SEC Athletes At Outlaw Full Weekend

Lead by Nigel Swepson, one of only 6 people to complete all of the Outlaw Full races, SEC descended on Nottingham.

Mark Bedford and Vernon Anderson are regulars at this event, for myself and Danny Bluff it was the first time since 2018, and for Rebecca Smith, it was the first time. As Bex was a last-minute entry to the race and accommodation was either unavailable or hugely overpriced, she bagged an air bed in our caravan awning for the weekend!!

The daily weather watch for about 2 weeks had indicated that we would pretty much get washed and blown away from Friday to Monday, so arriving on the campsite on Friday, pitching in the sun, and then getting out on the bikes to ride the first and last 15kms in the sun was a pleasant surprise!!

Saturday morning, the Outlaw team ran a 2.5km and 5km swim, so Ann Sellars was entered for the 2.5km and at 09:00 entered the water….to exit 1:18 later to bag her first solo swim medal – a decent start to the weekend! Whilst Ann was swimming, me, Dan and Bex did our pre-race intervals around the lake and got our first taste of the grim headwind that would be ever-present over the weekend!! (the other thing I clocked was that the distance around the lake from swim start to swim exit came up as 4km….wasn’t going to be a short swim) We registered, took photos of Ann emerging from the lake and then returned to the van to sort our stuff out.

This was where the “weekend of rookie errors” from coach Paul began. Open bag with water bottles in and the aero frame bottle that I use for my tailwind syrup mix was not there….presumably it was still in the cupboard at home. 6 phone calls later and I found one in Nottingham….off I went to purchase!

Caught up with Nigel (after his Outlaw legend press duties!!) and Vernon on the campsite, But Mark was staying off site, so would see him in the morning. The rest of Saturday passed uneventfully, bikes and bags racked as usual….and it still hadn’t rained!! The forecast for Sunday looked dry till 4pm, but a touch “breezy”. We talked a lot about how not to let the wind mess with your mind on the bike, which would prove useful on race day! Pizza, final kit faff and an early night, with the usual 4am alarm clock set

Race morning was fine, clear skies, warm enough…but windy! As we walked past the lake there was some chop on it…that would be a theme for the day!! Last bit of kit faff – new tailwind syrup bottle on the bike – 12 scoops of tailwind, plus another 3 in the bottle on my bars, 6 PH chews in the top box, shoes on the bike, power meter calibrated, Garmin set….off to the swim start. Caught up with Mark Bedford in transition, who was, like the rest of us, a little apprehensive about the first mass start since pre-COVID times…..but after the first 200-300m should all be good!! We duly assembled in our appropriate bays….I was trying my new “Magnus Ditlev” tactic – if you’re not gassed after the first 300m, you’ve not gone hard enough….but after that you will settle into the “right” group!! So I set myself up in the “fast bay”, second row, but on the left, so I could bail towards the shore if needed!! From the HR graph, I would say I did what I planned to….and didn’t need to bail!

For those that don’t know the Outlaw Full swim, it’s a 2.2km straight line from one end of the rowing lake to the other….great for sighting / swimming straight, but god it looks a long way!! I have my watch set to vibrate after every 10 mins, and I knew I wanted to be at the other end in around 35 mins as the wind was behind us, that would get me a bit of time in the bank for the slog back. The 30 min vibrate come about on time, and the 40min vibrate came after the 2 turn buoys and on the way back down the lake – I figured around d 2400-2500m, which was just about right. From about 500m once the chaos had settled, I tried to swim “cleverly”, draft a group till it felt too easy, then put an effort in to catch the next group, recover and repeat and this continued on the home straight (apart from leaving one group who’s leader lead them into the middle of the lake??). You swim passed bike racking and transition before existing and the 60 min vibrate came somewhere at that point…I knew the swim was going to be at least 3.8km, so figured a 1:05 would be acceptable….which is exactly where it was. Happy with that and up the exit ramp for the very short run into T1 – only just got my cap and goggles off and wetsuit dropped before I was at my bags!! I’d been dithering all morning about arm warmers, cycling jacket or nothing, as the forecast was changeable and not especially warm. I went for arm warmers – the deciding factor being nothing to do with the weather….simply that as I have them pre-rolled into doughnuts, and my bike was a 300m run away, I had plenty of time to roll them up on the run there!!

