Steve Birtwhistle - Race report UK 70.3 Wimbleball

I'm going to Clearwater!! (That's the World 70.3 Champs)

Let me just give you a brief race report.

Mass swim start, and it was a bit chilly. I got in the water early and was up near the front, planning on finding some clear water(no pun intended!). They were a long tme getting eveyone in the water, and a lot of the early swimmers started to feel the cold. The water was actually warmer than the air temp, and it felt very nice getting in to start with. At least 10 minutes wnt by before we all got under way and by the end of the swim the cold had taken its toll. The run out is 400m steep uphill, and it took a lot of effort to get up there. I was quick in T1 and onto bike, but it's a bottleneck at the mount line, (they'll have to improve on it really) and hard to get going with shoes on bike. Took me an age to find my legs and get my HR under control. And it wasn't until 20 miles gone by that I started to find a good rythmn and picked up the pace. I was steadily making good progress and was looking at a 2:50 bike split until the last 500m, on a steep last uphill to t2, I wrongly shifted to the small chainring and off came the chain. Damn! Took me a while to get going again, and then 100m from dismount, I avoided another rider only for my shoes to catch on the floor and ovr I went, a very heavy fall, thankfully not too fast, but enough to really shake me up. I will have to bin my tri shoes, they're a write off, my feet are shredded as are my hands and road rash on right knee and leg, hips sore and shoulders sore. I had to stick one shoe down my tri shorts and wheel my bike in, as aero bars had been bent downwards. I was a bit of a mess, blood everywhere! Lots of sympathy support from the crowds at t2 which really helped me, because I could have easily finished there. BUt on I went, and was surprisingly quick in t2, thankfully I saved a water bottle, stuffed up my tri top. I had also lost a bottle of my own psp22 on the bike, popped out of my cage, and lost my glasses on an uphill section, they fell out of my top!! So an eventful bike!!!! Run was tough, really tough, but my hours of running over the Purbecks from Swanage have obviously paid off, I posted very consistent lap times(first lap is a bit longer than 2 and 3). I finished strong, felt really good and was absolutely elated! I don't think there was aybody with a bigger grin at the finish line. I went straight to the medic tent and was patched up a bit and then saw the family who were all delighted.

We hung around for the roll down and to see James Gilfillan get his cheque for 6th place. He was little disappointed with his race, but he ran strongly and his goal is to go long this year and qualify for Hawaii, so not a bad result. Fraser Cartmell and Bayliss were awesome. I saw them on the run and they were flying and looked so fresh, unbelievable athletes. So then came the roll down, 7 slots were up for 35-39, and 4 were taken and they rolled down to 10th place, which was me and of course I snapped up the chance! It was my goal for the race. I was out for 5 hours, but I'll settle for what I did on the day given the circumstances. Lessons learned? - Don't get in the water too early when it's cold. Don't get my feet out of shoes too early! Try not to crash! Learn to suffer a bit more when running! But all in all, it's a hell of a race. All the pros say it's the hardest race on the circuit and maybe that's why there's not many turn up to do it. But I recommend it to anyone, it's a real test of endurance and epitomises what triathlon is all about. My hat off to the pros and maximum respect to everyone who takes it on. I'm not sure if I'll go back next year, but sub 5 is there for the taking. Just looking forward to the New Forest middle now for that distance, and obviously will be up for Bournemouth Oly in July.

Steve Birtwhistle

Well done Steve good job on achieving this years major goal :-) (Rob)

 

Comments

[LawrenceDown]

New Forest Middle Distance Race Report: A Victory for Youth!!

It was an early alarm call of 4am on Sunday for the NF HIM. I picked Mike M and Liz up followed by Freddie and we made our way to Sandy Balls, hoping to park at Andy D's caravan. Plan A was scuppered by a marshall on the gate and it was left for me to park the car and walk back while everyone else made there way to the lake. Plenty of banter had already started as Freddie and I took on the might of Downton and McCarthy (sounds like a retirement home).

Despite Richard Iles insisting that the race would start on time, we were delayed by the failure of the safety boat crew to turn up. This left as all itching to go as we stood at the side of the lake. The temperature was about 6 degrees at this point.

Finally it was time for the off, I was in the first wave, got myself positioned nicely at the front and waited for the enevitable punch up that normally accompanies an open water swim. To my disbelief the punch up never arrived, instead it was one of the most pleseant open water swims I have ever had. Spent the first lap tucked behind Neil Lewis, a former Votwo team mate, only to lose his feet at the turn around. I quickly managed to jump on to another pair of feet for the second lap and cruised round with very little effort. Was out of the water in approx 34 mins and in the top 15 of my wave. Considering how I swam and the time, I beleive the course to have been slightly long, an opinion shared by many.

My usual faff in T1 followed, shoes on, helmet on, arm warmers on and I was ready to hit the lumpy bike course. I planned to ride to a power of approx 220 watts for the 56 miles, which would mean quite easy on the hills and utilising my time trialling strength on the flats. All was going well, I finished the first large lap of 38 miles with an average speed of 20mph and pretty much spot on power. A plus side was still no sign of Freddie and Andy, who I expected to overtake me at some point. Freddie evetually caught me on the climb to Frogham with Andy passing me just before fritham with about 6 miles to go. At around 45 miles I started to feel a little light headed and sick, so I decided to back off and reduce my power by 30 watts. This certainly helped as I was feeling strong again on the last few miles back to sandy balls.

In to T2, plenty of noise and support around, bike split of around 2.50 very pleased. Now for the hard part. 13.1 miles of hilly off road running!

Decided to start very conservatively and try and pace my way round the course. I have previoulsy bonked on this run and its not a pleseant place to be. The strategy was to run to a HR of 150, keeping it even on the hills, walking if necessary. This seemed to be working, I was taking a gel every 30 mins with plenty of water. Got past the tough Sandy gallop and thought I am feeling good so decided to up the HR to 160 for the last 4 miles. Only in the last third of a mile did I start to feel bad with both hamstrings cramping up. I managed to shuffle the last part into the finish area and finish in 5.31. A very pleasing time on a tough course.

I was then to discover, my Belgian teammate fell apart on the run and lost his lead to Andy, It was a nervous 15 minutes waiting for Mike to appear. He finally crossed the line 45 minutes later and the bet was safe, the youngsters had won.

A fantastic day out, well done to everyone who raced, thanks to all the supporters for coming out and cheering us on. Put this race in your calander for next year.