2017

Well that went fast and what a change from this time 2016.  No lurgy! Well thank the baby Jesus for that – eating LCHF was the best choice I made last year, my immune system, and my training has improved markedly and I’ve lost 9 kgs and many centimetres!   So what’s on the board Ms Ford for 2017?

First up is the Country to Capital Ultramarathon in January – 14th to be exact which is all of four sleeps away!  Go beyond ultra have set up an event that runs from the Shoulder of Mutton, Wendover, Buckinghamshire to Little Venice, London which is about 43 miles or 69ish km new money.  Who’s bright idea was that then – well I was meant to do it last year but I was in no fit state to do it physically or mentally and deferred my entry.  Then one of the Pirates was turning 21 again and wanted to run it for her birthday – since I managed not to die on the Humanity Direct ultra I couldn’t say no to another run out!  Going to be a chilly one but should be good fun!

Go for a wee run, going to be some time!

March time brings the Ridge Off Roader Half Marathon, as there is no Rail to Trail event this year – pity as I have really enjoyed their events so far!  April is still open but I may be leaning towards Liverpool to Manchester 50m ultra – not sure yet.  May is holiday time – we’re heading to New Zealand for three weeks and I’m doing the Air New Zealand Hawkes Bay Marathon on the 14th – ends up in a winery!  June is Giantshead Marathon – very hilly, very awesome trail marathon in Dorset run by White Star Running,  also booze at the end.  We’re heading up to Nottinghamshire which is the yearly trek to the Outlaw Ironman Triathlon – I marshalled last year which was a bomb with the Pirates.  This year I will be part of a team with Digger and SuperCaz – I have manned up swallowed the DNF and I’m going to get our bling!  Swear to God I will have all the kit under the sun or clouds – whatever – just say no to hypothermia!  September is Equinox time! Going solo this year and going to try for triple figures and see where I end up, if nothing else it will be awesome fun with so many Pirates sailing in the shire.  Last event of the year I’m hoping will be Wendover Woods 50m if I can get a place.

*There may also be a half IM in August, but that’s a bit tentative at the mo as I’m not sure about the training time – will decide March/April time.

The Wild Boar Half-Ironman Triathlon Race Report

The day started early before the sun got up.  Large brekkie, packed everything up and loaded it into the car.  Got to Bosworth Water Park in good time, registered and set up the bike and kit to find I had left the bike shoes at home!  Mad sprint across carpark to husband and made him go back and get them.  Which he did in very good time!  Had a good chat to SuperCaz, Red-dog-Chris, JP and Cake before I escaped off to manhandle myself into my wettie when I found MC lurking around the loos and got her to help me squish my flubber into the sausage casing (I always feel like a sausage wearing my wetsuit).

 

Got into the water to swim to the start – have to say the weed was hideous yesterday – I think the cull they did a couple of weeks back just made it grow more vigorously.  Started at the back still managed to get a whack to the head, but all good.   There were some very speedy swimmers in that lot! I would have liked to get on and do some drafting but that wasn’t an option.  I wasn’t the last out and I made the time I expected and was happy to get out of the water and on to the bike.

 

I was surprised to see Cake in transition as I thought everyone would be long gone.    Out onto the bike and I didn’t get passed by the uber fast boys until 1.5 laps along so I wasn’t too unhappy with that.  The wind took it’s toll – the course is ‘relatively’ flat but that wind is a killer.  I pinched Cakes caramello bunnies and thank goodness I did as I had forgotten my bananas and left two of my nakd bars in transition.  I stopped later for a banana and a bottle of high5 but I think it was a bit late by that point.  I also dropped one of my remaining bars on the bike course.   So really Cake’s bunnies reclaimed at least some of the day.  Loved the bike support from Mrs D, MC and Super Caz!!

Off the bike I wasn’t last the young guy (who was very polite when I asked him if he was okay on the last lap of the bike) was about 20 minutes? Half an hour behind me.  I was okay with my bike it was about 20 minutes longer than I had anticipated but given the conditions and my nutrition levels I was okay with it.

