Stu's IMUK race report

Woke up about 3.30 to the sound of silence – no rain ! Given the previous day it had not stopped, you could only leave the camp-site if the tractor towed you, and the race briefing had included 20 minutes on the dangers of hypothermia this was a great start. Forced a bit of brekkie down, dressed, and wandered the 15 minutes or so to the castle.

Got my race numbers, time for a final bike check. Found I had lost my elastic bands to attach my aero bottle, but had the customary black electrical tape for emergencies so taped the bottle onto the bars – not stylish but effective. Time to change…

Found a space and got my wet-suit on, then milled about waiting to get down to the lake. Surprised myself by being pretty calm and so didn’t need to join the queue for the toilets

 

Bit quicker in T2, only 5 minutes….and off on the run. The loops round the castle were good, plenty of good support, but then it was out onto the A road to Yeovil. This was nasty, two loops of rolling ups and downs, into the wind going out. Tried to run uphill but couldn’t so had to walk every incline. Stomach was having no more gels at this point (after a particularly nasty vanilla flavoured one) so a diet of coke, banana and water got me through. Felt pretty good during the run – it was good to see the rest of the club guys going up the A road, started to look forward to seeing them to keep it going.

Back into the castle and round into the finishing chute. High-fived some small children (very gently), ran past my family (whoops) then went back for my son. This was the hardest part of the race, carrying a heavy 3yr old 20 metres to the line….!. Over the line and what a great feeling ! Finished the run in 4.39, total time 12.48.05. I thought I could get close to 13 hours if all went well, but thought 13.5 was more realistic, so surprised myself. Grinned all the way round the course, enjoyed every bit of it.

Then mentally relaxed and the tiredness hit me. Freshly cooked pizza soon remedied that, and bumped into Ray, Bally and Digger in the finishers area.
Big thanks to the supporters down there, really nice to get such loud encouragement from

Sigi, Sweepie and co.

Stu

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other finishers were:

Russ Watson              11:24.39

Graham Ball               11:52.00

Tony Symes                13:22.43

Raymond Conner       13:26.55

Steve Cartlidge          13:42.42

 

14 Hours 58 Minutes