I didn't even blog that I had entered the new North Norfolk Tri. A test event for a bigger version next year, it was advertised about a month ago on the Tri Anglia forum, and I wavered a bit before entering over 2 weeks later. Not having been training specifically for another Olympic event, not having done a sea swim before, already having planned to go camping that weekend... all factors against. But there seemed to be a few people from the club up for having a go, including Trish, and the planned camping was at Stiffkey (approx 4 miles away...) so why not? A sea swim is still in water, after all.
The forecast for the weekend was not great. But compared to the severe weather and flood warnings elsewhere in the country it was peachy. We moved our planned camping trip from Fri & Sat nights to just Sat (typically, Fri evening then turned out to be lovely), and headed up to the coast on Saturday morning. One double-back later (to retrieve the crate containing basically all my tri gear bar wetsuit and bike) and a stop off at the Runner's Centre for some gels (as learned from Norwich tri) and we were there. Having driven through a cloudburst near Fakenham, we were pleased to see the campsite in sunshine, mostly dry, and just a bit windy, with Mike and Tracey waiting for us. The tent went up with a minimum of fuss, we scarfed down some lunch, and headed out for a walk while the going was still good. Three miles each way to the Anchor at Morston, and barely a raindrop. Later on we headed to the Red Lion, had a few drinks (mine of the H2O variety) and ordered food. What I needed was pasta, and lots of it, but what I had was partridge. Turned out to be a tough little bird, impossible to eat except by picking it up and gnawing. Not sure it was ideal pre-race food but I compensated with a couple of chunks of breakfast/energy bar back at the tent.
A half decent night's sleep, interrupted by a scavenging rat in the tent, but fine once the earplugs went in. Sunday morning dawned grey and wet. Very, very wet. I wondered about pulling out, not fancying the bike leg in that. Text exchange with Trish revealed it was no better inland, but she was up for the race. Having cooked porridge in the rain, things seemed to brighten a little - the weather was coming in off the sea, and (whisper) blue sky was faintly visible. The drive to Wells was through monster puddles and waves of grit washed off the verges and fields, but the radio said things would ease up. At race HQ, it had just about stopped raining, so I registered and began to set up transition - one minor panic upon noticing the nut had fallen off my front wheel, but there it was on the floor of the car. Trish and other Tri-Anglia faces arrived, and Mark went back to the site to pack up the tent. I changed into my spangly new tri suit and finished off transition (forgetting to pump up the tyres).
We checked out the swim - route, water temperature and exit route. Route looked fine, yellow buoys all the way. Temperature was a bit low but bearable. Exit route was a short stretch of stony beach, from which I picked up 3 or 4 bits of broken glass without really looking for them :( Then Trish spotted Graham (?) among the spectators, who agreed to put our shoes down on the beach for us once the swim started, which helped massively.
After the race briefing I finally remembered to stick some air in my tyres, and then it was off over the road for the swim, with just a minute or so to acclimatise in the water. Worse than the temperature was the taste - yuk. Salt water swimming is not for me, but I figured as long as I could avoid a mouthful, I would be OK. The start was the craziest mass start I have done, with 20+ people trying to get a hold on about 10 feet of pontoon which formed the start, then battling for clear water. Hanging back for a few seconds didn't do much good as the route was quite constrained for the first bit by a parallel jetty. Still, no injuries and the goggles stayed on, so all was well. For the next 26 minutes my only thoughts were "yuk", "where's the next buoy?", and "YUK". I reckon the swim course was a bit short, as 26 minutes is unknown territory for me unless I have evolved an outboard motor. And that included a few moments of wobbling trying to get my shoes on! Really nice to have lots of support, Rosie and other Tri Anglia people were there, plus lots of interested passers by. And the sun had come out too!
First priority in transition - a drink. Rinse and spit. Seawater is just grim. Was surprised to see Kate Scotter appear 30s later, and realised I was first lady out of the water. Kate's speedy transition saw her out before me though. The mount line was a bit tricky, being on a hill, and (probably like most people) I opted to mount on the road. The route went through Wells, with a bit of Sunday traffic to contend with, and out on to the main road via two foot-down stops, all pretty smooth. Managed to grab a gel on the straight by the cottage hospital, and repeated that on all 3 laps. Just after that was a 250m stretch of gravel drive, pretty nerve-wracking but I managed to stay upright despite the growing crosswind on each lap.
That led into Holkham park, where the cattle grids were boarded (great) but the cattle themselves were determined to hog the road. Lap 1 - cows on the road, cycled round them on the grass. Lap 2 - they'd moved just about off the road, no need to detour. Lap 3 - there they were running along the road in front of me and a fellow competitor, and the marshal ahead was desperately trying to take up the boards from over the grid before they stampeded through. Talk about bad timing! I couldn't walk over the grid in my bike shoes, but the marshal scrambled to open the side gate for me so not too much time lost. Poor chap had tried to turn them back but they chased him. On the first lap I also passed Kate, victim of a puncture, and realised I was now first female.
The rest of the bike leg was uneventful! There are a couple of long drags in Holkham, but a nice downhill to sweeten things, and the road outside (parallel with) the park wall is excellent. Even the main road didn't have too much traffic, and there was some good speed to be had. I averaged 16.2mph, partly due to terrain and partly due to trying to conserve some energy for the run. Total riding time just under 1:30.
Back into transition, more support was in evidence (Marie, Nigel, Rob) and I dashed out at a steady plod, deciding not to waste seconds finding my last energy gel. That might have been a mistake, but I managed to keep up the steady plod for the whole run, with just a few walk breaks including one at the massively welcome halfway water station. Clearly I was tired, and my legs were protesting, but nowhere near as much as at Norwich. It felt very slow but at least I was moving! The run route was dead flat, although devoid of shade for most of it. As the race had started at the apparently civilised time of 11:30am (high tide), I was running from 1:30-2:30 or so, and it was hot - thankfully with a tiny bit of breeze. In the last km I was wishing I'd had the gel, and then spotted a bag of jelly beans dropped by some other competitor. Not sure whether I was a scav or a womble, but I picked them up and chewed one! Maybe that gave me the last little boost I needed, as I was able to sprint over the line for that much-wanted sub-3hr finish (by 31 seconds).
Official times were:
Swim - start to T1 entry: 26:22
Bike - T1 entry to T2 entry: 1:32:08
Run - T2 entry to finish: 1:00:59
Total 2:59:29
Third from last finisher, and first lady! Kate and Trish succumbed to punctures, and I think Debbie finished the bike and elected not to run. Tina was last finisher and second lady, and very happy :) I was really pleased to get first, although I fully appreciate it was down to luck (no punctures and little competition), so if anything I was even more pleased to break that 3hr barrier, especially having not focused my training on this race. (That said, I think the swim was short so you probably can't really compare this race with Norwich... but it's a nice time barrier to beat nonetheless!)
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