With my borrowed visor (thank you Mr Digger) I headed out and saw Red_dog_Chris in the distance and thought sweet will just keep my eyes on him.  Which worked for about the first 3 kms until my legs decided that they had had enough for the day thank you very much.  About which time I got passed by some very fast peeps including a very smiley Joddly!  And I wanted to go faster – got a bit frustrated with myself have to say I wasn’t meeting the times I thought I should be able to do.   Have to say the lovely lady marshals singing ‘build me up Buttercup’ to me at the turn around point was a neat surprise and kept me going!  I told myself I wasn’t allowed to walk for at least the first 10k and I didn’t.  The third 5k was not good for mental toughness – walked for bits of it.

The last 5k was just plain hard graft – not helped by three large tractors going at speed trying to mow me down!  I have to say I perked up a bit (at least mentally) when I saw Mrs D and MC who were just out for a stroll and “ran” with me the last km.   I was a bit overwhelmed when everyone at the finish line break into song and run with me to the end! I have never had such a neat bunch of people sing to me!!

My legs were just knackered (literally shaking holding me up) at the end, I was quite smelly (the deodorant gave out about half an hour into the run), but I finished!  It was a win for mental toughness and a hard lesson in getting my nutrition right on the bike.

At the beginning of this year I couldn’t swim more than 25m without feeling like I was dying, I had never run since high school, biking was the only thing I felt I could do.  Now I know I can do all three – just need to get faster and improve the tuning on my internal engine!  I would like to do this event again to see what a years improvement can do.

Thank you very much Pirates and Piratey other halves your support was beyond awesome.

The Little Piglet Sprint Triathlon

Well I woke hubby up at the crack of dawn, loaded the car and after having wee wibbles about the upcoming day hit the road bound for Market Bosworth.  First off I have to say I am so glad the rain stayed away – it was quite windy out on the bike course but you can’t have everything!  I completed the little piggy sprint triathlon in 2hrs almost on the dot and came 48th I think.

Swim:

This is what I had the most wibbles about prior but not one to back out of a challenge I lubed myself up to the eyeballs, squished myself into the wetsuit, felt like a sausage and got in the positively balmy 15C water awaiting the marshalls start.  I have to say not having ever swum any great distance in OW prior it showed and I got my a**e handed to me in quick fashion  masses of weeds, almost being kicked in the face and not being able to keep my feet in the water when I was swimming leads me to believe that I need a lot more practice at this portion of the event!  I ended up doing a smoosh of BS and FC and exited the water dead last but I didn’t give up, just sucked it up and kept on going.  I knew once I hit the bike I would be fine – it was just getting there that was hard work – Man those buoys seemed so very far away!

Time: 29.27

T1:

Transition consisted of me pulling the wetsuit off in quick time, whacking my helmet on and donning the pirate shirt – it occurred to me as I was doing it that perhaps putting it on under my wettie would’ve been the better idea but eh live and learn.  I grabbed a banana, and a couple of gels and decided to forgo the armwarmers and the calve comp gear as they would’ve taken too long to get on.

Time: 3.58

Bike:

Really enjoyed the bike and since I was last I just went hell for leather and caught one guy but everyone else was already long gone – so it was almost like a nice wee bike ride out but with arrows   I really liked the course – could be quite a fast one come September which makes me happy!  There was a headwind for the first 8 or so km but I just put my head down and kept on going.  My average moving speed was 15.2mph so I’m happy with that – room for improvement!

Time: 51:50

T2:

Decided to forgo hat and comp gear just put on shoes quick as I could and got out of there.  So quickly I forgot to grab my garmin off the bike!

Time: 1:47

Run:

It took half a lap for my legs to get over themselves and just run but once they did it was a good run.  I enjoyed myself and although I have to say running on the grass isn’t what I’m used to I also got over that!  With no garmin telling me my heart rate I just figured I would run at a comfortable speed that I could finish without stopping.  I did have to stop once when I grabbed a drink I went to sip it and ended up wearing most of it  I am soooo elegant – not!  I liked the flat flat course and that also bodes well for September!

Time: 33:24

So all in all for someone who has never done a tri before I think I did okay – my cycle and run times were a little slower than I was expecting but I think that was just a cumulative thing and I’m well sure I can improve on it.  Big takeaway message was that I need to get out in the OW and swim with the freaking fishes man!