Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
The Good Mood Cookbook
Options
Comments
-
-
-
-
-
What???? There are hills?????Sloan Tangy Stewardess wrote: »Good luck at the weekend. The weather will be terrible and its a very very hilly course. That will only make the day more challenging and fun though for a tough cookie like yourself;)
After a certain point in training your fitness doesn't change, only your ability to suffer.
And suffer I will!0 -
Advertisement
-
-
-
Hey IronWoman, aka Queen of this forum, aka hippie-dippie-chickie-momma!! Enjoy your everything on Sunday....and I want to read a report that oozes smiles and grins. Have fun, and kick the crap out of the can as you knock it down the street.:):D 0
-
RQ is the only queen of this forum!Hey IronWoman, aka Queen of this forum, aka hippie-dippie-chickie-momma!! Enjoy your everything on Sunday....and I want to read a report that oozes smiles and grins. Have fun, and kick the crap out of the can as you knock it down the street.:):D
I hear exmoor is a twilight zone of no phone reception so I'll be in boards withdrawal for the weekend. See ya on t'other side!0 -
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
Well I have left the dark ages and am back in the realm of reliable signal. Exmoor is a weird and peculiar place where roads are narrower than your car and reversing is the national pastime. People must communicate by smoke signals or telepathy because phones just don't work.
But as an event, Wimbleball is fantastic. The usual ironman efficiency, with the expo and massive scale creating a proper big race atmosphere. I arrived and registered on the Friday evening which took the pressure off, and I had heaps of time to get a practice swim in and get set up on the Saturday. I drove the bike route on Saturday evening and frightened the bejesus out of myself. It is a truly horrible route
That and the thoughts of the ice cold swim made for a restless night where I dreamed I was on the side of the road at the event trying to sell my entry.
Tbc cos I'm still one finger typing...0 -
Ill do this RedB style, in stages...
Pre race
Id been worryingly calm coming up to this, only getting the collywobbles the night before. Which was a good thing, really. Race morning had me up at four and onsite by twenty past five. Pumped my bike tryes with a borrowed pump and bent the valve. Oops. It screwed tight and held, so I chanced it. I filled the speedfil, squished my food into my tribag, gave my bike a final hug, and went to put on my wetsuit, which everyone did early cos it was freezing. Standing around in transition I had serious heebie jeebies. I wasn't ready. I'd never get up those hills. The run was a complete unknown. Could I still even remember how to swim?
Swim
The first wave went off at seven but we were held in transition till the last moment before ours at 7.15 as it was so cold down at the lake. Once there, no prep swim was allowed and we couldn't go in till minus two minutes. It was that cold. I got in and stood with my arms out of the water till the gun went.
The cold didn't bother me at all - the swim on Saturday definitely helped - and I started the swim well. It was clockwise which suited me as a right breather It was harder to sight on the second part with less buoys, but I held ok I thought. Got a decent kick in the face here, which was strangely satisfying as I'm usually so slow theres noone around to kick me! I even caught a few lost souls from wave one. A choppy swim back to shore with a few more slaps and bangs from my co swimmers got me out of the water in 42:xx. Not as fast as I'm able and big room to improve. 0 -
T1
Wimbleball tests you from the start, with a long steep run to the transition tent. Plenty of time to get your suit round your waist though. Once inside with the other steaming bodies, I found my bag and grabbed a chair and got my suit off my legs without a hitch. I had a few wardrobe options in my bag depending on the weather. I went for a light gilet and armwarmers, as the forecast rain wasn't till eleven. The fact it was less than 9 degrees out and I was soaking wet seems to have escaped me... T1 took over seven minutes. The pros do it in less than half. I need to work on my sock putting on technique.
Bike
The dreaded bike. The bit that gets everyone. I had been warned to work with room to spare, to pace it right, but it was hard. It started with a three mile uphill drag. Then a short sharp hill to make sure youre paying attention. Then the bit they say is flat. But they lie. It was as flat as pam andersons chest. But it did have some fast descents and rolling sections, and that's where I started to regret my choice of clothes. It was bitterly cold to the point my teeth were chattering and my hands went numb. And then it started to rain. I had try and think warm and just keep going, but every descent was a shiver fest. I contemplated stopping to ask a spectator for their coat.
At mile fifteen you come to a hair raising descent which was just getting greasy from the rain. Had a slide here which wasn't nice but fair warning to pay attention. The sharp bend at the end took a few out but I crawled around it like I was on ice. Another mile further I came to the first of the proper hills which is short but challenging enough. Even on lap one people were walking up it. Not a problem for this numpty because once I commit to a hill the only way to get off is to fall off, and I wasn't doing that. Ground my way up it and passed so many I was shocked. Id survived that at least. The rest of the lap was just more of the same. Hill after hill till you think they'll run out of them. The second 'big' hill was worse than the first, not as sharp but much longer. Plenty of walkers here too. I wasn't walking for anyone. Grind grind grind. But once I got that lap done, I felt really good. It hadn't beaten me and it wouldn't. I had been passing a good few on lap one but that increased on lap two as people tired. And to be honest it was a boost, just reeling people in. A real novelty. It poured with rain but my core temperature had come up on the hills and having got around once I knew I'd survive it anyway. Rolled into T2 at 3:54 with a negative split second lap.0 -
Sorry about the chunks here but thats phones for you.
T2
Entered another transition tent soaking wet. Dumped the useless gilet and armwarmers that didn't, got my dry socks, shoes, gels. Done. So why did it take four minutes? My transitions suck.
Run
My first thought on leaving T2 was 'wow my legs feel good'. I think I expected them to be so much worse. But running down into the breeze at the lake I was yet again shivering. Time to work up some heat. I passed a guy with one leg and a blade prosthesis who was on his last lap - there are some phenomenal people out there who put us all to shame.
On the map the run route looked like a bad doodle and made no sense at all, but in reality it was easy to follow. It was varied and interesting but with over 400m of climbing. The majority of this was on one very steep hill and another drag through woodland. It was a mix of grass, gravel, mud or tarmac underfoot. I had started the race hoping to go sub seven hours (its a known slow course) and if I got the run right I would do it. So I held a sustainable pace and refused to walk any of it so I would have nothing to regret at the end. The first lap was tough psychologically because you don't know where you're going and you still have to do it twice more. But I settled in by lap two and held my pace. I used everyone in front of me as a goal to get past and mentally pulled myself along like that. It was almost fun, if it wasn't so bloody awful. Started to feel it by lap three but sure then youre nearly done and that keeps you going. By the last hill before the finish I could feel my head start to go and I was very glad to go right instead of left at the laps/finish sign. A big smiling trot up the beautiful red carpet for a finish time of 6:43. Well within my target. I know that sounds slow, but placed me halfway up the field, not including the many many poor sods who didn't make the cutoffs. Its a damn hard course, that I wouldn't have been able to complete any time prior to this.
The best bit of the whole weekend was, as Kurt kindly said, that I made 5th in my ag. And yes there were more than five turned up to race... I squealed when I saw it on the notice board and hugged the complete stranger beside me cos I had to hug someone. After so long as a back of pack pleb, I'm allowed to smile, aren't I? 0 -
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
:):D:):D. 
Advertisement