New Forest Middle Distance Triathlon (1.9km swim, 92km bike, 22km run)

We headed to the New Forest early Saturday morning after dropping Indie in Walmer with friends and Kofi in Whitstable with some more helpful and triathlon-understanding friends.

After an easy registration and early briefing, we set the tents up on a campsite a couple of miles from race HQ and spent the afternoon lazing about, comtemplating what lay ahead on Sunday and winding Paul up. Managed to hardly sleep at all on Saturday night, combination of being in a tent, gripey stomach and a little worried about not really being prepared. Got up at 5am and managed to not eat anything at all. I am getting quite good at doing pretty long days competing on a completely empty stomach.....however, not ideal! Must learn to EAT & SLEEP before races......

Having dreaded the swim, it went pretty well, kept a really good line to all the buoys and came out of the water in 33 mins so was chuffed with that. Out onto the bike and experienced some of the prettiest cycling ever, the early morning light dappling through the New Forest trees and lighting up the dew everywhere.....it would be hard not to enjoy that...and then there were the animals wandering across the roads, had a hairy encounter with a huge cow who actually forced me off the road! There were pigs, donkeys, ponies, cows and partridges on the roads all round the course, and they don't care about your PB!

Came off the bike in just over 3.5 hours which I was pleased with as meant a 16 mile an hour average over a course of hills, undulating stretches and some headwinds. Unfortunately Chris was cheering me from the roadside at T2 which meant he had to quit the race. He had hurt his back on Friday morning and had said he would quit if it was still bad while racing (to save completely screwing it up prior to Australia IM). He had done an amazing swim before he stopped, about 28 mins and did the first bike lap with a 19 mile/hour average. He would have had a great result if he hadn't had to stop.

Out onto the run, now here's the funny bit....first hill, couldn't even walk up it, so bloody steep, managed to stumble up the sand and tree roots, thinking 'they are having a ********* laugh'. Kind of set the scene for the next 22km's, although the last 4 were on tarmac I think....was almost dead by that point so can't really remember. Had nasty stomach gripes and nausea the whole of the run, have never felt that miserable running before. It would have been a really tough half marathon, even if I had felt fine and my legs weren't about to drop off, all in all, a bit of a mental challenge to get to the finish. I was consoled that all the fit looking blokes around me looked equally as bombed, some even worse! Indeed, a massive relief to finally finish. Consoling again, to find Jason and Paul moaning as much as me about it! Group moaning, very good post race therapy!

Eventually stopped feeling sick enough to pack up the tents in the rain and endure the hideous 5 hour Sunday night drive back to Kent. A great weekend in a sadistic way. Some friends back here only ever seem to say to me 'Why would you put yourself through that for fun?'......a question I can't ever seem to ever eloquently answer. However, I know for sure, some of you reading this will understand....

Jason 5.51.42
Paul 6.10.10
Chantal 6.36.35
Chris DNF

Kofi is 3!

Kofi had a fantastic 3rd birthday yesterday. Nanny Julie and Grandad Dave came for the day and took Kofi and Chantal out for a lovely pub lunch. In the afternoon, Kofi's mates all came for a bounce in the garden and a play on his new tractor. Lots of tractor cards, tractor cake, tractor presents.....let's hope he doesn't go off tractors anytime soon!

The Vitruvian

We headed to Rutland Water on Friday afternoon with Jason, Sara, Izzy, Tom, Paul and Purna for a spot of camping by the lake in readiness for the early race start on Saturday morning. The Vitruvian this year was also the Middle Distance National Championships and consisted of a 1.9km swim, 85km bike and 21km run.

Luckily we had good weather (which lasted all weekend), and Chris was definitely ready for the early gun on Saturday morning since our kids had decided to get up at 4.30am!

Jason's wave started and Chris went about 10 minutes later at 7am. The swim seemed to be over in a flash (well, for us spectators!) and they headed out onto the two lap bike course. Just enough time for us to head back to the tents for tea and a fried egg buttie. Chris didn't look totally relaxed when we saw him half way through the run but appeared far more comfortable during the second run lap round the lake. (Turned out he spent the first few miles running feeling very sick and dodgy, all those rolling hills on the bike?) Jason looked very composed which was great as he had spent all week feeling rotten and hadn't been able to run properly for the last few weeks due to an injury.

Jason finished in 5.11.51 (41.13, 2.46.30, 1.38.24) with Izzy in tow
Chris flew in a few minutes later in 5.02.56 (35.21, 2.42.33, 1.41.40) with Indie and Kofi

Paul and I then did a lap of the bike course in the afternoon (for fun? no, got New Forest tri in two weeks and bit behind on the old training as usual!) before an evening of cider, chilli and tired legs by the tents. Had a nice amble round the lake this morning with Purna before a speedy journey back to reality in Kent.

South Coast Olympic Triathlon - Seaford, East Sussex

Chris, the kids and I set off just before 6am this morning to meet Dom and Rob at Seaford sea front for our inaugral olympic distance tri.

After a quick photoshoot with the mayor, the small wave of women set off, followed 10 minutes later by a much larger bloke group (who we had to swim through/over on the second lap!). The sea was a bit wavy and choppy, with a reasonable tide which meant one leg took ages and one whizzed by. Two laps of the triangle were duly completed and we headed out on the bikes, only separated by a minute or two.

The bike was 12 laps of an out and back, one way into an increasing headwind and the other a lovely speedy dash back to the turnaround. Saw Chris and the kids every lap which was cool. I really tried to keep good speed up the whole way and was pleased to have averaged 18mph by the end of the 40km.

Out onto the run, now about 4 minutes ahead of Dom and it was head down for 4 laps along the seafront. I must have worked on the bike, my legs were shot away for the first few km's but gradually eased up and I had enough left to speed up for the last couple of km's. Was pretty chuffed with my time (I'd hoped to finish in anything under 3 hours) and Dom came in about 15 mins later to our huge cheers. She really did brilliantly for a first ever triathlon and we were all so proud of her.

Sasha and Tim came along a bit later and we all had a post race pub lunch near Brighton before heading our separate ways.

Chantal 2hrs 46mins
Dom 2hrs 59mins 39secs!!