It happens in threes

  It is now 10 days until my debut Ironman. At the moment I am relatively calm and enjoying the lead up to the big day. It also feels slightly surreal. Dan however has however admitted he is starting to feel nervous for me! It seems only yesterday I was writing about my snap decision to sign up for Ironman Wales and now my name is officially on the start list. I am also in one of the smallest age categories; there are only 8 Female 18-24 competitors. Unfortunately I am not the youngest female as I previously thought, the youngest being 20 year old. My number is the first merely for alphabetical reasons.

  Although the time is ticking by I had some busy weeks with events and training. On the Tuesday after returning from Wales I did another moonlight swim. We met at 9pm and this time we picked a location that had no trees so we were actually able to see the full moon! We weren't swimming at a great speed as we were enjoying the experience of being completely relaxed and to be cheesy, at one with nature. Stresses and worries fly away when you are in an environment and atmosphere as nice as that. One woman labeled the experience as surreal. The only stress I began to get was when we got onto the topic of sea creatures in particular my horrible experience with jellyfish in Tenby. Some of the group began trying to freak me out by touching me. As the water was pitch black you can only imagine what was really lurking beneath us. I began to swim faster on the way back as my imagination had conjured that alligators, giant spider crabs and jellyfish were following me (thank you Jane for helping to put those ideas in my head). In the end we swam for around an hour.

  We also tried out some LED balloons during the swim instead of our normal glow stick lights. The lights are so we can see each other but more importantly so others such as boats can see us (although this wasn't much of an issue on this night as we weren't in the Thames). So we each had a bright coloured balloon attached to us and bobbing along behind us. We must've looked like a funny sight to any passers by.

The moonlight swim group and our balloons

  When I returned home from the moonlight swim I had an email regarding the relay channel swim I am doing next August. Some people in the group would like to do it as a non-wetsuit swim. The team has to be united on whether we do it with or without a wetsuit as it cannot be a mix. I had never even considered doing it non-wetsuit. I have never swum open water with no wetsuit so doing the channel without one would be a whole new challenge. The water temperature was obviously my first concern when thinking about doing this. However, I know that adapting to the temperature is all about not being a woos (as I consider myself) and acclimatise yourself. My second worry was of course, jellyfish. I freaked out doing a 1mile swim around Tenby bay with jellyfish that are harmless, there are plenty more dangerous ones in the real open water and I wouldn't have a wetsuit to protect the majority of my body! Jane last year got stung on her hand wearing a wetsuit by a lions mane jelly and still has the scar to prove it. However, the benefit of doing it without a wetsuit and in 'skins' means that the swim is then a recognised by the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation and means we would have an observer on board.  It also means that the order in which we swim must be kept throughout the swim and no one can drop out after their first ‘one hour’ swim. Hence more dependence on all team members to be properly prepared and able, so as not to let the others down! This side of the wetsuit/non-wetsuit debate appeals to me. Obviously if I do a channel swim I want it to be recognised and I like the extra camaraderie it entails. So maybe the positives out way the negatives? Especially as the only real reservation I have is me being a woos. I'm always up for a challenge right?

  I continued my training that week up until my 100 mile bike ride in Oxford on Sunday 25th. This would be the longest ride I had ever done. I admitted to myself that I had not done as much cycling as I would've liked so this would be a true test of the training I had undertaken as well as my fitness and endurance ability. Dan went on an emergency fire shout at midnight and didn't return until 5.30am by which time I was due to get up. Due to my worrying mind I had also hardly slept. I completed my pre-race ritual with very bleary eyes. I was doing this event alone and was on my way to Oxford by 7am. As opposed to many events it was not a mass start. When I was ready and registered I lined up and was let off with a small group. I was on the road by 8.30.  

Fighting for top spot up the hill (first 30miles)

  I decided that I wasn't going to over assert myself, this was merely a training race and I had nothing to prove to anyone but myself. As soon as I started I began to break the bike leg up into 10-mile blocks. When I had done one 'block' I would say to myself just another nine to go as opposed to another 90miles. The weather was horrific, the wind and rain relentless. The route was also definitely not without hills. The first 50 miles, up to the first feed stop, can only be described as constant undulation; there was just hill followed by hill. Although this sounds bad and was exhausting the hills were not impossible and I managed to slog my way up them. On the route to the 50-mile mark I was normally not far off another competitor, however after that point things seemed to get very lonely. I didn't mind as I wasn't exactly talking to anyone and it meant I could concentrate on me and my bike. Around mile 60 the course was gradually getting flatter and I was hitting 23mph on the straights. I loved ride at this point and kept my energy up with Snickers, Haribo milk bottles and my High5 gels. Although I hadn't been focusing on my heart rate for the first half of the race I decided to do so around 65 miles. This was a great way of keeping tabs on my effort and I made sure from this point I was hitting 160-180. I made a strategy in my head that I shall take with me to Wales that I should not drop below 160.

