Mark Bedford's Return to Racing

Race Report – Holkham 70.3 Sunday 4th July

This was my first race in over 2 years due to the pandemic. At the beginning of the year it looked unlikely I would be able to race this year due to knee and niggling injuries. Early April things started to get better so I started to train slowly and gradually built back up my endurance and strength. Thankfully I kept this race open and luckily it worked out well.

Early bike racking on Saturday morning 9-10am, so an early travel start. Arrived at Holkham Hall racked the bike and mentally prepared myself for race day with transition and swim start.

Race Day –

Overnight stay at Dersingham which is around 18 miles away from Holkham Hall. Early start so left around 4:30 to arrive at Holkham Hall just after 5am. Pre-race nutrition was Bagels & Jam. Checked on bike, all ok thankfully. Laid out bike and run gear. Swim starts were time trial rolling starts and my swim start time was 6:56am so had plenty of time to faff about as I do on race day. Bumped in to various people I knew through the Triathlon world catching up. Watched the Pro’s and Elites start and then mentally prepared myself for my race.

Swim –

Consistently in training I have swam 1.2m in or around 40 minutes and that was my goal time. My swimming has always been the weaker discipline but have improved this area in the past couple of months. My OWS training has been in open clear waters, however and not unexpectantly the lake at Holkham was dark, full of goose droppings and generally very weedy. I felt good, actually swimming passed people which is a rarity for me as people normally swim over me. Exit the swim my Garmin said 41:47 (actual swim time 43 mins) so was a little disappointed, but you just move on to the bike. Due to covid and social distancing the T1 & T2 was larger than normal and we had to run around 200 metres from swim exit to transition.

Bike –

Normally my bike is one of my stronger points. The course is around 2,000 feet of climbing so not massively tough but equally not flat. Road conditions were not too bad. The heavy rain downpours from Friday and Saturday were now washed away. The winds were quite strong especially as the course is close to the coast. Around 20 miles in I felt cramp in my left leg so this wasn’t a good sign so backed off slightly. Had to stop at 34 miles for pee break which lost me 3 minutes. I wanted to stretch my legs just to test how bad the cramping was. It didn’t feel to bad so decided to put the gas down in the last 20 miles. Overall bike time 2:57. My target time was around 2:50 so again not quite hitting it.

Run –

I was conscious that I could cramp on the run as the weather was warming up and I could see lots of other athletes struggling. The run course is quite challenging. It consists of 3 loops of multi terrain and at the beginning of each lap there is a long incline for around a mile that tests your resolve. Running off the bike is probably my strongest point. I did plenty of this in my training so I knew come race day I was physically prepared. I was though worried that I might cramp at some stage on the run but thankfully with careful management I avoided it through taking on salt tablets and hydrating well. Each lap ticked off, and I felt stronger and stronger running passed other athletes does mentally give you a massive lift. Finished the last 4k faster that the first 5k so negative splits in there. The actual run was a little longer the Garmin said 13.35 miles. Ran down the OSB orange carpet through the finishing chute in 1:51.

Overall it was a good weekend. I didn’t quite hit the times but was happy as this was a race I never thought I’d participate in around February and March when I basically wrote off all chances.