Why is it that as you soon as you are in the Triathlon door you start thinking about entering events or attempting distances that only a while ago you would have laughed at?Why is it that as you soon as you are in the Triathlon door you start thinking about entering events or attempting distances that only a while ago you would have laughed at?
A few months ago, myself and a few other piranhas decided to look at doing a half Ironman at the start of the season and travel abroad to do it. We quickly came across the 70.3 series which was the new brand name for the half Ironman series which had events all the world at different times of the year.The UK dates were early in the season and matched our plans so we signed up. It was good to have a big race to be aiming for early in the season. It kept you somewhat focused during the winter months when you might have been up the mountains in the rain or getting up in the dark for the swim sessions. A big goal really!
All this preparation led to last week and turning up at Dublin airport with our bikes in tow. Rich, Lisa and myself flew out to Bristol on Friday evening. Daithi and Liz had earlier in the day got the ferry over and had started to drive down to Exmoor national park where the race was going to be held. After a slight delay to our flight we arrived in Bristol and headed to pick up our car rental. Before that there was a few anxious moments as we waited for the bike boxes to come out. We were flying Ryanair after all! Phew, out they come, first hurdle over. Picked up the car, packed everything in, just about, and headed south to Exmoor. Stopped for some dinner aka carb loading and back on the road. Less than a 2hr drive, we arrive in the b+b and settle in. We can’t but help notice the great scenery all around and the undulating countryside.
Saturday we are up and off to the Race venue. We have a good few things to do today. We arrive and park and notice the fantastic setting. We walk down to the lake and have a look. We notice the half km uphill run we have between getting out of the lake and up to the transition tents. We meet up with Daithi who has had a practice swim. The swim course isn’t finished being marked out fully. They have just the corner buoys down. It’s an odd shaped triangle. It looks so far out – it always does doesn’t it – but this time we cant believe how far it is out to first buoy. Are we really going to be able to swim that far? On the plus side the lake looking amazing and the sun is blazing down.
We decide to head to the race village and register and pick up our stuff. Everything seems so well organised, there we are given the usual stuff but some extra such as race id, 3 different coloured bags for the transition areas and a tag that is put on you wrist, the type you get when you go to a concert. All these extras add to the buzz!
Back to the car and we start to assemble the bikes. We do this and decide to go for a short spin. Just as well – my bike somehow has got damaged and needs to be repaired. The lowest gear is out, so my race would have been over pretty soon into the bike course. I join the queue for the bike mechanic – he doesn’t have a replacement part – the drop out is pushed into the wheel but he skilfully managed to fix the part into its original position without it snapping. I breath a bit more easily now!
We join the rest of the competitors in the large tent for the race briefing. We are filled in on all the details. Drafting comes up – they have a type of sin bin in operation – if you are spotted drafting it is radioed in, you will be stopped in transition and held for 4min to watch everyone go by. A second drafting offence is 8 mins and a third your gear is removed before you get back to transition. All very serious. There is qualification places up for grabs so I suppose it was needed. At this stage we had just seen the map of the bike course we haven’t driven the course. At this stage we are not even sure if we will get round to driving it. The bike race director tells it how it is – he says there are over 54 hills, he laughs a lot while saying first timer have picked a beauty of a race for their first half. He talks about the big descend on the course which has a sharp left turn at the bottom. I slowly begin to feel sick! Actually its not slowly it quite fast! We leave the tent to finish up the set up. That’s it just keep busy and keep your mind off it. We have three bags to fill – a white one which we can take home and bring back in the morning with swim stuff in it, blue one which we fill for the bike leg, and a red one for the run leg. These bags were put in the tent on the Saturday and you have no access to them after that. We rack out bikes. Nothing was allowed on the ground around the bike so no towels or whatever you usually use to find you bike. So a different set up to get used to. Again it adds to the excitement.
We go back to the lake at the end of the day and feel a bit better as they had put in the rest of the buoys so the long distance looks kinda of broken up into smaller, more manageable sections. Back to the car and over to drive the bike course. It is hilly, they are some pretty sudden and steep climbs. It gets to the stage where we just laugh. Daithi texts us earlier after he has driven it. It thinks its nuts. There a bit of a laugh regarding the bike, some of us have three rings on a road bike and some of us have a tri bike. I am totally f**ked tomorrow. I reassure myself a small bit that I can get up the hills – I did some in italy and have been up the Wicklow mountains the last few weeks. Remember its not about the bike! Yeah right its not.
We head back to the b+b to sort out the final dinner. That’s what it feels like the final dinner. We have been kept busy and the day has gone fast. Everything is ready and set up in transition. I still find some thing to worry about – the sun has been blazing down on the bikes and I imagine arriving in the morning with two blown tires and no time to change them. Rich convinces me. Its a lovely balmy evening and part of me wishes I could just chill and watch the world cup and forget the whole thing. I quickly cop myself on and remind myself how much training I have done for this.
