Outlaw X - Finally

This was my third year of doing this event and the lead into it has always been a fortnight of weather watching……..wind or rain is usual with a distinct chill to the air!

This year was no exception, except that the forecast kept improving as we got closer to race day, happy days, and I was the most relaxed pre race that I have ever been – this was strange, I had looked at the ladies in my age group and highlighted those who have beaten me in the past (one this year at Nottingham) or were very fast and had resigned myself to having a real battle for a podium spot and focused instead on holding power on the bike and then getting a good run, if it was good enough on the day then great, but if it wasn’t, as long as I had given it my all then I should be able to hold my head up high.

The week leading into it was not great, training wise it was excellent, but emotionally a complete disaster and I wasn’t even sure I would get to race, but Friday morning we set off for what should have been a 3 hour drive…….6 hours later and we arrived at our campsite. Mick – the owner, had saved us our favourite spot, an absolute delight after such a long drive.

Saturday was a quick spin and run, keeping it controlled to save myself for the race, then off to rack. It was lovely to see some friendly faces from Facebook and real life and it felt surprisingly normal compared to Nottingham in June, and transition was really quiet, very few bikes yet.

Back to camp to carry on relaxing and eating, my nutritionist had told me not to ‘skimp’ on bread/pasta/rice during the day, so I probably ate around every 2 hours – a real little and often approach.

Early night followed by a super calm morning, sun rising and easy entrance to the parking, off to transition and, unlike Nottingham in June, bowels were moving pre swim – happy athlete - particularly as I was going to try the day without Imodium…… 🤣🤣🤣

As my start time approached I had a brief chat with Paul, who had generously come to support Will and I, before final checks and a walk down to the swim. Getting athletes into the water was now being done so swiftly that we didn’t have long to wait, but the briefing regarding directions was tricky to hear and a map with it as you walked down would have been really useful (and yes I had looked at it before).

The swim was awful, a gentle slide off the pontoon (no diving or bombing for me) and I was off, straight into the weed, it was a mission making your way through it, dark and ‘stuff’ in your face and all over your arms, trying to avoid it felt impossible and while I could see the bouy for turn one, but now my right goggle was leaking, keep going or stop and sort it? As I sighted I saw someone ‘stood up’ in front of me, so stopped, stood up in just waist deep water, goggle sorted and set back off. I felt like I was swimming ok, counting breaths and maintaining a sense of calm despite being bashed into, swum over, finding sighting for the last turns a nightmare (I was sure I had gone off course) and being attacked by the weed monster. Unfortunately, I got a shock when I exited as it was slower than I had hoped or felt, but (unlike Nottingham) move on, and it was a PB (just 🤣🤣) 500m run up to transition now, wetsuit down, goggles off and to my bike.

Paul has nagged me about transitions, so I was trying to keep it efficient, socks on, shoes on, helmet, race belt glasses and go. My shoes weren’t tight enough so had to stop to tighten then, looked up and I’m right in front of Paul – bugger! Reach the mount line to see Beth Wilmot volunteering, so surprised I got shouted at for trying to mount too early (I saw Beth at my first Lakesman and she partly inspired my current journey). Departed Thoresby and out onto the road, I had ridden it two weeks prior so was happy I knew the route and hit it hard straight away spotting Will in his Sellars Elite Trisuit just ahead, quick overtake with Will asking if he could draft off me and head down! The first 10 miles of the bike passed quickly with an av speed of 22mph, fastest I have ever had on my Garmin, then the hill up to Marston Moor, incentive to push up it was the chap in a very revealing Tri-suit in front of me, not the best view and he did pass me straight after the hill 🤣🤣. Gringley on the Hill reached and I had to remember to keep the pace up before the descent, and then the wind hit! It was now a war of attrition, the first descent off was terrifying, I had to shout at myself to stay on the bars (into the wind) despite feeling very wobbly as I knew the road levelled out then went uphill – and I survived! Power was then hard to maintain as was the motivation as the wind felt like it was straight in our face and I knew that it was a cheeky rolling finish. Lots of talking to myself and I was on the last left turn towards Thoresby, and a final overtake of ‘Cameron’ who I had ‘bunny hopped’ for miles, back to Beth who asked how the wind was. I replied with "horrid", but a 13 minute PB for this route – time to run.

As I went into T2 I was having the mental argument – proper wee or wing it? I was so desperate I went for a porta-loo on my way out and am heartily glad of the decision! Just three laps to do and how do I forget that the first two miles are mostly uphill. Trying to find a relaxed pace was hard, I can do it off the bike in training but have yet to find it on a race day, and this was no exception. But kept plodding on, knowing every mile brought me closer to the ‘orange carpet’, as I ran lap 2 I passed a really good athlete in my age group who had gone in the water much earlier than me, and as I had already passed another on the bike, I now felt a podium was a possibility, but I couldn’t ease off as the lady who beat me at Nottingham went in the water behind me and was an excellent runner. Lap 3 and once the uphill was done I tried to pick up the pace a little, unsuccessfully but I wasn’t really slowing, my biggest concern was the lack of race information from Paul, he had made it very clear that he wouldn’t give me any information unless he was confident it was totally accurate.

I hit the carpet alone, no body to chase down or to be in my finish photo and line crossed with a 5:19:02 (damn that wee!), a PB on this course by just over 33 minutes and another sub 1:40 run off the bike. Greeted by Paul and my husband and they told me I had just won my Age Group, I didn’t believe them and signal was too patchy to try and confirm it, think I only let it sink in when I saw the other good runner cross the line as we waited to cheer Will over the line, poor Paul and Simon couldn’t understand my grumpiness, I wanted to go sub 5:15 😢😢😢

I can honestly say that (despite my initial grumps) this was my best result to date, AG win, 15th female with a run in the top 6% of all females and top 12% of all athletes. Bike had improved considerably too and after a weak swim I had moved quickly into 1st in AG and held onto it with an almost 12 minute lead over 2nd place.

A great end to the season and testament to Paul’s progress focused and consistent coaching along with a personal desire to always have green sessions on Training Peaks 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️