Race Report - Vitruvian 2011
Zacnici
Posts: 1,385
in General Chat
Where: Rutland Water
When: Saturday 3rd September
Organiser: Pacesetter
Course details: lake 2 lap swim, 2 lap open road, 2 lap track
Distance(s): 1900m swim, 85km bike, 21km run
Marshalling: loads
Facilities: portaloos, food stalls.
Technical: chip timing
Freebies: technical gilet, finishers T shirt, medal
Hopes:
Swim; 42-45 would be good
Bike; no training in 6 weeks – eek – knee still strapped up from injury from Outlaw, no recce, took a guess at av 27-28kph based on Outlaw so about 3hrs ish
Run; again no training, 2:15 – 2:30
I would be enormously happy for sub 6:30
Racked up Friday night, All kit packed, ready for the off.
Saturday, revisited bike, took off cover, bottles filled, tyre pressures checked, brakes checked for alignment and pull. Wetsuit on and ready for our wave.
The weather forecast on all the sites was for 15deg at 7am increasing 1deg each hour to 22deg, partly sunny, wind 14mph so naturally it was overcast and remained at about 17eg – they were right about the wind though.
Swim; water was comfortable but murky, was quite choppy, never met waves like that before so steep learning. One bloke in an Orca was keeping pace with me but everytime we came to a buoy he decided he had to get there first and started flailing arms all over the place and twice I got a punch in the head then he would drop back, thought 'if he does that again I'll unzip the f###r' but then he fell behind. 44:23.
T1, slow as putting on cycle shorts and knee had to be strapped up, 6:28.
Bike; steady climb for a couple of k then a nice descent, more climbing then the Rutland Ripple, 35m climb over 4k, steady climbing with a couple of naughty sections, then next 15k active descent, on straights and descents my bike was just zipping away from the others, on the Ripple I was surprised to be be keeping up with the roadies. Just when things were going well another 2.5Km climb of 42m, this was quite hard for me and the roadies pulled away – no string in the legs, a couple of K of flat/descent then more climbing over the next 5km. Into the feed station at Rutland Water then off on the second lap, the wind seemed stronger and the climbs harder but finally into Rutland Water. Sub 3hour – 2:56 - woohoo.
T2, again slow as off with cycle shorts, run shorts on, readjust knee strapping, 4:36.
Run; 2 10.5km laps, this would be testing, knee still strapped up so time to man it up and crack on, dropped some Ibuprofen. First half went OK, saw team mates from Lincoln Tri and forum buddies on the run and said our hi's and high fived. As I turned around at the feed station near the finish funnel could I break 6? Answer in the next quarter slowed right down, had taken some gels but no energy, 6:30 still on the cards, then had brainwave, Jaffa cakes! Bulk gave my gut something to digest and kickstarted gel absorption, started too feel better and stride out. Only 5km to go, if I really step out could get 6:15, gosh feeling good, 2.5km to go – woohoo – 6:15 on the cards, giving it all I have, into the last 500m, past the feed station to the funnel – rumour has it that a marshal had been dedicated to throw me down the tunnel if I attempted to do another lap – into the funnel, amazing feeling – 'John Williamson you are a Vitruvian' boomed out the Tannoy – checked my watch 6:10:26. Literally bounced with joy, got hugs from from the girls – much better than I could hope for. Later remembered started my watch 1min before the swim start, actual time 6:09:24, run time 2:17.
Fantastic event, want to do this again and aim at sub 6.
When: Saturday 3rd September
Organiser: Pacesetter
Course details: lake 2 lap swim, 2 lap open road, 2 lap track
Distance(s): 1900m swim, 85km bike, 21km run
Marshalling: loads
Facilities: portaloos, food stalls.
Technical: chip timing
Freebies: technical gilet, finishers T shirt, medal
Hopes:
Swim; 42-45 would be good
Bike; no training in 6 weeks – eek – knee still strapped up from injury from Outlaw, no recce, took a guess at av 27-28kph based on Outlaw so about 3hrs ish
Run; again no training, 2:15 – 2:30
I would be enormously happy for sub 6:30
Racked up Friday night, All kit packed, ready for the off.
Saturday, revisited bike, took off cover, bottles filled, tyre pressures checked, brakes checked for alignment and pull. Wetsuit on and ready for our wave.
The weather forecast on all the sites was for 15deg at 7am increasing 1deg each hour to 22deg, partly sunny, wind 14mph so naturally it was overcast and remained at about 17eg – they were right about the wind though.
Swim; water was comfortable but murky, was quite choppy, never met waves like that before so steep learning. One bloke in an Orca was keeping pace with me but everytime we came to a buoy he decided he had to get there first and started flailing arms all over the place and twice I got a punch in the head then he would drop back, thought 'if he does that again I'll unzip the f###r' but then he fell behind. 44:23.
T1, slow as putting on cycle shorts and knee had to be strapped up, 6:28.
Bike; steady climb for a couple of k then a nice descent, more climbing then the Rutland Ripple, 35m climb over 4k, steady climbing with a couple of naughty sections, then next 15k active descent, on straights and descents my bike was just zipping away from the others, on the Ripple I was surprised to be be keeping up with the roadies. Just when things were going well another 2.5Km climb of 42m, this was quite hard for me and the roadies pulled away – no string in the legs, a couple of K of flat/descent then more climbing over the next 5km. Into the feed station at Rutland Water then off on the second lap, the wind seemed stronger and the climbs harder but finally into Rutland Water. Sub 3hour – 2:56 - woohoo.
T2, again slow as off with cycle shorts, run shorts on, readjust knee strapping, 4:36.
Run; 2 10.5km laps, this would be testing, knee still strapped up so time to man it up and crack on, dropped some Ibuprofen. First half went OK, saw team mates from Lincoln Tri and forum buddies on the run and said our hi's and high fived. As I turned around at the feed station near the finish funnel could I break 6? Answer in the next quarter slowed right down, had taken some gels but no energy, 6:30 still on the cards, then had brainwave, Jaffa cakes! Bulk gave my gut something to digest and kickstarted gel absorption, started too feel better and stride out. Only 5km to go, if I really step out could get 6:15, gosh feeling good, 2.5km to go – woohoo – 6:15 on the cards, giving it all I have, into the last 500m, past the feed station to the funnel – rumour has it that a marshal had been dedicated to throw me down the tunnel if I attempted to do another lap – into the funnel, amazing feeling – 'John Williamson you are a Vitruvian' boomed out the Tannoy – checked my watch 6:10:26. Literally bounced with joy, got hugs from from the girls – much better than I could hope for. Later remembered started my watch 1min before the swim start, actual time 6:09:24, run time 2:17.
Fantastic event, want to do this again and aim at sub 6.
0
Comments
You're right about the swag...gillet is mint and the tee shirt with the distance on it is pretty cool for the pub
[attachment=0:3umndoxz]Vit Fin.jpg[/attachment:3umndoxz]
Going to be my A race next year - aiming at sub 6