| After not being able to run due to a knee injury, i decided to train for a Triathlon. So without much thought i entered for the Standard Distance Newquay Triathlon. I spent the next 10 weeks training 6 days a week cycling, swimming and slowly getting back into running! The thought of the training seemed sooooo easy! Once again, i was wrong! Being the fact that the push bike was my only means of transport and i was cycling 45 miles a week to work, the last thing i felt like doing when i got home was to cycle! I'm sorry, but i have to admit cycling is boring, i found it so hard to raise my heart rate high enough to have a decent workout. Also because i'm vertically challenged my frame is slightly too big for me which is why i now have a gimpy back! However the swimming at the pool has been great fun and i've really enjoyed it! I have learnt that all men including me will swim a lot faster when there's a attractive female life guard on duty! I haven't quite worked out why this is yet after all i'm just a simpleton and not Derren (i know the winning lottery numbers, but didn't buy a ticket) Brown!
So training and moaning over! I'd managed to raise just over £500 for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign. Since April i have helped raise nearly £3000 doing various events, thanks to everyone who has helped me along the way! If you ask Steve and Wendy Marks they will tell you about my fantastic singing at the front of Tesco one day that brought the whole store to a stand still! Yes it was that bad time actually stopped! It's been great fun, last week a video of me singing Ring of fire was played at the Muscular Dystrophy national conference, i had some great feed back but unfortunatley Simon Cowell was not available for comment! Although i do "a lot of work for charity, but don't like to mention it mate!" It's really great to give something back to the world. After all, being fit and healthy enough to enjoy sports is a privilege that most people can only dream! All the money raised will be spent providing children in the area with equipment who have the disease!
The day had come!
The venue had been moved to Harlyn Bay this year so really we were in Padstow not Newquay! I arrived in good time set my bike up in transition, lubed myself with olive oil and got into my wetsuit. Don't worry the olive oil isn't some weird fetish, it just helps me get the wetsuit off and stop rubbing! "no it really does!"
After a race briefing from the Votwo events director Ben, who looked very much like the film star Adam Sandler and the Stephen Hole "i know what i'm doing, honest!" warm up the siren went off and it was into the sea for the 1.5k swim! The sea was calm and apart from swimming into a couple of people and the initial first few minutes of thinking "what have i let myself in for?" I really enjoyed myself! I'd read in a magazine that the best way to swim was to draft behind the swimmer in front to conserve energy! So i done exactly that! All was going well until i swam into a big patch of warm water! So! When you're swimming behind someone in the cold ocean a big patch of warm water can be only one thing! As you can imagine this put me off drafting for a moment and i navigated myself away from the swimmer in front, trying my best not to drink any of the warm liquid! Second lap of the 750m oblong course and I wasn't last! Even though it was 7.40am the sky was blue, there were no sharks or toxic seaweed in sight! I completed the swim and took the quarter mile run up to transition.
The transition seemed a lot more laid back than i'd imagined, although im sure the guys in the lead didn't think so! After a chat with the lady next to me about the nice weather and how a nice cuppa tea would be just right, i was on my bike!
YAWN.
The 40km bike route was an out and back up an A road from Harlyn Bay! Now when i say it was undulating you all know what a Cornish undulation is like! Yep you got it, BIG rolling hills! Even at race pace i couldn't get my heart rate very high! I started to get bored and had a fiddle around with my cycle computer, i couldn't find Facebook not even Solitaire! Bad times! So i just sat back and took it all in, the blue sky and sunshine made it all good! The highlight of the bike ride was probably having to stop for a pee due to too much energy drink!
Back into transition and it was the 10k run!
When i'd imagined the whole triathlon many times before the race, i'd always imagined myself running 10k with the greatest of ease and like a true hero i would be over taking people all the way. I thought that maybe i could even beat my 40 min 10k PB! DOH! Sadly by the run my legs were heavy, i had plenty of energy due to the 2 litres of SIS id consumed, but i couldn't get up to speed! The run was 2 out and back laps along the coastal path across a beach , up steps, through gates and over turn styles. I managed to pick a few people off but every time i got my speed up i would encounter another obstacle. By this time a few people were walking one guy holding his buttock and reapeating the "B" swear word over and over! So i took it easy for the last mile before turning the corner to the cheering crowd, where i sprinted in true Forest Gump style to the finish!
My overall time 2 hours 59 mins.
Swim 35.26 - transition 4.42 - bike - 1hr27 - transition 1.44 run 49.55
Many thanks to Barry and Denise for the bike, thanks to everyone who supported and sponsored and thanks to Votwo for the great event!
Although the training was a chore taking part in the event made it all worth while! I will be back again next year, but now my knee is better and i have found some new supportive magic shoes, it's running all the way!
I'm taking part in the Eden Marathon and am looking to dress up as 118! I'm looking for someone else to be the other 118 person. It's in aid of the Muscular Dystrophy Campain so if you would like to help or even if you would like to dress up as something yourself and get sponsored, please contact me on olzee@hotmail.co.uk or call 07716112373
Thankyou Stephen Hole
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