Yesterday was my day to complete the half Ironman distance. James and I headed down to Slapton Sands for the swim and one look at the sea told me that I wasn't keen. I have a habit of looking at the sea and having a moment, normally I give it a miss and insist to James that it wouldn't be worth getting in as I wouldn't enjoy myself, I've been doing this for a while now since I decided to be scared of the sea?! So, as expected, we headed back towards Kingsbridge to have a look at the estuary to work out if we should start there.
After alot of procrastination and me having a bit of a temper tantrum (I really wasn't feeling it) I told James to head back to Slapton, I had given myself a bit of a talking to and realised that I'd have to just go through it all again another day. I can't predict the weather on race day after all, so no time like the present!
In order to swim with the current, we decided that the car and transition, needed to be at our finish, so James took the car down to the carpark near the other end of the beach, meanwhile, I got in and started swimming, James would meet me somewhere along the beach. A coach load of tourists had just jumped out of their bus to look at the sea, they found it most amusing that I was in the sea and I watched on as they followed me along the beach posing for photos with the 'crazy swimming lady' in the background. I quite enjoyed this and I think I got a bit of kodak courage, I told myself to stay calm and to relax and enjoy it, and give or take the odd seabird diving giving me the jitters, I think I did enjoy it. I finished the swim in just over 42mins and James informed me afterwards that we had actually been against the current, but with the waves?
Mike had rocked up to join us for the ride, so we (eventually!) set off to begin the 57mile ride.
Along Slapton line, to Torcross and back inland towards Kingsbridge, up out towards Malborough and down to Salcombe. We had a quick stop for a pastie (or bacon sarnie) then back up the hill and on the road. Through Aveton Gifford, to Modbury, then up towards Ermington, Ugborough and then back in towards Morleigh. From there across to Halwell, then down into Dartmouth, back up and along the coast road back to Slapton. This was a pretty gruelling ride. The climbs out of Kingsbridge, Salcombe, Modbury, Gara Bridge, Dartmouth and Blackpool sands pretty much finished off my legs - I tried to go a bit slower than usual to pace myself, but funnily enough I was pretty tired after the earlier swim.Finally we peaked at Strete and it was all downhill and back to the car - this was my favourite bit!!
I waved goodbye to Mike and headed out on the run, in theory Slapton line is 2.5miles long, plus a little hill at the end and back makes 6 miles. I headed along the beach and covered the first 2miles in about 15mins, so was feeling strong. A turn at Torcross and back down the beach again, phew......... At the far end the steep off road 1/4 mile hill was really slippy, loads of debris and mud do not work with road running shoes, so I took a gamble and descended on the road. I figured that this was a bit longer, so I didn't need to run back up again. Back along the beach to Torcross, and was joined by James for most of this, he gave me loads of encouragement and helped heaps. It's always demoralising to keep passing your finish and having to keep going!! Finally I reached Torcross again and turned for the last time. The sun was starting to head down towards the horizon and the clouds were coming back, so I think the timing was great for my finish. I finished the run in 2hrs 08mins, a bit slower than I had hoped, but it was flipping hard work and I had managed more consecutively than ever before.
Total time was 7hrs 30 mins and a few seconds - without the lunch stop and slower than should be transition times (I know I am quicker in real races, plus was busy chatting!!) and so if I can continue like this I may just be able to pull out a 15-16hr Ironman time. Not as fast as I would hope, but not as bad as it looked a few weeks back. I definately feel more confident and a little stronger and training reaches peek weeks soon, so watch this space........
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