Double Iron - Pre Race Prep

Well it's very close now, still not nervous but had lots to organise over the last couple of days.

I'd had my sports massage with Emma http://www.emmadavies4fitness.co.uk/id8.html yesterday to wake up my legs after some rest days, painful but fantastic. Emma also worked on a couple of niggles I had, a sharp pain in my right shoulder (which usuallly developed after about 20 miles on the bike) & a dull pain in the right glute (from over training basically). Felt great afterwards & the niggles were gone!

The race is at Avon Tyrrell in the New Forest near Bournemouth, a 250 mile road trip so taking everything I could possibly need was priority, even the truck struggled to hold everything, Georgie's & Sarah's wellies were squeezed under seats, Steve & Clair had to take some gear in their car.

One hour before we left, I was still in a "which bike to take dilema", I hadn't been on the TT bike much at all but thought it would have been nice to have the option to switch during the race, but this would mean that my daughter wouldnt be able to take her mountain bike to enjoy. After some deliberation, I stuck with my road bike, it had got me through all those training miles, surely it deserved to complete a double iron as well <laughing>

Food was packed, over the last few days I've never eaten so much pasta, chicken, tuna, potatoes, etc. We'd bought all the race food; porridge, rice, pasta, satsuma's, bananas, rice pudding, jelly beans, jelly babies, nutrigrain bars, jaffa cakes, ritz crackers, jam, peanut butter as well as gatorade & gels, Sarah had also made some Parkin cake & Walnut/Banana cake.

Race Food

The weather was not looking great down near Bournemouth either, strong winds & heavy rain wednesday & thursday, looking like it improved over the weekend but it looked like a wet race so I had to be prepared & packed loads more gear ....... the truck was FULL !!

We set off in convoy about 10:15am, stopped half way for coffee (a must if you know me), hit some really bad weather getting close to our destination but luckily when we arrived the weather was clear, so quickly set up camp before the predicted wind & rain came ......

That night .............. the wind & rain came ....... BIG STYLE ..... still forecasts suggested better weather for the weekend <fingers crossed>

I slept ok that night although had to get up a quite a few times to visit the toilet (a good sign that my hydration plan was working well I suppose) and also to re-peg some of tents guy ropes that had been pulled out by the wind.

I was still feeling good about the race, I'd done the training (although I'd not done the race distance in any of the 3 disciplines before), I had a good race plan, I felt strong.

After breakfast I headed out in the truck to recce the bike route, an 11.6 mile loop in the New Forest, beautiful, a couple of fast straights and a good number of nice climbs, none very tough but they would certainly test the legs after 200 miles. I also checked out the shorter back up route that athletes had ridden yesterday & today due to flooding and fallen trees on the original race route, I was happy with both routes. The original longer route was more exposed with no street lighting anywhere whilst the shorter route was more residential and sheltered, but would have to be in the region of 40 laps, which might get a little repetative!

Walked the run course in the afternoon, all off road apart from the main circle and climb into the forest, some technical bits through the forest and round the lake, with an uphill drag back up to the house, that will be tough, especially as I'm going to have to do it 48 times (1.1 mile loop) !!!

4pm was registration & blood tests, the event was now an International Ultra Triathlon Assocciation (IUTA) European & Britsih Championship Double Iron race.

6pm ..... race briefing ...... the Race Director started talking through the race, how tough the bike & run routes were and how long it took to complete, this was when my heart sank, I suddenly lost what confidence I had, became nervous and asked myself "what the hell am I doing here", the briefing went on, the feelings got worse, the finishing times he was talking about were much longer than I had predicted, how could I have got this so wrong, my support crew needed to be heading home on sunday evening but the Race Director was talking how most would finish late sunday night and even monday morning ....... panic !
Support Crew to the rescue to sort me out, if I finished sunday night so be it, let's just finish it, forget work, school, etc .... focus on the race, so I did.

Talking to some of the other athletes who had done this Double before under 30 hours was considered pretty darn good, most would be over, few would be under, only 3 athletes were under 30 hours last year.

With a revised start time of 9am (originally 6am) on Saturday, a 30+(ish) hour race would mean a late afternoon finish, still time to pack & travel home, panic over, race face on !

Support Team meeting

We had also revised the run tactics over pasta that evening, originally I was looking to run 4 laps (4.4 miles) then walk a lap taking on hydration & food, but talking to past competitors the tactic that worked best seemed to be walk up the hills, run the flat & descents, taking on hydration and food every lap, so that was now the plan.

We confirmed the swim plan, 6 laps (1.2 miles) then 350ml gatorade & half banana, a full bottle of gatorade on the walk to transition with porridge before the bike.

The bike plan was atleast 1 litre of fluid every hour (alternating gatorade/ water/ flat coke (full fat), stopping every 4 laps (46.4 miles) for pasta or rice, taking banana/ cake on every 2nd lap but always carrying a gel, banana & jelly beans.

Right, we can do no more, 10pm ..... bed time, tomorrow we race the Double Iron, COME ON !!