Rowe Running

In 2007 I took part in this Ranelagh Harriers organised run for the first time and I’d been looking forward to this years event for some time (read the 2007 report for the history of this special run).  On Tuesday night (1 July) the weather was absolutely beautiful with temperatures in the high 20’s.

Last year I ran with the ‘not quite the fast group’ but this year I’d planned to go with the faster group.  We started out as a group of about 15 of us (we were also graced with the presence in our group of Hugh Jones - winner of the 1982 London Marathon with a time of 2:09:24), and my aim was to stick close to Chris O. - who led the fast group last year and seems to know Richmond Park like the back of his hand.

Chris’ plan was to try and stick to paths where possible - I can now say that it was not very possible - we spent a lot of time running through bumpy ankle-twisting ground and 5 foot high fern.  I found the run pretty tough going - got stung by nettles, and managed to get an all-over-leg rash from running through fern and other bushes.  Other than that it was great!

I ‘dipped my toes/shoe’ in just about all of the ponds that we saw and managed to almost slip a couple of times.  Needless to say one at least one occasion my foot was rather wet from the water - it kind of reminded me of cross-country season!

I found the run pretty hard going and by the end had managed to click the lap button on my watch (at each pond that I saw) a total of 19 times.  I’m not sure which pond I missed, and interestingly some of the other groups of runners managed to find 21 ponds!

As we reached Richmond Gate to finish the run there were about 10 of us grouped together.  There were a couple of ’splinter groups’ formed during the run but our group mostly stuck together.

The final time from when we entered the park at Petersham gate to when I stopped my watch at Richmond Gate was 1 hour 8 minutes 58 (in 2007 my time was over 1 hour 20)  We covered a total of 8.54 miles and didn’t stop at all during the run.  After returning to the Ranelagh clubhouse I waited for the other groups to return to the club, and I’m sure Sharon will write about her run in due course…

The map shows the route that we took (which was almost identical to last years map, although we didn’t get lost in the Isabella Plantation this time around!)  As I said before I really enjoyed this years run and look forward to doing it again next year.

Regular readers may have noticed the lack of recent weekly “BPTT” (Bushy Park Time Trial) updates - well, we’re trying to make this blog more than just continuous rambling so will mention it more when interesting things happen (i.e., I get a PB - the last one was in October last year).  Well, here’s a quick update on my training/progress this week since last weekends Welsh Castles Relay.

OK, running down hills is tough - real tough - and it’s something I’m not great at.  I believe this is what’s given me so much flippin’ pain in my lower right leg this week.  Monday/Tuesday I had a lot of trouble walking down stairs, and on Thursday morning I went for an easy jog before work - I lasted less than two minutes before I gave up.  I’d caused some nasty damage down there so its time to keep off the running.  To be honest I’m not suprised after a tough few weeks of racing.  I’m happy to give my legs a bit of a rest - but not *that* much of a rest though….

Saturday morning came and I went and watched the 5k time trial at Bushy Park.  The weather wasn’t the best but if I’m in the local area I just have to watch a time trial on a Saturday morning.  Following this (and a customary coffee in Teddington) I returned home, pumped up the tyres on my bike and set off for a long bike ride…. I’ve fancied the idea of cycling to my parents house before (they live on the south coast of England) and thought this would be a good day.  Sharon had been invited to a BBQ at a friends so the plan was for me to cycle 60 miles, and for Sharon to go enjoy a BBQ and then drive to my parents later on.  Hmn, does that sound fair?

Anyway, I found a reasonable route that kept me away from any dual-carridgeway roads as much as possible and kept to small ‘A’ and ‘B’ roads.  After a nasty hill just south of Dorking it was just a little up’n'down until I made it to the last big hill - Bury Hill - at about 48 miles.  This takes you up and over the South Downs, and from here its mostly flat all the way ‘home’.  As I headed over the hill it was raining - pretty hard - and wasn’t much fun.  I then fought through the next few miles to Arundel (which is a lovely little city) and at this point my legs told me they couldn’t do any more.  At this point I was pretty much forced to pull over and just walk for a few minutes and try and stretch my legs a little.  I also ate the last of my ‘energy bars’ to help me with the final 10 miles that remained.  I know I could have called my Dad and he would have come and collected me but there was no way I was going to give up.  I jumped on the bike and got on with it.  It wasn’t fun but it had to be done.

I eventually pulled up at my parents house just over 4 hours after I left home.  My actual ‘active time’ on the bike was 3 hours 50 (which includes a brief toilet stop) and I wasn’t in great shape at the end.  Its funny that two weeks before I cycled 52 miles at the Bala triathlon (which was much tougher) and didn’t feel half as bad as I did on Saturday.  I’m sure nutrition on the bike had a big part to play this time.

Anyway, after a bath (cold of course) and a bit of a rest it was off to the pub for a pint and then a lovely Indian takeaway meal.  A great end to a tough afternoon.

Sunday morning dawned and the wind was blowing strong.  I’m not sure I’ve mentioned it here on this blog before but I used to be a bit of a keen windsurfer.  I’ve got a load of kit at my parents house and today I took advantage of being in the right place at the right time to go for a sail.  I spent around 2.5 hours out on the water in total and had a great sail - and it was great to see that I hadn’t lost too many skills after not sailing in just over a year!

Sharon took a few photos that can be found on our personal gallery but for readers here I leave you with one of my favourite photos from today - me getting a little ‘air time’….

