Archive for August, 2009
The weekend started off in beautiful sunshine and we arrived at our ‘medieval’ homestead in the most tranquil and beautiful places in Northumberland. Falstone. Last year was the stark polarisation, a wet and muddy camp site with noisy pub fuelled campers.
Thank goodness for a uninterupted pre-race night sleep! The morning was wet. Wet and warm. The rain swept . And the hardy Northerners ignored the attempts to dishearten spirits. I felt good.
The lake/reservoir of Kielder waters has a history. Once a valley of numerous farms and agricultural habitats,that dwindled with the coming of the modern age and it was decided it would be better suited as a LAKE. So they flooded it and grew forestry for the new found indusrty. History lesson over and on to the race.;
The swim started with only 60+ atheletes in the icy, dark (iron coloured) water. I had a great smooth swim, and made for the 2nd lap on a negative split. Second girl out of the water, I spent a while donning my gloves, pads (essential), shoes, helmet. Oh and having a little chat to bystanders and leaning on my fellow athlete for balance ( is that cheating?) You can see where this race is heading..
Onto the bike segment with a hill climb on slippy grass single track , this is where I realised my gears were slipping, uh.
Ah well just another 32km to go.
The rain then was coming down like a power shower so what? I was wet already.
The first part of the race was 17miles and mostly single track and fire roads that were flooded. Some puddles you just slid through whoosh. Then there was THE puddle, it looked like a puddle, seemed like all the rest but as you went through….it was a LAKE. I couldn’t believe my bike and I rode through such a deep water feature. That was my bath done for that day. I was laughing (to myself) as no one was around at that point.
A few miles down the way I was bombing down a descent and I saw some bikers coming back they informed me the Marshall had sent everyone the wrong way . They knew this because:
a) There were no way marks at 2 X vital junctions
b) They rode the course yesterday and turned right where they went left today.
So we retraced our steps and met a few other who promptly turned around with us. What a confusion. As we passed a rather embarrassed Marshall she said her directions on the map were wrong. WHOOPs. At least it gave us all a breathing space to have a chat to each other to break the monotony. Oh it was a RACE you say? Ah yes I know that’s why on the next descent I powered up and dashed passed the leading girl. 
So my next hurdle was to get through the part of the race that I fell on badly last year (hence the elbow pads)
I was a little disappointed when I sailed over it, heaven knows why I came off it was the tamest part of the course!!! Though after another few miles I did find the only pothole the size of a wheel to go down, hence ubruptly stopped and yep, another somersault in the air over we go and DOWN. My elbows bore the brunt but didnt feel a thing:0) BUT the knees were unprotected, cuts and bruises.Made a quick fitness call and got straight back on.
In transition I was about 5/6 mins ahead so could relax. There was a way to go tho with all the climbing and slopping thro the moors on the top of the 1400′ climb. I however did have a great pair of Adidas Kanadia fell shoes on and they got me thro the knee deep mud and heather without losing even one. The Tricky descents were tackled with a 4 wheel drive capability. I too felt strong on the run and loved it. My new love is … fell running along with night riding.
So I came in from the run with everyone huddled like sheep under the small tent which said in unassuming letters ‘Finish’ maybe it should have had a question mark.
The results were nil and void as the misdirection took everyone off -course . And some did not complete the full 32 km. Some only did the bike and not the run, some just smashed helmets down with frustration, some swore lots and got angry……me?
came in 1st girl, but who knows…
The weekend was disrupted by a last minute (again!!) ticket to race for the SUUNTO team at the Dextro Energy World Champs in Hyde Park on Sunday.
The Elites went off on the Saturday and made for a great athmosphere, I collected my number (after a bit of delay) and was ready to race with excitment!
Sunday came and all the blue carpets and excitment of yesterday had all but vanished leaving the bare fragments with some very unenthusiastic tourists wondering around asking ‘MOOOM wot is TRYathlon???’
There was a mixed bag of competitors of which were obvoiusly ‘have a go’ on the sprint in the morning. At least I was in with the better athletes, no??
