Sussex-MTB

Having spent many years racing mountain bikes, first xc, then downhill, then back to xc, I’ve found myself branching out and trying some different forms of racing over the last year including the Rat Race, and a couple of duathlons.

I’ve been interested in doing a triathlon for a while, but my swimming is not of a competitive level and I don’t have time to do it regularly, so I was excited by the www.endurancelife.com Trail-X series as there were categories with kayaking instead of swimming. Now I’ve not kayaked for at least 15years, but I reckoned that a lot of others wouldn’t have either, so I might stand a fighting chance of keeping up and a lot less chance of drowning!

The swimming and kayaking categories were each split into 3 distance sub categories, the ‘sport’ version consisting of a 10k run, 20k mtb, 3.5k sea Kayak appealing to me most. So I signed up to the Sussex event, which took place at Birling Gap near Eastbourne on 11th July.

Despite the best of intentions, I didn’t manage to get near a canoe in the build up to the event, so I would be truly winging that bit, but I’d completed the Reigate 10k run the Wed before in a personal best time and 6mins faster than last year, so was fairly confident in my running, and obviously the biking is my strongest discipline so no worries there…

So to the start-line… The weather was windy and changeable, with drizzly showers blowing in regularly, and the sea conditions were ‘messy’ (as described by the organisers in the briefing) meaning that the swim/kayak course was shortened to a simple ‘out & back’ course. The swimmers race order was – swim-ride-run, and the kayakers race order was – run-ride-kayak, so that we weren’t all in the water together. We had to complete 2 run laps, ride out to Friston forest and complete 2 short laps in the forest then ride back (total 20k) then the ‘out & back’ kayak section.

The gun went and the swimmers set off on the short run to the beach. We were to start a few minutes later. An apprehensive bunch of racers gathered at the start-line and the countdown began. As the gun went we all piled into a bottleneck and the first narrow path down towards the beach. I managed to get fairly near the front, skipped past a few others through the bushes and got settled. I had no idea what the course profile would be like, except that I knew the area was hilly. And it was. Oh my god it was steep. The run lap consisted of a short steep climb, back down steeply, then a much longer climb up from near sea level to the top of the hill, over the top and down a near cliff, then up another hill and down, loop round and back over both hills, then a long dragging climb from the beach up to the lighthouse, and finally down to the main path and back to the transition area. Twice. No flat sections at all, and it wasn’t a 5k lap, it was over 6!

It was awesomely beautiful, the sun piercing the swiftly moving shower clouds and the white cliffs standing out against the sea. It was also serious ankle-breaking terrain and I had to really pay attention to my foot placement, not being use to this standard of off-road running.

I ran well, and although it was becoming a struggle through the second lap, I really enjoyed it. Having said that there was no-one more pleased than me to get to transition, see and hear the brilliant support from my daughter and the rest of the family, be done with the running and get biking. That is, until I was given the soul destroying message that the coastguard had deemed the sea too dangerous for the canoeing, and we were to complete a further run lap after the ride.

I was really disappointed with this – the kayaking was one of the highlights of this event – it was also cancelled due to weather in the rat race I did last year. Still, I gathered myself together, got kitted up, jumped on the Truth and set off on the bike course. I was looking forward to this – my chance to gain some ground, as in my experience of multi-sport events so far, most competitors are runners rather than mtbers.

After following the run course for a few hundred yards, the bike course then veered inland, and up and up. This course followed tracks out towards Friston forest, going over the biggest hills the organisers could find! During this section I started to feel a bit dodgy – light headed, tired and nauseas which was not a good sign! Not enough calories in my belly. I only had Torq gels with me, so downed one of them and it fairly quickly made me feel a bit better, although I was struggling to concentrate on the riding. As I got into the forest proper and started the pretty good singletrack sections, I found myself riding on autopilot, not really taking in what was happening, just focussing on following the course markers, and getting past the many slower riders littered all over the course, some walking their bikes. I still find it amazing that people fit enough and game enough to do these events can’t ride singletrack!

To be honest I can’t remember a lot of the detail of the rest of the ride as my head was a mess, but somehow I survived it and found myself on the fast road blast back down towards transition. I was pretty concerned about doing another run now! I arrived in transition to great support once again, although I think my face gave away how I was feeling! I scoffed down some energy bar, stretched out the legs (my calves always suffer most with running) had a few wobbly moments of ‘I don’t think I can do this anymore’, got my running shoes on and set off again, determined that this course would not beat me.

Surprisingly, I seemed to settle into a reasonable pace and started to feel better. The only mistake I’d made was to carry a bottle with me, which was very quickly becoming annoying, so I soon dumped that with a marshal, promising to pick it up on my return, and got stuck into those hills again. I kept a close eye on my heart rate, attempting to keep it down under 175 where I could, to try and save some energy. I was pleased with how I was going and felt much more confident about completing the race, and maybe getting a good result. I knew that the wind would be behind me up the final long drag to the lighthouse, and that if I could get up there I was guaranteed to make it. I had to walk up the first steepest section to the ridge, where the wind did indeed get behind me and I was able to keep a decent pace all the way to the top, and then go past the lighthouse for the last time, down the hill and pick up the path back down to the finish. As I entered the short copse section, I saw my daughter waiting and cheering for me. She ran the last hundred yards with me, and I crossed the finish line in a complete mess, but thoroughly chuffed with myself for completing a proper ‘hard as nails’ race.

The best bit was yet to come though – as I was then told that I had won my category, completing the course in 3hrs and 3 mins! I’ve never won a race before, and never thought it would happen now I’m getting on a bit, so I was extraordinarily pleased to have won a race like this, especially when I spent a lot of it not expecting to finish!

Unfortunately, the story has a further twist as we once all the info from our ‘dibbers’ was processed and the results posted – it seems I (as well as several others)  inadvertently missed a section of the bike lap, so I am disqualified from the final results. I’m gutted – if I added the 15 mins it took the lead guy to complete the missed section to my time I would’ve still finished a clear 2nd. Damn… I knew my head wasn’t right on the ride and I must’ve missed the signage.

The next one is based at Poole harbour on 12th September. I might just have to be there to prove a point…

Big Daddy