Whilst all this ‘fun’ has been going on Sharon and I have also been keeping a close eye on what’s happened today (Sunday) in Nice as part of the Ironman France race.  We know a few people who were taking part in today’s race and were really pleased to see good friend Stuart finish in just over 12 and a half hours (3.8km swim, 180km bike, 42.2km run).  Brilliant stuff.

Once again an entry written by both Sharon and David, starting with David…

After last weekends half-ironman distance triathlon in Wales last weeks running was simply a couple of easy runs and yet more carb-loading in preparation for another trip to Wales - this time as part of The Stragglers running club team who were taking part in the Welsh Castles Relay event. This is the 26th running of this relay race, which starts on Saturday morning at Caernarfon Castle and finishes late afternoon on Sunday at Cardiff Castle. There were 58 teams taking part with each team fielding 20 runners. Add on top of this reserve runners, drivers and general supporters (and the race officials) and you’ve probably got up to 1,500 people following the race.

“Ten (approx) ten mile races, back to back. Then another ten the following day. Held over the second weekend in June, the Welsh Castles Relay is a team event, but each stage is a head-to-head race. It is not strictly a relay: runners do not pass a baton to team-mates; and each stage is a self-contained race.”

“Seen from space, the distance between Caernarfon and Cardiff is not all that great, however, the country between the two is Wales, and every stage includes at least one climb or descent. Taking a cue from Le Tour de France, the toughest stages are designated as ‘mountain stages’ and the winner of each stage gets a yellow (or occasionally grey) sweat shirt.”

We drove up on Friday evening after stopping en-route near Warwick for some dinner and eventually got into our B&B in Newtown (right in the middle of Wales) shortly before 11pm. Saturday morning greeted us with blue skies and a great big breakfast! Sharon, Kirsty and myself then jumped into our car (there were a few cars in our ‘convoy’) and headed to the supermarket for supplies, which included a large bottle of water and some plastic cups - to give to both our runners and also other people in need of water during their ’stages’.

We didn’t plan to see the very start of the race at Caernarfon but we did want to see the end of that stage and start of the second one. This was situated in Penygroes, and we got to see Dave G. set off on his 9.4 mile leg, and a few minutes later watch Faye W. finish in the first stage. All the stages slightly overlap their start/finish times to ensure that event keeps to a reasonable schedule. Because of this there is lots of leap-frogging to be done and organising of runners and cars to ensure the right person gets to the right stage at the right time. On top of this you have somewhere in the region of 150+ cars travelling the entire route so you’ve often driving at slow speeds to get from one place to another.

When supporting our runners during a leg the general idea is to drive ahead of them (hooting your horn and screaming support from the car window as you pass them), find a lay-by or side road up ahead (that isn’t full of other supporters vehicles), get out, prepare a few cups of water, wait for your runnner to come past, jump in the car and do it all again. This is the general idea of how things work for the two days. It’s manic, great fun and you get to see what seems like an endless running race across the length of Wales.

Kirsty was down to run leg 4 which started from Mentwrog at 13:30. We got there with plenty of time to spare to allow Sharon and I to relax and have some lunch (which we bought earlier at the supermarket) whilst Kirsty got ready for her leg (which basically involved a visit to the loo and the application of sun cream). The sun was beating down on us and it was pretty warm. After her race started we headed back to the car and drove along the course to find a place to stop and support/provide drinks.

We managed a couple of other stops to provide water for Kirsty before heading to the finish. About 150 metres before the finish she got into a bit of a race for the line with a girl (Carly) from Sarn Helen Club (they’d been alternating positions for most of the race). The determination in Caryl’s face clearly shows she wanted to get ahead and ultimately she did - that is until she crossed the line and practically collapsed in a heap on the ground! Great running.

After Kirsty finished and got her breath back (just) we were straight back in the car to support Pat who was running stage 5. We saw her a couple of times whilst running then raced ahead to the start of stage 7 (Dolgellau to Dinas Mawddwy) - one of the ‘mountain stages’ - Danny was running. We watch them set off then (you know the drill by now) it was back in the car to go ahead and prepare a ‘water station’. In the course handbook that we were given before the race there’s an elevation profile picture for each of the stages - with the mountain stages being coloured red. Well, after driving the first few miles of the course we couldn’t believe how hilly it was - it looked pretty horrific. The next thing I did was check the profile of my stage (which I was running a couple of hours later, at 6:20pm) and compared profiles! Lets just say I was in for a tough time. As we drove past Danny on the main uphill he was 110% committed to pushing up the hill and was working unbelievably hard. I don’t think I’ve ever put that kind of effort in on a final sprint - let alone 4 miles into a 9+ mile race.

We found a good spot to watch Danny come down one of the huge hills and after admiring the massive lead from Andy Weir (Thames Hare & Hounds) we sped to the finish and just made it in time to watch Danny come in. At this point I had to get ready for my stage. I’d not been feeling 100 percent all day and a few toilet trips confirmed that - including one after Danny’s stage in which someone in the toilet block responded to a noise from myself with the sound of “good arse”. I thanked him from my cubicle, he laughed and I never did get to find out who I had been speaking to!

We drove straight to Llanfair Caereinion, the start of stage 10 but just got to cheer Suzie at the start of stage 9. We arrived at the car park, I got changed into my racing kit and proceeded to go for a warm-up - which would be very important as the first few miles are the toughest and I didn’t fancy pulling/tearing anything early on! OK, when you’re about to start a half marathon (this is the the longest stage - at 13.3 miles) it’s not the greatest sight to see supporters eating fish-and-chips right by the start - especially when my dinner consisted of a lovely carbohydrate gel!!

