I'd never done a triathlon before so maybe entering the Vitruvian middle distance, on impulse, was a bit a risk, but shows that with a little luck,effort and support seemingly difficult obstacles can be enjoyed and overcome.

I'm not much of swimmer, ( can't even do frontcrawl, only swam in a pool and the sea on holiday ) so 1900m swim around Rutland Water was a tad scary. In the end it was the most enjoyable part of the event...swimming across a placid silver mirror, towards a rising red sun...all to the backbeat of Cafe del Mar pumping from the lakeside bar...I was well 'stoated' by the end of it, even if there were only about 10% of the bikes still racked in the transistion area by the time I got there.

Then 50 odd miles, 1000m of climbing on the bike course...firmer ground here, but very conscious not to go too hard as I'd have to do a half marathon run at the end of it, which would be something new aswell. Pleasingly I overtook several hundred competitors, with only 2 people overtaking me ! Some spectators kept yelling EPO at me on the course...must have been the time trial helmet I was wearing

Then comes the run...or less of a run and more of a slog/battle to 'keep on movin' after getting on for 3 1/2 hours of exercise...the winner of the event was just finishing as i went out on the run ! and I had to watch all the fast people spring on by whilst leaden legs plodded on.

At last I finished, 1 hour 56 for the run making a total of 5 hours 24 mins for the half ironman and my first triathlon...a feeling of a beautific smile replacing aches, pains and cramp as I crossed the line. 384th out of 900. Not bad as the armed forces were using this as their championship...a bit of light relief for them away from the cooked up chaos of commerce

 

 

Other Results:

Russ Watson               4:47.40

Kevin Allerton              5:24.14

Guy Skilton                  5:49.41

Nigel Winsper              5:54.06