Nearing the finish, hence the smile

  Every so often I would be passed by a group or pair of cyclists within the Zappi cycle club. Flavio Zappi is an ex-pro cyclist who set up his own professional and leisure cycle team. This event was also organised by him so the Zappi team was in full support. If someone passed me I would give it my all to stick with them until they would pull away for good. From mile 70 to the final feed station at mile 85 I was playing cat and mouse with another lone competitor who I started with and had caught up over the course of the day. However, he was my only company in the second half of the race and I set off before him after a quick re-fuel of Haribo milk bottles at the last feed station.

  When I set off after stopping I was in high spirits much like the other competitors. In my head it was only 15miles to go and I still felt great so it was time to push it. I had overtaken everyone who set off before me as well as the people I set off with from the feed station within 10 minutes and didn't see another cyclist until I had crossed the line. I completed the 100miles in 5h57 (according to my speedometer - so not counting any stops I took). To get a sub 6hour bike on my first go at the distance to me was amazing. Everything had gone to plan and I still felt I had more to give (a good thing as I would have a further 12 miles on the bike and then have to run a marathon after that in 2 weeks). I met up with Ele afterwards for a coffee and then went home ready for the Aquathlon the day after. I found out later that night that my official time was 6h24 which made me 

6th woman out of 21 and 94th overall out of 182. As many of those were pro team riders as I mentioned before and I stopped more than usual I was bloody pleased with that. My confidence was definitely lifted. I now know I can physically do the bike leg and stop fretting to the extent I have been about missing the bike cut-off time.

  The day after the bike race I was competing in the local Aquathlon in which many Chiltern Tri members were either competing in or volunteering to help. I did this event as part of a team with Dan and as a solo race. It consisted of an 800m swim (31 lengths) and then a 10k run. I started the event with the swim and then tagged Dan to do the run. Dan hasn't done a 10k run for a long time and knew he hadn't trained enough/at all for it. I also knew that the course was a tough one. The course weaved throughout the woods, tackling a very tough hill for the first kilometere of the 2.5k loop of which he had to do four of. As soon as I had tagged Dan I ran back onto poolside to then compete in my solo event. I was out of the water a further 15minutes later and on my own 10k run. I ran past Dan as I was going uphill on my first loop and I have to admit he looked shattered. He shouted to me he had fallen over on his ankle, just his luck. I didn't see him for the rest of the race until I was going onto my last lap and he was sitting by the finish line waiting for me. As the course was a four lap run it was a great mental test as the marathon at Ironman Wales is 4x10k loops. This time a year ago I may have avoided events which were multi-lap but now I find them a good way of breaking a long distance down. If you focus on the lap in progress it is a great feeling to tick each lap off and then make a count down. I'm quite pleased that Ironman Wales is a lapped event now and I'm particularly pleased they are 10k in distance as they are my standard training distance so I know they are easily achievable for me. A 10k run at my maintainable pace takes just over an hour and this has been consistent when I did the London Marathon, the actual Ironman lap with Nicola and the eventual result of the Aquathlon. Both the Ironman and the Aquathlon lap consists of a tough slog uphill followed by a rewarding downhill and then a flat. With this in mind I am on track for a 4h40 marathon. So my strategy during the Ironman run is no matter what do not stop! Even if when slogging up the hill I feel I could walk faster just keep slowly jogging up. I know some have a strategy to quick walk up and run down but I fear this will affect me mentally. Just keep plodding is my motto.

During the Aquathlon in Chesham

  Anyway, back to the Aquathlon. We completed the relay in a total time of 1h21 and my solo effort was 1h22. My first 800m swim was 14m20 and my second was 16m11 (including my own transition). This is the bit I shall now relish forever; Dan's run was 1h06 and mine was 1h05. I know that Dan hadn't trained for this and he continues to remind me of that but this to me was an achievement I could not let slip! To think my solo effort was 1 minute off beating our relay attempt felt good and comparing my achievement to Dan, who being in the Para’s was fitter than I could have ever thought I could be was a good moment for me (maybe not for Dan though). I have never been a runner and this was another clear sign of how far I have come in training. I even got a medal for fastest age group competitor (so what if I was the only one!). Overall despite the mishaps I have had in the last few weeks with crashing in Wimbleball 70.3 and not completing, sickness during the marathon and traffic stopping me competing in the Midnight Man I have restored my confidence back. (They say bad luck happens in threes so lets hope my stint is well and truly over). We all face knocks in life it's about getting back up. I wrote on my Facebook that night, "This time in 13 days I will be an Ironman!".