After I was given this stage to run by the organiser of the event from our running club, everybody who knew about the Welsh Casles Relay said that “you’ve been stitched up”. Apparently my stage is one of, if not, the toughest stage of the entire race and is likely to kill me! “Pah”, I said! We’ll see about that.

So, my stage began and after a gentle incline in the centre of the town we turned left onto a country lane…. OH MY GOD! I was then faced with a hill - one that looked to go up into the clouds! At the side of the road there was a road sign telling me that the incline was 16% - basically this means rather steep! I just paced myself and got on with it. One or two people overtook me and I believe I got past at least one or two of them on this hill. This hill continued until about 1.75 miles and it was really slow going (but certainly not impossible) and one you get to the top you then run down the damn thing for about half a mile. Now the downhills are much much tougher. Maybe being tall doesn’t really help but I don’t find it particularly easy to run (steep) downhill with any kind of finesse or style - its just hang on for dear life and hope you don’t fall over yourself! My feet were sliding forward in my shoes with every step and after a while it actually felt like the soles of my feet were burning from my socks rubbing against my shoes - it was a feeling I’ve not felt before. Oh, on top of this your quad muscles in your legs are telling you that they’re on fire! How lovely.

Whilst all of this is happening you’re slap-bang in the middle of the (around 150+ car) supporters convoy - you get plenty of cheers and the cars don’t get in the way at all (as they know you’re running a race and want room and support). After about four miles the road then just undulates from here on in to about 11.5 miles and then it’s much flatter to the finish.

During my stage I seemed to have a constant back and forth tussle with a chap from Les Croupiers running club (the organising team of the entire event). It’s funny because I had no idea what his name was (and he had no idea what mine was) but everytime we passed our support vehicles (or they drove past us) I’d get cheers of “Go David” (or sometimes “Go Daffyd!”) and he’d get shouts of “Go Ben”. So, when later on in the race he grabbed a bottle of water from someone at the side of the road - after having a sip he said “Do you want some David?”, to which I replied “Thanks Ben”!!! So, I never knew I’d learn things from running - OK, so its just a fellow runners name, but it’s learning!!

As I got to about mile 9 I started to get stomach problems - I’ve never had this before and I guess the ‘incident’ in the toilets before the stage was probably a warning of things to come. Every couple of minutes I’d get a cramp-like pain in my stomach and had to ease of slightly with the running. As our friend Kirsty wrote in her blog…

“We stopped for him a couple more times and he seemed fine until about 9 miles when he started to suffer with some stomach distress. He signalled this to us without speaking! We found this highly amusing, the supporters next to us did not. Clearly not runners.”

Lets just say I did a lot of ‘holding-in’ during the latter miles. On many occasion rather than thinking about pulling over for water, I was looking at the foliage by the side of the road thinking that if I had to make an impromptu stop at the side, then I didn’t want to be ‘cleaning up’ with a handful of nettles. I tell you, I was so so close to pulling over - and I couldn’t care less that there were 150+ cars driving at 10 miles an hour a couple of feet away from me!

Somehow I managed to keep things under control and in the final mile you head off road and onto a path beside the river in Newtown. During the final mile I pulled away from Ben. You then get to a bridge which you have to run over (somehow I managed to see friend Liz Souness in about four different places in the space of about 1 minute at this point!) and then its a couple of hundred metres max to the finishing line - from here I had my sights on a guy who overtook me about 30 minutes previously - I dug in and rather than quietly sneaking past him - everyone (around 200 people waiting at the finish) started cheering as it looked like there was an exciting sprint finish to be had. Well let’s just say it must have been really exciting to watch - this little chap (I can say that as he was much smaller than me) looked over his shoulder after hearing the cheering, saw me and then dug in. We both raced to the line and amazingly after over 90 minutes of racing we finished a dead heat - both on 1:34:41 and joint 41st place overall for the stage. It was a great finish.

After composing myself I walked to the rest of our team who were at the finish - they were most impressed that I’d run well on such a legendary stage - and to clock a sub-1:35 half marathon on those hills and when not feeling great I think was pretty good going. After a (very necessary and rather urgent although the less said about it he better!) toilet trip we headed to the B&B so I could enjoy a cold bath, and then headed to a local pub with the rest of the team for dinner.

Sunday morning started with a 6:20am wake-up call, for Sharon and I had volunteered to help marshall stage 11 - which started at Newtown at 7am. I made sure Sharon knew where she and Kirsty were walking to in order to marshall their spot and then followed Danny in his car to where I’d be marshalling in this stage. At about 7:25am the runners appeared in sight and for the next 20 minutes or so I watched them run past whilst making sure no cars got in their way. At that time in the morning it was quite an easy job for me. I then headed back to the B&B for breakfast and then it was back on the road to support the final stages of the race.

We managed to watch a few of our runners over the course of the day with the most memorable being Chris Phelan running stage 14 - another legendary ‘mountain stage’ that takes you on a constant uphill climb to an abandoned pub called The Drovers Arms. Up near the finish of this stage its like watching a mountain stage of Le Tour de France cycle race. Watching these guys (and the amazing run from first lady Nicky Archer of Vale Royal) is inspiring. It was superb to watch. Chris (from our club) ran brilliantly and finished first Veteran - which meant in addition to a ‘veteran stage winner’ sweatshirt he would also receive a special prize at the end of event prize-giving for being first Vet in a mountain stage.