We head out for dinner to a really picture postcard town and manage to get some pasta. We head back early and hit the hay. Nerves are there as I know d day is tomorrow. I am looking forward to just getting started and stuck in to the task.
Up at 345am. I am awake and I have a horrible pain of nervous in my stomach. Funny enough its not about the bike it is about the swim. I get up and get busy and it gets better. Our b+b host has amazed us and offered to cook up porriage at 4am. I think it was because they didn’t want us in their kitchen. I manage a few mouthfuls and some toast – I force some down knowing ill need it later. Rich is in good form and all set. Lisa is all set also, as she is volunteering at the event. Dedication or what!
We get our gear and jump in the car. It is misty everywhere – a suggestion is made by rich it could be delayed as visibility is poor – jesus I hope not, I just want to start. Ill be ok once I start – ill be too busy to think about it. 
We arrive – its about 10 miles to the race setting from the b+b. We head to transition. Check the bikes – phew the tires are fine. I make up the drinks and get ready for swim. We don’t have much hanging round. We find out that 5 bikes were taken overnight – the pros including chris mccormick bike – bit strange as security here all night. Wetsuits on and final preparation. No time to get nervous, just focus. The pros are in the first wave at 6am. You are called down to the lake 10 mins beforehand. Daithi is off in the second wave, myself and rich in the third.
We line up for few minutes. I make a last minute toilet stop, well a few really! We are ushered down towards the lake. The ‘final countdown’ is being played on the pa system. Its cheesy but needed. It gets me going. They are over 300 in the wave. Daithi wave is gone – we seen them and hear the countdown as we walk down the hill. We are allowed a 3 min walk up. I get in quickly and swim out a bit, wanting the suit to fill quickly. I notice the water is lovely, its calm, warm and you can’t see the bottom. We had been told its one of the deepest lakes in England, has only been around 1977 as it is dammed.
We are called back to the shore. I have swam out a bit and I am one of the last few to get out. I slip in to the second/ third row and before I know the crowd and PA are counting down from 10 and we are off. We start on the bank and have a very short run . Dive in. We’re off. I go for it! After a few 100m I find some room and get into a good rhythm. The nerves are gone. Or maybe not gone, I just busy now. I aim for the first buoy and continue this around. One by one. I do a bit of a zigzag across but it expected. We get to the first corner I feel good and change direction for the next one. I start thinking that this is going well. My heart rate feels good and there seems to be room for everyone. On the third and final turnaround I need to look up a few times as it isn’t as straight a line in. I can hear the crowds and see the banner we go under to finish the swim section. Before I know it I’m a 100 metre from it. Head down as I swim as much as can up to the verge. Hop out, and start the run out. I was going to take the wetsuit off before running up the hill but instead bring it down to my waist, and attempt a slow steady run up the hill. I manage to do this ok without going too fast.
I glance at my watch and am happy with the time. I hear Lisa shout before I enter the first tent to pick up my blue bag which is on hooks. Run into the next tent and here I change. Bag emptied on the floor. I get down to it. I decide to spend a few extra seconds putting on socks which pay off later. Rich pays later in the run for going without the socks. Wet gear in the bag and off to get bike. I remain pretty focused, get the bike and proceed to the mounting area. It’s a tight spot but manage to get on and move. The road now is busy. I take it easy as we have a small hill on the 3km mark. I’m thinking what everyone has been warning us about take it easy on the bike especially on the first section. The bike course is two laps of 45km. Its good we drove it as I can start to think or visualise the first turn off. Make mental note to drink loads, as I tend not to usually. After a few kms there is some flattish roads with a good surface, we stay on this road for a while and I try and settle in on the bike. I take on bars and at first they go down well but after a while I feel like I have paper mache in my mouth. I tell myself its all good. The course is a slight blur – there are 3/4 bigger hills on the course and a very steep descend. The descend is vivid still as you were under a lot of cover so the road was tricky to see, you had loads of marshals waving these red flags at you, shouting at you to slow up as we had a sharp left turn at the bottom. Reminded me of Formula one. First lap went well. I was very happy to see the turn off for the second lap, although it was a long way coming on the final stretch. It was hard to keep the advice we were given when you had to use everything you had to get up the steep hills. 
The hills were steep. We had some closed roads which helped. You were out of the saddle a lot and had to push hard. There was a few people who were walking up the steep ones but this made you push even harder. Going up some of the hills you were really ontop of some bikes so you needed to watch it. I found it good as you could clearly see that everyone was working they butts off to get up that particular hill. We were kinda egging each other up. The one good thing about hills I suppose is that in most case you have a downhill afterwards, so that kept us going too.