With that sort of distance to cover I’m glad I’ve mastered the art of leaving shoes on my bike – running in socks is so much easier than in cleats!! I grabbed my bike, run it another 50m to the mount line, jumped on and started the first 3kmish round the lake. Once I got sorted, I reckoned T1 had been less than 5 mins assuming we started at 6:00 – turned out to be 3:58 – nice!! The bike course can be split into 7 bits – 1) The section out to the main road – 15km 2) The Southern Loop – 50km

3) The link to the Northern Loop – 12km 4) The Northern Loop – 30km

5) The link back to the Southern Loop – 12km 6) The Southern Loop again – 50km 7) The section back to T2 – 10km The first thing I would say about the bike course in general is that the roads need some tarmac – they range from acceptable to bloody awful!! At one point on the Southern Loop, I was flirting with the centre white line looking for some tarmac, when a BTF ref came passed – we had a very pleasant chat about the state of the roads, and he moved on!! The 1st section and first half of the 2nd section were all tailwind, and felt wonderful, then you turn back into the headwind for the second half of the 2nd section, which was OK and expected, so a just stayed aero and watched the power number, remembering the rides I had done in Lanza earlier in the year, and how out there I promised myself that I was doing that in case this happened on race day!

I guessed I must be doing OK position wise, as the roads were pretty empty – by the end of the 2nd section (a third of the distance, I had been overtaken 3 times, and overtaken others 4 times – 7 bikes in total!!). Turns out I was 40th out of the swim, which I was very happy with! Onto the third section, a cross wind and a spectacularly crap section of road over the river and my left aero bar twisted inwards….just enough to make sure that the levers interfered with each other when changing the cassette gears!!

The 4th section, tailwind again features the only climb – Oxton Bank – over quick enough, a decent section of downhill to recover and round the top of the northern loop….another section of nasty headwind. I was OK with that as I knew section 5 back to the southern loop was predominantly downhill and maybe a little cross-tailwind. Time for another rookie error, thinking about the run, I realised I had left my run shoe orthotic insoles in the trainers I ran the intervals in on Saturday….not the ones that were in T2!! I have had these for 7 years and never ran without them…..this could hurt!!

Section 5 proved quite pleasant , but I could hear a scratching / ticking noise that was beginning to bother me….however, with noise from the cross wind and travelling at 37-40kph I couldn’t work out what it was. As I started the southern loop again, and the tailwind came back I could hear what was now a grinding noise….presumably either a brake was binding or may drive chain was about to fall to bits!!! I stopped, spun the rear wheel and it was indeed the rear brake that had failed again (it failed in Lanza, and was the catalyst for a new bike purchase that had landed a week before Outlaw, but not in time for me to be comfortable to ride it). I had no intention of doing the last 60km pushing against that so unclipped it took to decision to ride with just a front brake ( I reasoned that the southern loop was flat, and the only descent on the return was into the wind, and I have good life insurance 😊) By the time I hit the second half of the southern loop again, the wind had strengthened significantly and I knew the last 40km was going to be grim – crap roads and a ferocious headwind that at one exposed point had me pushing 300W at 20KPH on the flat…..control it, don’t loose your head!!! The loneliness of the ride continued as I probably saw another 10-12 bikes, mostly coming past me – making it about 20 for the whole ride (not including some going the other way on the various passing points), and I hadn’t seen any of the SEC crew. Back into T2 via some cheering from Ann, all nutrition consumed – quite happy with an 8 minute course PB at 5:24. With the new transition arrangements they have people to take your bike and rack it which is helpful, so straight into the tent, popped on my very strange feeling running shoes….no drama and out of T2 in 2:50, not bad with a 300+m run included!! I noticed Dan’s bike racked on my way out which I always like to see, and out onto the run course. As expected after the first 300m of tailwind, you do a U turn, straight into the headwind down the lake….it didn’t feel too bad this time!! The new Outlaw run course is 3 laps of 12.5-13K out down the canal path and back through the white-water centre, then one final lap of the lake. There were 5 feed stations per lap and I intended to stop for around 20-30 secs (to start with!) at each one taking on water / gels / salt tablets as appropriate. The first lap of the run was quiet (I’d had the 60th fastest bike split and 30th fastest T2), so was hanging around top 50 at this point), I saw Dan coming back part way through his 2nd loop soon after I started my first, so knew he was in about the right sort of time, I thought he was 3rd and about 4 mins down on the leader…..not insurmountable that maybe? It was the first time I had done the white-water section….this was something someone at Outlaw had dreamt up during COVID I think and features on the half and the full – no idea why….its very pleasant dropping down the path by the river, but when the marshal says “Turn right and join the roller-coaster”, you know you are in for fun and games! A grassy section with 2 totally unnecessary very steep hills – I ran up the first one, walked up the second one….and knew immediately how that would go on the next 2 laps!!