We then headed off and caught up (and supported/provided water to) a few other runners en-route to Cardiff Castle - where the event finishes. As we waited in the grounds of the castle for the finishers to head in we got the first downpour of the entire weekend - and what a suprise were were the furthest away from the car we’d been all weekend! Ho hum. After watching our runner (Hillary) finish we all got together for a team photo - with all but one of our runners present. We then watched the prize giving and bid farewell to everyone and made our way home back to London. I worked out that we’d driven 660 miles and spent 18 hours in the car during the course of the weekend!

As I said at the beginning this was my first Welsh Castles Relay and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. The team spirit, the support, the atmosphere and fun was second to none. This is one event I certainly plan to do again.

Finally….as I write this on Tuesday evening my legs are truly shot to bits - on Monday I could barely walk down stairs and on Tuesday things were only marginally better. Stage 10 of WCR was one heck of an experience - and everything that people told me about the stage prior to me running it was true - I had indeed been “stitched up!!!”

Sharon here now with her regular “Supporters Column”.

Another weekend, another trip to Wales.  This time would be more intense I thought - and I was right.  I was down as travelling reserve but I was not feeling in top form thanks to a sore throat gained at Bala the previous weekend, which seemed to be getting worse (and in fact still is but that’s another story).  By the time we eventually got to Newtown, tucked up in bed, it was pretty late and we were very aware we had a busy day ahead.  DavidDaffyd has given details of most of the stages, so forgive any repeating.

Beforehand, I was thinking I might feel a bit useless - to be honest, I kind of did (most of the time I wasn’t even taking photos).  However, providing the vital superjooce for Kirsty (i.e. Lucozade Sport!) and water for Danny and David seemed to be my main tasks - as well as driving on Saturday so that Daffyd could feel reasonably rested prior to his stage.

Before Kirsty, we missed our team captain Steve running the first of the mountain stages.  Blimmin hard it was too when we drove it on the way to Kirsty’s start - which was billed as pancake flat.  Hmmm.  Nowhere in Wales is flat is my considered opinion.  She had a good run - even in the unexpectedly melting heat and had a great battle!  Pat then “stepped up” to run a leg at very short notice thanks to some logistical errors, again running an apparently flat stage.  Once again, “Hmmm” to the supposed flatness!  As we zoomed off to Danny’s stage, I was feeling nervous for him.  On the way, we shouted support at Roy (who won the coveted first Vet yellow sweatshirt on his stage) out of the car window.  Danny’s stage was so tough!  The downhills were just horrendous…we leapt out of the car a few times to give him water/cheer him on.  He did great and came 10th on his stage - but to see him finish I made Kirsty run up a hill.  Sorry Kirsty.

By now, I was terribly terribly nervous for David.  Since we got the stage assignments, people had been going on about the infamous Stage 10.  Eeeek!  We bibbled about a bit and I felt sick whilst David warmed up.  I was even more nervous when I looked at the others who were running the stage.  I would say that “wiry, fell runner” is a good description for most of them.  Seriously scary looking runners!  Before we knew it, they were off.  The first few miles were awful.  When we started to drive up the first big hill, Kirsty and I looked at each other and said, “Oh my f***ing God”.  I couldn’t believe it, but we hadn’t passed David yet - so he must have survived!  It was tough to find a place to stop at first but then we managed to.  My favourite moment was when David came by us and trumped.  We laughed so hard - and apparently Daffyd couldn’t drink his water he was chuckling too.  The couple who were next to us supporting were, much like Queen Victoria, not amused.  Unlike us.  We could see David having battles with a couple of people around him but before we knew it, we were at the finish and waiting for him.  He had an excellent sprint finish with a teeny runner (who we had seen pelting down a hill at one point, definitely an advantage to be little running downhill) and I was glad to see they were given the same time and same position, I think that was deserved.  Somehow he survived (except his tummy!) and somehow he ate his dinner…which hasn’t been done after that stage for a couple of years!  Then off to bed again, knowing we had another early start.

We were up at 6:20 ready to marshall.  Kirsty and I had quite a complex marshalling point, involving potentially stopping 3 sets of traffic, keeping runners to the left of a bollard so they didn’t cut a corner, turning right and then keeping left once they had gone up the hill.  Unfortunately the lead runner thought my holding the traffic back meant turn left, despite us shouting turn right.  He soon realised it was right not left but shouted something at me…of course I shouted back that I was holding cars up (which I was, in two lanes).  Perhaps I should have let him get squished?  I also think that if a course has one turning point on it and you are going to be at the front, you might like to know where that turn is.  Especially when it is about 200m from the start.  Anyway.  Graham was running this leg for us and we gave him a mini-shout as he went by and he finished in a fantastic 3rd place overall.  Fabulous!  We finished our marshalling, waved the runners off up the hill, spoke to our team captain in case the runner complained (also suggesting it might need 3 marshalls in case of traffic) and headed off back to the B&B via town to get some cash.

Kirsty and Daffyd spent the morning teasing me about having to run the infamous Drovers leg (stage 14) in case Chris couldn’t…I said I would have run it, but would have missed the cut off!  I would have done it rather than get our team a penalty though.  Fortunately I didn’t have to.  The first runner we saw was PG, who ran brilliantly and was 2nd in his stage.  Awesome run and our best outright placing of the weekend.  We then zoomed off to see Chris run Drovers.  Wow.  What a course.  It doesn’t look so bad at first, then just gets worse and worse.  There was a battle and a half between the two leading runners, with a chap from Poole being eventually overtaken by one of our local rival club runners from Thames Hare & Hounds.  Incredible running by Chris for us led to him winning a shiny yellow Vet sweatshirt - though the man doing the results said, “Is he really a Vet” - of course Kirsty shouted to him that he was.

