After a few weeks undecided as to whether I’m doing the Legerman half distance I get the message on the Wednesday from Steve saying he would like me to do it, so that’s It, Sunday is my last event before IMUK.
Race day, 4:30am wake up call, beautiful sunshine and not a breath of wind made perfect conditions. First challenge of the day was getting porridge down at 5am, then load the bikes into the car and we are on our way. Arrive at Hatfield and get ourselves into transition, set all the gear out then triple check I have everything and start to feel nervous but then a few familiar faces started turning up in transition which always settles the nerves. Last minute toilet stop to make sure I’m at race weight and then down to the water side and wait for my start wave. A few minutes later I’m in the water and the start gun sounds, the swim seems very crowded so I thought find some space and relax, next thing a brush of a foot across my right cheek and my goggles are lifted up onto my head, don’t panic I thought just tread water and get them back on. After what felt like minutes I was round the first lap into the Australian exit the back into the second loop, this time no drama just relaxed and tried to concentrate on my swimming.
Into T1 don’t rush make sure you have everything then go. Set off on the bike telling myself keep it easy for the first couple of miles, the ride is basically 2 laps of a big square, flat as a pancake and fast, I looked down and felt comfortable at 19mph so I thought I’ll see how long I can keep this going and when I start feeling like I’m pushing I’ll back down, the temperature was starting to rise so I made sure I took a drink every 10 mins and took in my nutrition, Into the second lap and got a shout of encouragement from Dan Ellis and still feeling strong so I pushed a little harder on the second lap. As I rolled into T2 I thought wow it’s getting hot and I hope I’ve saved enough for the run, I racked the bike change to running shoes and out onto the run, the first couple of miles felt very hard and the temp was now around 23 degrees so I knew this was going to be a tough one. Into mile 3 I notice my heart rate start to drop but my pace picked up so it seems I was settling in. The course was 4 laps which amazing as you get run the opposite direction to the other athletes and there’s them friendly faces again, Karen, Rick, Emma, Stephen, Ricardo, Mark all giving high fives as we passed each other giving encouragement, its times like this that remind me why I love this sport. On my second lap I see my wife Gemma on her first lap and looking strong, now I’m happy. Every feed station I took a drink and threw the remaining water over me to try and keep cool, ticking off the miles passing Dan and Shona with yet more encouragement. Before I knew it I was in the last mile of the run and still feeling good. Over the finish line stop the watch and get a much needed drink. Much to my amazement my time was 4:45:42 which means I knocked over a hour off my half distance. This is the first time since I started working with Steve Clark in January that I have been able to put all the training together, I was so pleased that all the hard work has given the results I wanted. A huge thanks to Steve not only for the training and guidance but for telling me to do this event, it’s give a nice confidence going into Bolton in July.