Returning on lap 1 to the lake, and Nige passed me in the opposite direction at warp factor 9 speed, and soon overtook me later that lap – fabulous, this is what I had hoped for!! Lap 1 ticked off and a few more people about on lap 2, I saw Danny again and Bex (although my fading mind was too slow to acknowledge her – sorry!). Now my body was playing tricks on me – all kinds of aches / niggles in everything from knees down, clearly associated with the orthotics error (but in reality weren’t there at all!). At 21km, and coming back to the lake at the end of the 2nd lap I was feeling pretty decent, but knew the inevitable port-a-loo visit was coming so thought I would plan it for the feed-station at the top of the lake to give myself an extra break before tackling the wind again. Lap 2 completed and off to the out and back for the final time….still hadn’t seen Vernon (although id seen has bike in T2 as it was racked close to mine by the edge near the run path) or Mark. The final lap was starting to get a bit grim to be honest and just as I was unsure how this was going to play out, I latched on to a guy who was running a very calm 6 min / km pace, and I shamelessly ran behind him for about 6km back to the lake, both stopping at feed-stations….without him I would have stopped a lot more. I have no idea who he was, but thank you!! He eventually lost me as I headed back into the wind on the final big lap….there was a lot of walking on this 1.5km stretch until I got towards the finishing area when I thought I should probably move a little quicker….saw Dan just after the finish line – stopped for long enough to know he had finished 3rd, fabulous!! Buoyed by that fact, I set off round the lake for the last time – saw Bex’s parents, with about 3km to go, heard Simon Ward call Nigel over the finish line (that was a decent PB!) and just gritted the last section out – not fast, not pretty, but finally coming into the wind for the last time, I had my course PB in mind – 10:52……I came passed transition in 10:46 and figured if I could shuffle for the rest of the way, I could probably keep a 10:4something……so off I want, summoned the obligatory “sprint finish” and crossed the line in 10:49:31.

I’m not going to lie, the finishing chute at Outlaw is good, but after that it’s a bit eery, a bit lonely and the 500 steps up to the Erdinger area are not pleasant!! I met Ann and Dan at the top, to the news that:

1. Mark Bedford had cut his foot badly in the swim, and had not been able to continue – the worst news really!!

2. Nige Swepson has finished in 10:21, a huge PB, but cramp had hindered his sub 10 attempt in the last 6 miles….he was happy, but a bit sad!!

3. I got a quick rundown from Dan on his chase for first, that ended in 2nd, and then 3rd…but he had given everything and that’s all that anyone can ask

4. Bex was due to finish pretty soon, so should probably crack on and get back round to the finishing area, to see her finish in 11:28 and claim 8th lady and 2nd in AG - top job!

5. Vernon was on the run, but as expected it would be a long day with his recent ankle issues…he kept plugging away and we saw him cross the line in 12:19…not what he wanted, but what he was capable of on the day – and that is the nature of our sport!!

Myself, Ann, Dan and Bex feasted in Prezzo in Nottingham in the evening (it’s a tough day being No.1 supported apparently!), and after a less than optimal night’s sleep with various parts of my body objecting as usual, we headed to the awards ceremony accompanied by Nige (in his role as Mr ever-present at Outlaw, but a bit miffed that he had ended up in 4th in his AG by 7 mins, even though he achieved a huge 40 min PB…there’s always next year, and the next, and the next etc etc!!).

Awards collected, photos taken, goodbyes said, and back on the M6 home reflecting on another weekend of extreme highs and extreme lows for SEC athletes….