After Chris it was time to see a couple of other runners, including Cecilia, Alan and Nigel.  We periodically leapt out of our cars, setting up the impromptu water stations…I also rescued the 2 mile marker balloon from someone’s garden on Cecilia’s stage.  It wasn’t even on the course originally…they both ran really well.  Cecilia looked like she was having a grand old time…grinning away for the camera!  Nigel worked really hard and finished in a very credible 17th place on the last mountain stage of the day.  We were soon enough in Cardiff in the grounds of the castle, awaiting the final stage runners.  For us we had Hillary (our accomadation and dining organiser) running and she came flying in, looking a bit soggy though after the first rain of the weekend.  There are no official results as yet but I think we were 22nd out of 58 teams (and 18th in the “Open” category).  Our Kings of the Mountain (i.e. Steve, Danny, David, Graham, Chris and Nigel) were 10th - which considering the competition is pretty amazing!

My overall thoughts are that I loved the supportive atmosphere - though I do want a cowbell if I go again and some streamers to tie to the car!  I loved leaping out and yelling at people.  I was a bit stressed as reserve, as I know I am not fit at the moment - but I would have run if I was needed.  I also really loved seeing all the fantastic runners!  Given that I am often near the back, I don’t generally get to see the really quick runners running (unless it is a lap course) and it’s just awe-inspiring to see them literally flying along!  Phenomenal standard of competitors.

Well done Stragglers!  Now just to persuade Ranelagh that they want to enter too…that would make for even more supporting fun!

Finally, we took quite a few photographs this weekend, with our ‘more personal set’ found over at Sharon’s gallery and a more generic set over at rowephoto.co.uk (Saturday, Sunday) - together with links to full resolution versions.  Nigel Rothwell took some great photos (including one of the ones of me running above) and his full set are online at Flickr, as well as a set from Liz Souness - which includes about 5 or 6 photos of my stage).

This is a *huge* report, firstly written by David and then followed by Sharon’s report towards the end.

Just over a year ago I took part in my first triathlon. Now it was time to step it up to something comparable to a half-ironman distance event - the Bala Middle Distance Triathlon - consisting of a 2km swim, 82km bike and 20km run. Nothing like doing things in small measures eh!

“A big challenge set in an outstanding location, twice serving as the National Middle Distance championships, Bala Lake in June must be one of the most impressive venues for a longer distance event. The race revolves around the lake with the bike traversing large parts of Snowdonia National Park and the run following the lake shoreline before a brutal climb into the foothills of the Arans. Not a race for the fainthearted, all who have finished this event know that they are on their way to further adventures in long distance triathlon.”

Firstly, this report is long - very long, and secondly it is going to mention the word “Pirates” an awful lot! If you don’t know who/what the pirates are, then I suggest you have a read of the PSOF website and also this article at Runners World - you’ll then understand a little more about who we are…

“Is it a club? No, but it is a group of loyal and like-minded people. Is it a joke? No, but it is a laugh. Is it an attitude? Yes. And that attitude echoes the Ironman brand - Anything is Possible - then adds its own rider, ‘if you believe in yourself’. But what sets the Pirates apart is their sense of fun. They have turned into a huge presence within the world of triathlon, a world that can sometimes appear to the newcomer to be a little po-faced. Commentators, organisers and crowds at Ironman events around the world acknowledge the yellow and black kit both on and off the course - the supporters’ wear their own pirate gear with pride and a great deal of noise.”

In the words that follow I’m going to refer to people by their forum names, so that people know who I’m talking about and also to protect the identities of these squashbuckling adventurers! Positions that I give in the report that relate to the pirates are based on the results list (the event was the Bala Middle Distance race) and those who put they club down as PSOF.

Firstly, my recent training has been going reasonably well. I lost a month of running back in March/April but kept up with swimming/cycling. The run-up to this event was interesting - last weekend my final session was a 22(ish) mile bike ride closely followed by a 10 mile run - in reality this was me cycling to Dorking for the annual Dorking 10 road running race. I clocked a time of 1:06:48 which after a bike ride I was happy with. The trouble is, my legs were screwed for days after the race. I’ve never had it that bad before (at least I don’t remember it anyway).

I did an easy run on Tuesday (which didn’t do much to improve things) and by Thursday I really needed to get a few more miles in so went out in the sunshine for what turned out to be a lovely 9 mile run. This made a big difference and by Friday I was feeling fine again. Phew…just in time for the weekend…

Mrs Funkin and I drove to Bala on Friday afternoon, arriving at about 7:30pm. We were staying in a caravan in a small town (road) called Fron Goch, about 2.5 miles from Bala. We met up with JulesR and Sheils who were also staying in the caravan (it was a big static three bedroom place) and headed into town for dinner (where we met Gom and his other half who were sat at the next table - I’m getting good at spotting Ironman tattoo’s now). As we were leaving we caught up with Hollywood and Shiraz who had just driven into town and then it was back to the caravan.

Saturday morning dawned and the weather was beautiful - after breakfast Hollywood and JulesR went off for a bike ride whereas Mrs Funkin (er, that’s Sharon), Shiraz and myself chose to have a look at the bike course for Sunday. Because of road-works the bike route had to be changed and rather than a large loop turned into a (much tougher) out-and-back route from Bala to the turnaround at Ganllwyd. The scenery looked lovely, but the hills looked really tough - especially when every downhill you enjoy on the way out turns into a bugger of an uphill on the way back!

