Coach Paul Completes the LM 140.6 Again

I arrived in Keswick on the Wednesday prior to the race to spend some time helping with the event build and to swim, bike, run, bits of the course. The weather from Wednesday to Saturday was perfect, but Sunday looked horrendous – wind, rain, cold etc – typical UK race day! In the end, the advice from the locals was right – don’t worry, it changes every hour, and when the alarm went off at 04:15 on Sunday morning, the skies were clear, it was a nice temperature with no wind – that was the first win of the day!!

Swim

Some of us had swum in Derwent on the Friday night and the temperature was 18 degrees and that stayed for race day. The start was a COVID safe trickle feed into the water. I had no real expectations of the swim, as like most people, I’d had reduced pool session time and limited open water time (because it’s been cold, and I’m soft!!). Again, a COVID change (for the better I think) saw the swim as 2 loops of 1.9km rather than one big loop, so that anyone struggling halfway could take the option to do half of the swim. I set off in the front wave, about 20th into the water and found a small group to swim with. Sighting was fine, and I’m blessed with being a straight swimmer, so once the usual high HR and rapid breathing had calmed down, I settled into what felt like a decent rhythm. I was happy that nobody passed me on the first loop, but I was aware that someone was getting a very good “tow” for the first lap, so a pulled away and slowed down to let him come past at the start of the second lap and repaid the compliment by sitting on his feet!

I was happy to exit the swim with the 24th fastest time of the day after swimming at a consistent 1:45 per 100m all the way round.

T1

The recurring thoughts about gloves, sock, arm warmers that go through everyone’s mind were there, and I actually felt warmer than I expected after the swim, so ditched the gloves, but went for the socks and arm warmers (arm warmers rolled into donuts roll up your arms very easily….top tip, perfected on the Saturday before the race!). First flying mount for 18 months, could have gone anyway….but worked out OK. 4.5 mins including the run from the lake and off we go

Bike

Pre-race bike chat was all about the wind direction being on your back on the coastal section…..this the race gods got wrong. Anyhow, I settled into my power targets for the first flattish 20km and the second hillyish 30km. Then we turned northbound for what should have been 50km of tailwind……wrong!. No dramas, it was expected, and I was comfortable in my aero position so just sat on the bars and chewed away at a little higher power than I would have wanted, knowing that there would be some tailwind later. I reached the 90km point in 2:40 which made me very happy, I was on target with hydration and nutrition and felt great. No other issues really, some nicely resurfaced roads on the A66 coming home, and arrived back in T2 in 5:25, with a NP of 2.5 W/KG and an IF of 0.70 - bang on target for the data nerds 

T2

In and out in 2 mins…..

Run

In November last year I had double groin surgery and knew that running the marathon was not a thing I would be capable of, so had been practicing a run/walk strategy in training – run 3km around 5:30 per km, walk 90 secs with that KM being around 6:00 mins. Nutrition was going to be via Tailwind as usual with my support crew leaving bottles pre diluted on special needs for me. This was also going to be my first run longer than 20km in the ON Cloudbooms (so I left the usual ON Cloudflows in special needs too just in case) .

I left T2 to be told straight away that Danny Bluff was leading (I always like to see his bike back in T2 when we race together) and I saw him on the first lap of my run looking in great shape, which always makes me very happy 

I wanted to tick each of the 5 loops off in 45-50 mins to bring me in under 4 hours…..and so we began- 44 / 46 / 49 (featuring 2 mins in a portaloo – that’s still work in progress!!). Then came the change of shoes – the Cloudboom just aren’t wide enough as my feet swell.

The 4th loop has been my nemesis in previous years, but it was OK this year. The support from my personal team (wife Ann and daughter Rachel), Andy Coulton and his gang in the rugby club, the Rochdale Tr

i Club (who are always awesome), Lee Kennedy and many, many more spread across the course saw me finish the last 2 loops in 48 and 50…featuring a short “sprint” finish to a run time 3:59:30…..bang on.

Total time for the day 10:29:25 – a course PB over the 5 years I have done it, and the first time under 10:30. I have nothing but satisfaction from my performance (20th overall and 3rd in AG) and nothing but praise for the race organisers Phil, Marie & Matthew Whitehead for organising yet another stunning event in such challenging times.

Back for more of the same next year!