Well my turn came but not before waving off my friends in the previous (younger heats) Soon I was warming up (and so was the day as the sun came out it got hotter and hotter)…I was glad to be plunging in the Serprntine (for once) It really should have been non wetsuit as with the Elites but the ITU decided against this and we all donned our black neoprene in the warm murky waters.
I decided that seeing as it was just a ‘training race’ I was to exepriment with the swim and to go out hard and at the front. it worked and I got out and onto someone’s feet for the entire 1500m, I came out in a time of 23.15
I took the bike out steady,not too hard to see if I could save my legs for the run and not get cramp. ~(I had a very deep tissue massage the day before courtesy of Wendy -iron hands-Robertson.)
The bike loops were carnage, bikes and people strewn all over every tight bend, men huh they really are crazy on the bikes. Who needs cars to knock you off??? Cyclists-we can manage quite well on our own thanks. I nearly came a cropper when trying to overtake a Brazilia he was so far on the right I shouted ‘on your right” he proptly swirved violently to the right as I was passing him DOH! Langusge problems. Perhaps we should have a universal shout when passing other cyclists. Oh yeh we do its:’ ON YOUR RIGHT!!!’
Anyway I did my obligatory 6 laps without losing count and onto the run (5 laps) again hazards galore this time tourists wondering in front of you with ice creams looking dazed , I Didn’t deviate at all…. if they want to get in the way…
Felt srong on the run until the last lap where it started to hurt , but my splits were perfectly evem, 4.06 km per min.( Could be faster tho:)
RESULT: 5th overall woman
Next week is the toughie ‘Kielder Off road triathlon’, in Northumberland, I came off last year badly and finished in a lot of pain and blood. Hope not to repeat that this year.
I will then have completed 4 races in 4 weeks a record for me. Then a rest I hope, COACH DIBENS??
Here we go….after a really busy week fight stunting for CBBC and stunt co-ordinating for a Corporate film I was off up North to be racing in a team at ‘Sleepless in the saddle’ - a 24 hour mountain bike race. I was a last minute substitute for my friend Anne- Louise who injured her foot whilst out playing on her new full suss bike a few days before. \
Still donning my lovely red nail varnish left over from my previous days stunt doubling on set (didn’t have time to get the nail varnish remover out) before setting off with camping kit, food and clothing for the next 2 days. Thankfully it was a glorious and sunny day and we arrived ready to race!!
My first encounter was to realise that my tyres had dirty great holes in them thro all that hard racing over the year, so had to make a quick pit stop at ‘Maxxis’ tyres, 2 new tyres later and I was off on my first lap. I felt good, wasn’t sure how technical it was until the muddy down hill hit me and I was off!! Slid down head first, nothing broken as it was a soft landing . Fine I thought and I was off again. I knew I had around 8 miles to get round so tried to get a good time. The mud was very gloopy and very slippy, but managed to ride thro most of the tricky bits. Some nice hills to climb up too!
I loved being in the team as we supported each other thro the day/night. We had lots of food (I couldn’t believe we could get thro it all) and we had a sports masseuse and cook this was the set up, complete with table and towels (in a special massage tent) FAB!
All was going very smoothly, we had no expectations on where we were going to come, (there were 57 teams in the mixed catergory). As the night drew in the tempertature dropped and we all were putting layers on and wellies. The mist came down and then our lights were put on the bikes. I had never done a night ride before and I was a little nervous …so I put on the armour. And went off at around 11 pm and LOVED it! I don’t know why but I never came off and felt much quicker and easier ( prob due to the fact u couldnt see what the state of the mud was like and glided thro)
I came back to camp elated. Did a good time too for a night ride, 53 mins. I grabbed a quick hours kip and I was in my way again at 3.30 am.