After returning to the caravan I headed out for an easy five mile bike ride (also to test out the pirate triathlon outfit that I’d been lent for the race) and then straight into a 2.5 mile easy run. Lunch was had then it was off to the leisure centre in Bala to get signed-in for Sundays race.

After signing in we headed to the waters edge to meet up with quite a few more pirates and to take a quick dip in the lake to get an idea of its temperature/visibility. I’ve done about half a dozen or so open water (lake) swims so far this year and the water felt fine. Visibility was probably about five feet which meant I could at least see the tips of my fingers when swimming, but not much more than that.

After a relaxing day it was back to load up on carbohydrates (a big pasta dinner) and then get a reasonable nights sleep.

Sunday morning dawned - the sky was blue, the sun was shining and I was feeling fine about what was ahead of me. We were all up by about 6:45am (especially when the smoke alarm went off) and after breakfast (porridge with honey for me) we packed the cars and headed to the lake.

I then racked my bike in the transition area and got all my gear ready - cycle gear (helmet, GPS, sunglasses, shoes, socks) and running stuff (shoes, hat). Add a towel, sun cream, energy gels, a ton of home-made flapjacks on the bike and some drink and that’s about it!

The race briefing was at 8:45am which didn’t really tell me much that I didn’t already know (I’d read the race pack and had done a few smaller triathlons before already) but it was good to get a recap on things. After this a final visit to the toilets and then time to get into my wetsuit for the swim.

There were three “waves” of swim and I (senior male) was in the first wave, which started shortly after 9:30am (our camera said 9:38am). There were probably 100 or so people in the water for my start and I stayed close to the starting jetty on the right hand side of the course. My only plan was to relax and not get into any trouble in the first few minutes (the last thing I wanted was for my goggles to get kicked off of me or something). There wasn’t much hanging around for the start and when the horn went I was able to settle into a pace really quickly. The first few hundred metres I drifted a bit too much to the right of the course after hanging on the back of a couple of other swimmers but at least it gave me clear water. I then chose to do all the sighting myself and headed straight for the far marker (which was about 1km from the start). After rounding this and the next far marker I set a course back for shore. I kept my pace consistent, stayed relaxed and only kicked lightly with my legs (as I’d been needing them more later!). I’ve no idea how I was doing in the swim - I just got on with it and kept pushing.

As I left the water I was grateful not to feel dizzy (as has happened recently on a couple of Saturday morning lake swims) and I was able to happily jog to the bike and get out of the wetsuit. I gave my feet a bit of a dry on the towel, put the bike shoes, gloves, sun-glasses and helmet on and then it was off to the bike mount point. I could clearly see Mrs Funkin cheering me on and taking photos. After reading reports from last year and speaking to people, a nice easy gear to start the bike is important - as it’s a little incline as you head onto the road - and with about 100 people watching and cheering you it could be embarrassing! There was plenty of pirate support as I started the bike and I made sure I smiled whenever possible (especially if I saw a camera!).

Swim time - approximately 34:20 (this is from looking at the times from our photos).
Swim time & T1 (transition to bike) - 37:17 (92nd overall out of 370 swimmers - 4th pirate).

T1 was therefore approx 2:57.

A year ago I’d never swum in a lake before and now I’m swimming 2k in races - and comfortably at that. My swim (and T1) was comfortably in the top third which I am super happy with. I’m also really pleased that my swim/T1 time was only 3:36 slower than Hollywood, although I did hear he spent *ages* faffing around trying to get out of his wetsuit.

As I headed onto the bike I was feeling comfortable - the main plan was to ride steady (as there’s a 13 mile run at the end!) and make sure I kept the cadence up as best as possible going up the hills. There were lots of other cyclists around me and supporters/marshals in the town and after a couple of minutes we were off riding up the first hill and out into the countryside.

Well, at this point things took a turn for the worse. About one mile in for one reason or another I managed to ride/bump into the grassy verge on the left hand side of the road. It was only a slight little ‘bump’ and the wheels still turned (that’s a good thing) and in no time I was back pedalling again, but now the rear gears were slipping from one cog to the next. I went through most of the gears to make sure they were all there and working but on both sets of gears (big and little cog) there were a few gears that wouldn’t constantly stay in gear. Do I stop, do I try and work out what’s wrong, I thought maybe I could just tighten/loosen the gear adjustment cable at the back of the bike, I just wasn’t sure. In the end I chose to do nothing and just pedal on. The wheels turned, and the gears slipping wasn’t all the time! Damn it - why did this have to happen so early on the bike route.

The first few miles were pleasant enough - a few little inclines but nothing horrific. I was happy with how I was riding, even if I was being overtaken a lot by other cyclists.

Before long I saw the first pirate ’skull and crossbones’ drawn in chalk on the road - awesome! I was a pirate and this was for me (oh, and the others!). Over the past couple of years I’ve got more and more into watching road cycling races and to see this (OK, its not quite on the same scale) on the road reminded me of Le Tour (other than I cycle at half the speed of the pro’s)! There was pirate support I think on a couple of points on the first few miles, one of them had their car boot open with a big pirate flag showing, which looked awesome.

After about 18 miles (29km) we turn just outside of Trawsfynydd onto the A470 main road to Bron Aber - and it was a more enjoyable ride - OK, the scenery wasn’t so good and there were more cars around but at least there were no significant uphill sections. You eventually hit a long downhill straight where you get some great speed up and then head towards the turnaround point (and water change-over). Mrs Funkin was standing near the turnaround point with camera and was cheering on people as we cycled past.

