I agree a great day, swim was a bit long but I had a trusty duck with me, and got lost from time to time trying to work out which were the buoy and which were the swimmers. I was quite surprised at the speed of the competitors, as 200 meters in to the swim I looked up and almost half the field of swimmer were in front of me, woow, that’s not happened before, felt like trying to catch them up, but then my brain kicked in and I knew I had to swim at my own pace and steady. So settled in to a nice rhythm and headed out to sea, first turn point and headed towards the Mount. Then my wet suit started to rub under my arms, with each arm pull I could feel it getting worse, until the skin broke and oh, salt water and flesh, I then found the meaning of pain. I have 400 meter to go which took me so so long.

Transition I took my time, duck still in tacked, and set off on my journey to Land End, my strategy was to take it all at my own pace and not worry about anyone else. First past me was Dave, and closely followed by Jon, and within five minute Abi passed me going up hill. The cycle course was like a roller coaster, up and down, over and over again. Lovely quite roads and lovely scenery, so I settled down and decided to enjoy the ride, tried to chat to everyone who passed me, some people are so serious when cycling. Took me 3 hours 35 minutes for the cycle, and best of all I felt really good, I could have kept going, which gave me a good busy as Nice Ironman is twice the distance.

Back in to transition, loved having the sea wall to sit while I changed my shoes and socks had a quick stretch, then off out on the run. Felt very good, got a good pace and kept it up, passed Jon, Dave and Abi a few times, nice to see fellow team mates again. I was going well and my pace was getting faster, nice flat route, very similar to Nice, at the half way point I had worked out that if I keep increasing my pace I could break the 6 hour barrier. So I started to dig in at the end of the second lap. The third lap Abi ask if she could join in for some extra training (Half Ironman is just not enough for some people) I welcomed the company, I was in a good mood, and felt good. I told Abi that if I kept up the pace I would get under 6 hours, was that a good move? I felt like I had my own personal trainer running with me, pushing me on every step, slowing me down when I started to go too fast. On the last 5k it really started to hurt, and Abi was pushing, pushing and pushing me, I did not want to slow down, as I’m not sure what Abi would had said, but I’m sure it would not have been nice words, so I dug in more and pushed harder, it was a nice feeling overtaking people, but it blinking hurt. Crossed the line doing a sprint, and checked my watch, well under 6 hours, you should have seen the smile on my face. Thanks Abi for pushing me so hard.

I was really pleased with the day, and noticed that I did not have to push hard on the cycle to do a reasonable time and still have loads left for the run. Very please with the run and got a PB for a Half Marathon. Why I seam to get PB on my runs at the end of a Triathlon who knows why, but I’ve never run a PB in any run race.

Great start to the season, and recommend the race for anyone training for an Ironman.