Myself and Daithi played some cat and mouse for a while on the first, me taking him up hills and he taking me on the descents. Rich soon wizzed by me on the bike as expected. We shouted at each other and he looked good. Second lap came and went. I knew I just wanted to get to transition. There was quite a few who had to pull up due to bike issues. Because we were out in the sticks they had a good walk back to the nearest junction where they could get some help. I was praying I wouldn’t run into trouble. Had one close call on one of the descends, I hit a pothole on a bottom turn and my tri bars fell down under the weight as I turned the corner. I managed to pull them back up quickly without veering into the stone wall. Phew. My bike lasted well – it did kind scream going up those descents but I urged it up. I had another issue with the water bottle between the tri bars. Lost the sponge cover on one of the descents and had to put up with drink being sprayed everywhere for a while.
Huge relieve to get into transition 2. Bike racked and raced to the tent to get red bag, had a quick toilet stop which was a good move. While I was in transition I heard the second place athlete come in. I quickly put that thought out of my mind and went into the tent. I raced out and felt good. Again Lisa and Liz was there shouting support. Lisa said rich was just ahead. I shouted as I saw him. I was surprised to see him as I expected he was miles ahead but motored on. I tried not to think about the distance – half marathon to go. My legs felt ok. We hadn’t looked at the run course on Saturday. It was 3 laps. It was along the lake on grass, on trails, on road, on stone, ever bloody surface you could imagine. It was kind of deceptive as the front side of the course was all on nice grass tracks with all the supporters while the back end was where there was trouble ahead. There was 4 hills on each lap. On the first we all got shocks I think. Everyone did. One of the hills, people just walked up, again I can remember passing people doing a slow motion up the hill while they were walking up. I wasn’t going to stop although that voice in my head was telling me I could.
I took on some gels as planned. Was worried that my stomach would give way but it held up. I cut back on the gels on the second half of the run as stomach felt it was going. As expected I ran slower splits. The back course took us along the lake and over the dam which was pretty cool to do. Myself and rich saw each other a few times on the course. Didn’t see daithi but knew he was somewhere on the course. Liz and Lisa was near the front shouting support which was great. After each lap you passed the finishers shoot which had a long run in. After the second lap I started to think that I was nearly finished which was a bad idea. I coped myself on and tried to focus on the last lap. Throughout the run I managed to pass a lot of people out. This was a good feeling and really spurred me on. Although I did start to slow down.On the third lap I could really picture the course. By mile 12, I could feel how close I was. I got to the turn off for the finishers shoot. I could see someone ahead. I was going to sprint as I always try to in a race. Don’t know why – maybe watching Sonia too much? I started a sprint and the crowds started banging the advertising boards. This only fuelled me on and led to a sprint race between myself and two others. This turned out to be the one of the highlights of the race. I pass the finish line. Our names are called out. We are given the medal. I glance at the clock. I get some drinks. Rich and Daithi soon follow. We congratulate each other. We are v happy. We join the queue for a massage and it doesn’t seem too long. I ask someone the time. I have no idea what time it is. The massage is great. We do some stretching. My stomach feels off but we get some fuel in the food tent. We watch some more finishers. Our thoughts now turn to getting the gear and bikes. As we walk back to the car there is a nice moment when the announcer lets everyone know a local man who is coming up to the finish line. It happens to be his birthday. He is 69. There are other nice moments with a women running the final stretch with her kids. I do feel for the runners still left out. There is still plenty of time. There is 9hr 30 minute cut off. 
We decide to dismantle the bikes at the car. This turns out to be a good plan. We say our goodbyes to Wimbleball lake. We drive back to the b+b. It takes a while that night to come down after the excitement. Back at the b+b, we watch a short piece on the race on the local news. Channel four were at the race so hopefully it will be broadcast soon. Our b+b has a outdoor hot tub - the simple things in life make all the difference! Out then for food and drink. We're on a high.
The weather was perfect. There was little or no wind. We had clear skies but cloud thankfully kept the sun out for most of the race. This was fantastic as Saturday had been a so hot.
Overall the Race weekend was fantastic. Despite the high entry fees for a 70.3 race all three of us really enjoyed the experience. We were very impressed with the scenery and with the location of the race. The organisation was second to none. And those hills… you appreciate the race and the achievement of finishing even more.
| Forename | Surname | Category | Cat Pos | Swim | Swim Rank | Trans 1 | rank | Bike | Rank | Trans 2 | rank | Run | Rank | Total | rank |
| Frank | Kehoe | M25-29 | 36 | 00:32:32 | 164 | 00:04:06 | 93 | 03:31:41 | 416 | 00:01:49 | 330 | 01:47:43 | 150 | 05:57:56 | 251 |
| Rich | Muehlenbeck | M30-34 | 66 | 00:39:52 | 607 | 00:04:42 | 168 | 03:22:36 | 302 | 00:02:34 | 533 | 01:59:00 | 313 | 06:08:49 | 308 |
| David | Wade | M35-39 | 92 | 00:34:04 | 247 | 00:06:19 | 463 | 03:39:55 | 503 | 00:02:33 | 530 | 01:57:18 | 282 | 06:20:15 | 383 |
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