=story

Onto the bike, and one of the few races I’ve done on open roads. People moan about the cost of racing Ironman races but the extra money you pay for an Ironman race over “unbranded” races such as Outlaw does buy you a lot – invariably buying you completely closed roads. I wasn’t overly stressed about open roads but having traffic around you when you are at racing pace is one more thing to have to think about, when it’s difficult to think about much more than keeping the pedals going for 6 hours solid. Nailed the ride totally, I wanted to do the 180km in 6 hours which I knew should be an easy cruise, leaving plenty in the legs for the run – did it in 6hr 2 minutes so spot on.

https://www.strava.com/activities/653760068

So onto the run – a 4hr 20 run would get me a sub 12 hour result – both of my ironman runs last year had been 5 hours – but that was without any proper run training and also on much much harder courses (Lanzarote & Mallorca) – I felt 4hrs 30 ish would be easily doable, 4hrs20 within my reach. So off we set, and from the first step there is literally nothing there, its turgid from the very first KM and got worse and worse  - I started having stomach issues, visiting several portaloos along the way – I’ve never had this before, I can only theorise that I drank something in the rather grimy lake swim that didn’t agree with me, or that it was just “one of those things”. Lots and lots of endurance athletes suffer from it, and today was my turn I guess. As the run ground on the 12 hour target quickly slid to 12h30, and then to 13 hours then as the run just became a pointless trudge I decided to speedwalk the last 3km along with another chap, Carl who was doing his first full distance race and had been targeting 16hr59minutes (the deadline is 17 hours). Walking together was lovely and a bit odd, we were finishing together - he was chuffed to bits finishing some 4 hours inside his target, I was mildly irritated that my great swim and bike had just deteriorated into my worst possible run. But hey ho, I knew if we continued to speedwalk at our current pace we would sneak in inside 13 hours which we did, 12hrs57.

https://www.strava.com/activities/653767951

So oddly, just because this was a much easier course than those I normally pick:

1)      I finished in daylight - Yay

2)      I finished with a PB - Yay

3)      I was actually average! Almost exactly bang in the middle of the pack  - Yay and

4)      It was by far my worst race!

Times:

Swim: 1hr 22 – my best swim to date, position 592^nd out of about 1,000 males, that’s very good for me, happy with that

Transition 1: 6m31 – 485 out of 1000 males – above average!

Bike: 6hr02 – 421^st out of 1000 males on the bike, happy with that mainly as it was bang on the pace I wanted to set – Ironman distance is all about pacing not racing.

Transition 2: 6m02 – 429 out of 1000 males – above average!

“Run”: 5hr20 – 623^rd out of 1000 males – pants!

Overall – 12hrs57 – 530^th out of 1000 males. An average birthday, very very average!

Highlights

-          Family and friends being there to support me – thanks all!

-          The chilled out atmosphere, such a fun event

-          The good swim time

-          Ellie running alongside me being given a fake ticking off by the officials for “pacing me”.

-          The crowd signing happy birthday to me

-          Running down the finish chute with Ellie

Lolights

-          Open roads on the bike leg

-          The “run”

Next stop Mallorca Ironman in September – love that race so much, looking forward to it already.