After a pretty successful first Trail X event (despite the disqualification…) I was very keen to give it another go, and signed up for the next race, taking place in and around Poole harbour.
My preparation had been going pretty well – coming off the back of a good summer running and riding loads and feeling pretty fit. Then I got a cold, the weekend before and I started to grumble about timing of ill health! The cold cleared up after a couple of days, but returned with a vengeance the day before the race, which really annoyed me, as I had aspirations of a podium finish.
The morning of the race dawned, I dosed up with cold & flu tablets, made sure I was properly hydrated and set off with daughter and parents. After a pretty good journey, we found the somewhat remote race HQ in a cow field right on the water’s edge. It was a stunning place, the sun was shining and it was almost hot. We were early and had time to kill, but it flew past as the anticipation of running 10k, riding 20k and kayaking 3.5k really built up.
Silly grin
After the usual briefing stuff, I was clear on what I had to do – 2 run laps, 2 bike laps and kayak across the harbour, round an island and back. Cool. The gun went and I got swept along towards the front of the field of 50 or so in my category. Despite the amount of nasty green stuff I seemed to be producing, I ran ok for a while, although I was a bit nervous of a slightly dodgy ankle, as this course went through rough woodland and sections were not on paths but straight across open heath-land. I did get grumpy as we approached the first checkpoint, which meant crossing 300metres of ankle deep bog and ruining my nice white running shoes! No fussing, just get in there and try to stay on your feet!
After a while I seemed to lose pace a bit, and a fair few people went past me, so I justified it to myself by promising to nuke them on the bike… I found the last part of the run tough and was pleased run with another guy who kept the pace hard and to get back onto the fireroad track back to transition and the welcoming yells of my daughter…
Run finish
So, through transition, grab bike and good drink, and set off to make up some of that lost ground. Almost straight away my head cleared of cold and I felt much better. The first part of the course was fairly open tracks which quickly turned into a long drawn out climb, through a few gates and up in the Purbeck hills. I was now in amongst other categories, a lot of them being novice mountain bikers from what I could see, and I lost a fair bit of time as the trail narrowed into a quite techy singletrack climb, stuck in a long queue. The course then suddenly tightly turned back down the hill on another track, and once I cleared the queue for the checkpoint, it became an absolute scream to fly down the technical singletrack past loads of other guys, completely showing off as I jumped, slid and generally looned down the hill.
The final part of the lap was back onto fast open tracks and I was able to get my ‘part roadie’ legs working hard and motor along. Lap 2 was less eventful, with the exception of some calf cramps, but I downed a TORQ gel and a drink and that settled pretty quickly. The climb was definitely easier without so many other riders on it and the descent was just as much fun as the first time…
Bike leg
So, back to transition and the section I was really looking forward to – the kayaking. This was my third attempt at a race including kayaking and the first time it was actually going to happen, so I was excited about the challenge, having not been in a kayak for at least 15 years. I picked up my boat and kit and entered the water a couple of hundred yards behind a guy, with 2 more a similar distance behind me, so the pressure was on, as I had a feeling I was in a pretty good position at this point.
I recalled a conversation I’d had with a guy I ran with for a while, who said that these boats had a max speed, so there was no point in going mad, but efficiency was the best technique. This turned out to be good advice as it quickly became obvious that as long as I kept going, status quo would be maintained. I had to head out across open water, round an island (where there was a checkpoint on a jetty) and back across. The first part went well, I got settled in a rhythm and felt good. As I neared the island it became obvious how shallow the water was as I beached, more than 100 yards out! I panicked, not wanting to lose any places to the two guys close behind, but managed to refloat and take a wider line round to the jetty.
The wind and tide were with me on the final push across the open water, and I got back to shore with my position safe and a big grin – that was fun…
Kayak finish
All that remained was to do a 300 metre run (well very stiff jog) back to the transition area and finish
The end in sight....
I’d survived and taken 53 mins to run, 69 mins to ride and 33 mins to kayak the course and finished in a respectable 4th place, which, considering my health, I was really pleased with. It’s just annoying there isn’t another event til next Spring!
Big Daddy
7 comments
Hummerlicious says:
September 20, 2009 at 10:08 pm (UTC 0)
Thanks for another great report Big Daddy
CTD says:
September 20, 2009 at 10:20 pm (UTC 0)
well done Big Daddy, sounds awesome, just wish i had the energy to make the run. does sounds like a right laugh
Tommo says:
September 21, 2009 at 12:00 pm (UTC 0)
Still waiting for the email of a disqualification then??!
Bobster says:
September 21, 2009 at 8:07 pm (UTC 0)
Well done – good result with the cold, I expect to see a podium report next year
Big Daddy says:
September 22, 2009 at 9:14 am (UTC 0)
No disqualifications this time – in fact I think I’m done out of 3rd as no-one passed me kayaking, but I’ll let it lie…
Kevin says:
September 22, 2009 at 1:54 pm (UTC 0)
Nice one Big daddy – I like the admission that a race you are disqualified from can be considered successful – who are you, Renault? Well done, next time I hope to be right at the finish collecting my medal before you arrive…
Big Daddy says:
September 23, 2009 at 8:47 am (UTC 0)
Oi, there’s a ringer on the site… I’ll be asking you to crash and hold up the others for me next time