Photo Album
1Farringdon Results 2007
Name Swim Bike Run Finish
Dyer Billy 16:11 1:34:22 40:46 2:33:03
Scammell Steve 18:11 1:30:24 42:47 2:33:19
Hobbs Sarah 13:26 1:38:46 42:33 2:36:54
Cole Jacquie 15:00 1:38:42 43:50 2:39:35
Hobbs Philip 14:21 1:40:57 46:34 2:44:52
This does not take into account any adjustments for stopping (or not stopping) at traffic lights.
A small and tough event. Just 100 athletes.
Great to be able to park almost next to the pool, decide for yourself when you want to start swimming
and if you were lucky you has a lane to yourself. Also a very relaxed 'park where you like' transition area.
Being set off just as the two swimmers already in my lane turned in front of me necessitated a fast getaway up the wrong side of the lane. This was quickly regretted as I don't usually do over taking. Half way through a set of fresh legs arrived in the lane and mowed me down but slowed up rapidly and meant another overtaking manoeuvre. 800 mtrs seems like a long way when you have spent most of your summer in a lake. The knock on the head from the lady with the kick board was a relief.
The bike is an out and back 33 miles with no big hills. Going out is into a big wind and coming back is
into a little wind. When I set off Steve, Billy and Jacqui were all miles ahead but Sarah had started her
swim a few minutes after me and I knew I was being hunted down. Apart from the bumpy road for the first 6 miles the novelty of the ride is three sets of traffic lights and the one way traffic through Fairford. If
you are lucky everything works to let you through. If you are unlucky you stop and someone take your number promising a time adjustment that will never happen. If you are Steve Scammell you just go through anyway. The turn was poorly marked for those that had not competed in this before and the marshall played little part in improving the situation. I turned and measured a 1/2 mile before passing Sarah snorting fire on the other side of the road. The next few miles passes in a haze as I calculated how fast I had to do 15 miles if Sarah was going to do 16 miles at 20 miles an hour. The answer is around 18 3/4 miles per hour which is at the top end of my options. At first I was looking around
so often that I might as well have been on the bike backwards. In the end I just put my head down and
waited for the inevitable.. .... and it never came. After some manic pedalling I reached transition and was back out on the run just before Sarah came in.
The run is undulating starting on the road and goes off road for a bit before back to the road for the 1:8
hill. To start with I felt like my legs had been tied together at the knees and a waddle was the most effective form of propulsion. A bit of down hill eased things into a jog and by the time I approached the
hill I was almost running. The hill put pay to that and when I was not making any headway on the walker in front I had a bit of a walk myself. With a mile to go to home I allowed myself a peep behind and saw Sarah 100 meter away and motoring. For the next 8 minutes my heart rate went into areas it has not been for a while and the line eventually saved me from exploding just in font of the wife.
The Good bag, t-shirt and a long lay on the grass cured most of the immediate aches and pains.
Phil.