This time my lights were failing and I suddenly had just a head torch to rely on for light. That slowed me down somewhat. The batteries only lasted an hour and a bit . I had a funny encounter with someone who was tailing me when I passeed him . All I could hear was the click click whirr of the gears following close up whilst we both doddgedi in and out of the trees and the wheels slicking along the narrow muddy trails. His heavy breathing getting louder and more vocal and suddenly silence followed swifltly by ‘ OUCH… UH’!!!! I shouted are u ok? I heard him moan yeeeeeees ( He certainly didn’t sound it) I continued until I again heard him behind me after only a few moments. I said is that you? He answered yes, I said he could pass me if he wanted and the reply was ” I only wanted to stick with you cos I have only this F***ing head torch and I cant see a F****ing thing!!! I had to laugh.
Lap 5 was my last , I was fading fast, I had no more adrenalin left by 1pm. The previous massage knocked me for 6. I felt sick. BUT when it was my turn to perform the adrenalin kicked in again. I powered my way throught the course in my “last lap” gear with extra armour, That meant no falling off. 
This was my last lap and the mud had almost gone making the going faster and better.
We were pleased with how we did as a team. 12th -not bad for the first time. Even beating the RAF boys!
The state of play at the end was not pretty, OK OK I was wasted and I JUST wanted to sleep. All in ALL we were blessed with 2 warm and sunny days and the conditions were perfect, it was the lack of sleep that was the killer.
I will be back next year, we are already planning it- 3 teams and maybe doing ‘Mountain Mayhem’ aswell to add to the madness!!
Sleepless -24 hours later:
‘Hopeless and helpless’ :0)
Well after an eventful few days with more work on the stunt side and my mum coming to stay (in a hotel this time) and catching flu after only 1 day in london, Wendy down with a tummy bug and me trying to work all the hours in the day and somehow fitting in training for the upcoming London Tri on Sunday? MMMMMMmmm no wonder I am feeling drained and on the cusp of flu today!
So yesterday was my 2nd atempt at the sub 230 group in the London Tri. What an event! So huge it is overwhelming. My last race was so different in Ripon. The great machine was already rolling when we got there at 7.30am on the Sunday morning.
I was feeling pretty ok and tried to stick with the plan- not thinking of anyting else but the race. No worries there as it was easy, as soon as I got to transition I was focused and ready to kick ass!
I did a warm up in the vast Excel hall that had a buzz of a rock concert with echiong shouts and chanting from the soon to be swimming trithletes. It was stunning day not too warm but lovely sunshine and cloudless sky. Fantastic!
I enetered the water feeling really relaxed and calm glad that I had not gone for the Elite race again , and we all were joking and smiling in the water ready to go. The nicest thing was it was a small wave with JUST GIRLS, No pushing, shoving, grabbing swimming over each other. Well until 1000m into the race were the boys with their bright pink caps (someone had a sense of humour in the admin dept:~) Then suddenly the peace was over and the thrashing, pulling raging started. BOYS eh? That done and I was 3rd or 4 th out of the water. Better time than last year too.
Onto the bike and again lots opf slow moving men ahead….sub 230 group men seem very slow to me??? Perhaps it should be sub215 group like in the London Marathon?? Idea no?
I passed a couple of girls on the bike ( and numerous boys lost count after 50) so was feeling good on my Cannobndale SLICE with the lovely LIghtweight wheels, she can really move! Time was 1.05.15
Hopped off the steed thro’ transition where I faffed a bit, running is never easy off the bike and soon I was caught again bty the 2 girls that I had taken on the bike, never mind I was enjoying it and I cared not a damn where I was in the race.( As long as I wasn’t last again)
The first lap I felt strong and good and by the second lap and the Juniour Elites were whizzing past on their 5km race.. But I had made good time sub 40min was great for me. Had a strong finish to the end. AND a fab massage for the tired and well earned legs.
Thanks to ‘Bike and Run’ for the wheels and patience!!
Thanks to Simon, Jason, Graham from Sunnto for my new LUMI watch.
Thanks to all the support, Wendy and my lovely swim clients who I could hear screaming my name all around the course.
I did the race in a time of 2.13:54
6 minutes faster than last year, if I keep this up I’ll be beating the best in a few years, well that’s if my body lets me)