At the turnaround I swapped one empty bottle of Lucozade Sport (just under a litre’s worth) for a bottle of water. I’d had a couple of energy gels at this point and washing them down with Lucozade gets a bit tough after a while.

Nutrition wise, I took gels at about 0:45, 1:20, 1:50, 2:20 ish., and had just over 1.5 litres of Lucozade Sport and I guess 750ml of water. I also had some lovely flapjacks that were made by Shiraz - although as the bike went on I wasn’t enjoying them quite as much as I did at the start of the ride. In the last hour I didn’t have any flapjack and just took the final gel (at 2:20) and water/Lucozade Sport.

From here on in the ride seemed to get tougher. A long uphill followed between 26 and 32 miles and I watched lots of people come past me. After turning right back onto the road to Bala the scenery improved once again but the hills got steeper. There was one notable hill at around 38 miles which was an absolute killer - by this point it was about 2 hours 15 minutes into the ride (about 12:30pm) and the temperature was in the mid-20’s. At the top of the hill was Sheils standing by her car cheering the cyclists on. I’m sure I muttered expletives at that point!

From here on in it was undulating all the way back to Bala. When I saw the sign for Fron Goch I was really happy as I knew it was only a couple of miles back to transition. I made sure I’d drunk as much as I could before starting the run. Just before the turn into T2 I saw Sheils again and said something along the lines of “Thank god that’s over!”. I headed into T2, smiling at the pirate supporters. I guess around 40 or 50 people went past me on the bike. I didn’t overtake any people at all on the bike. Something wasn’t right.

Pirate support was once again fantastic as I pulled in to dismount. I then jogged with the bike to the rack, hung it up, took off the GPS off of the bike and onto my wrist, helmet/shoes/gloves off, running shoes and hat on - and then off onto the run. My T2 time I believe was pretty quick.

Bike time & T2 (transition to run) - 3:05:13 (260th, 15th pirate).

For info on the bike my average heart rate was 148bpm and it maxed at 169bpm.

Post race bike update - it turns out that my rear wheel is slightly buckled and this was the cause of the gears slipping. In addition to this everytime the wheel rotated, at one part it would push against one of the rear brake pads and try and stop the wheel - making it that much tougher! At least I know next year (yes, I’m thinking about next year already) I should go faster (hopefully they’ll keep the same tough bike route next year). I will also do more quality (i.e., hill) training sessions on the bike as that’s one thing I didn’t do enough of this time.

As I headed onto the run in one hand I had (yet another) energy gel (which I stuffed in my shorts for later) and in the other hand some sun-cream, which I managed to put on (reasonably well) whilst running - that is until I got it all over my watch!

I always find that I can put in a pretty quick pace at the start of the run and when I do this things normally go wrong, so this time I made sure to reign myself in and head off steadily. The first half mile is mostly on grass/mud and is rather bumpy - you then head onto some pavement and then onto a little country lane, which is lovely and smooth - but the road is continually up and down for about 6 miles - there’s not a single flat bit in sight!

After about 2 miles I stopped for a my first “comfort break” of the day (that is ignoring the one during the swim when I didn’t stop!!) - then it was back to the running. I tried to run comfortably and planned to keep to a pace around 7:30-8:00 minute miling. The run course was pretty tough - they are only little hills but they’re never ending - up, down, up down…. There were lots of twists and turns and a lot of people were walking up the hills. I’d offer words of encouragement whenever possible.

After the disappointment of watching so many cyclists fly past me earlier this was my time for payback - and I’d say over the course of the run I got past about 20 or so people. I took the run really steady throughout - and made sure I took advantage of all of the water stops. There were I believe five water stops and I took water at each one - it was about 2pm in the afternoon at this point and the sun was blazing down with little or no shade. I didn’t stop when taking water and just chose to continue running and take careful sips (one tip I read somewhere was to squeeze the cup together to make a kind of spout, so that you can hang onto the water for longer and take small sips without it going everywhere).

Before long the leaders of the race were coming back the other way and they were flying - great stuff.

Just before 6 miles in I saw Hollywood coming the other way and he said something along the lines of “….just around the corner - about 200 metres away”. This I thought was him jokingly telling me where the turnaround point was - which I knew was much further away. What it turned out to be was him telling me where Mrs Funkin was (she’d planned to see me about half-way into the run - or did she say she’d see me at the finish - I can’t remember!). Well, I did come across a bunch of pirate supporters (it’s great when you see them in the distance, as they then see you (the yellow top is probably a giveaway!), and then direct all their attention/cameras/cheering at you. You can’t help but smile and wave, no matter how tough things are. As I ran past there was no sign of Mrs Funkin so I guess she was waiting for me at the finish. Little did I know that she was nearby chasing a runaway car and thinking that I had fallen off my bike (you can read that bit in her report later!).

At the turnaround point - all that bloody running in the sun just to run round a traffic cone in the road (!!!) - I grabbed some water and walked for maybe five steps. That was the only time I didn’t run.

On the way back I overtook at least two pirates, and saw endless numbers of them coming the other way. Whenever I saw one in the distance coming towards you the two of you kind of drift into the middle of the road - raise a hand and “high-five” each other. This together with the war-cry of “Go Pirate!”. It’s a strange thing…

The road we were running on is very narrow, and in some places wide enough for just one car. On top of this a local resident seemed to be having some sort of garden party which may have explained the large number of cars on the road. There was also a big truck with the word “horses” on the back or something which caused all sorts of chaos. On a couple of occasions I had to squeeze around cars and duck under wing mirrors - it was that tight! When you got clear road it was lovely (apart from the hills) but there were a few tricky spots.

As you head back alongside Bala lake (albeit up in the mountains somewhere!) you occasionally hear the local steam train passing close by - more importantly I could see in the distance the inflatable finishing arch and could hear announcements over the tannoy system. We’re nearly there…. The final couple of miles were OK, and in the final mile you leave the little country lane, cross a road bridge and then go back onto the grass/mud that started the run. You then head into the finishing straight and your eyes are drawn to a sea of yellow - yup, you guess it - the pirate support crew.

To a mass of cheers (including of course from Mrs Funkin, who was very pleased to see me in one piece) I smiled, waved, and ran straight past them to the finish. I crossed the line comfortably, made really good friends with the lady who was handing out water and tried to relax. It was now just after 3pm, some 5 hours 23 minutes after starting. Mrs Funkin came over to the finish line where I met her and then we headed back to see the rest of the supporters.

My run time was 1:40:58 which is an accurate run time (i.e., doesn’t include transition). This does include a quick toilet break however! I was 94th fastest in the run. For info my run splits (per mile) were as follows: (1) 7:35, (2) 8:09, (3) 7:35, (4) 8:15, (5) 8:23, (6) 9:28, (7) 8:32, (8) 7:44, (9) 8:16, (10) 8:04, (11) 8:16, (12) 7:50, (12.36) 2:42. My average heart rate was 158bpm and it maxed at 172bpm (right at the finish). Even on the big hill half way in I kept my effort steady and it peaked at about 165bpm.

Run - 1:40:58 (94th, 4th pirate).

Overall time - 5:23:28 (157th overall, 7th pirate).

For info, the overall winner (Mark Stenning of Swindon Tri) finished in 4:03:59 (swim: 26:18, bike: 2:23:20, run 1:14:21) and first lady (Louise Collins) who finished 22nd overall (including the two relay teams ahead of her) in a time of 4:34:36.

When we reached the supporters someone took a photo of me who looked familiar - it turned out to be Marc and Julia from our local running clubs, who were starting a weeks holiday in Wales and decided to stop by and see the finish. It was really bizarre to be see someone you least expected there and was really nice of them. Thanks you two.

We then watched and cheered more and more finishers in - it was great. A little while later it was time to cool my legs down and head for the ice bath - i.e., Lake Bala where Hollywood and myself sat at the waters edge whilst Shiraz had a quick swim. It was lovely and no doubt did me the world of good. I then had time for a quick shower and made it back in time for the prize giving at 5pm - at this point there were still people out on the run course - for some it would be a very very long day.

Straight after the prize-giving we got together as many of us as possible for a team photo - if only I could remember who half of them are! Maybe if I enter the Vitruvian Long Distance Triathlon I can meet them again (oh dear, what am I thinking of here)…. We then headed off on our merry way back to London, together with a scheduled stop for fish and chips en route. Mrs Funkin drove back whilst I enjoyed the rest. We got home at around 11pm on Sunday night.

Monday morning at 7:30am I was back to reality and sat on a Piccadilly line London Underground train heading to the big smoke. I had the rest of my bike flapjack for a morning snack, and for dinner I polished off the lasagne from Saturday night. Sharon on the other hand took my wheel to the local bike shop to be ‘un-buckled’. What a weekend that was…

Sharon’s (er, Mrs Funkin’s) report…

My first “proper” Pirate outing started on arrival at the caravan, meeting JulesR and Sheils (his partner), we headed out for dinner and accidentally met Gom and Mrs Gom in the pub having tea - started to get excited! Soon afterwards Hollywood and Shiraz arrived, we know these scallywags well ;) in fact Holly is the reason Funkin did a tri in the first place…

Saturday was fairly uneventful, some biking for Hollywood, Jules and Sheils, a leisurely drive of the bike course for Funkin and Shiraz (with me in the back sussing out where I would try and support from). A bit of a run, followed by a bit of a lake dip (Shiraz and Hollywood not wearing wetsuits! Mad things!), then some chilling, dinner and preparation for the Big Day. Oh and regular weather checks (someone who will remain nameless became slightly obsessed with the weather!)…

Sunday morning dawned slightly misty and damp but sunny. Various breakfasts were consumed. Then we were off. General milling about, some marking up, sun cream, body glide, blah blah…you know the ritual. Some good luck hugs for Funkin, Shiraz and Holly and before I knew it I was up above the holding pen for the swim. I wondered where the sheep dog was to be honest, when they were all huddled in there. Suddenly they were off. It hadn’t seemed so far to the outer buoy until they actually started swimming, then it seemed flipping miles!

I walked down to the side of transition after we had cheered everyone off on The swim. First pirates out were Hollywoord and Iron Rose, neck and neck, however Hollywood took slightly longer in transition having a cup of tea and a piece of cake - *ahem* not strictly true…next out was Funkin, then Gom, then I lost track.

The downside of being a pirate supporter newbie is that I don’t know who everyone is. I took lots of pics though, so I hope to be able to identify some people from them. Shiraz was about 6th lady out, beating a serious amount of the 2nd wave men. Awesome swimming :)

After I had seen Shiraz get out and whizz off on her bike, I headed off to the car. I had a cunning plan to get me to the turning point for the bike - and for once it worked! I drove around the bit of the old course that wasn’t the course this year and screeched into a lay-by just as the leaders came down the hill. I had a little spot just up from the turning pointing, where I took heaps of pics, shouted to lots of Pirates and cheered on as many as I could who weren’t Pirates too of course! I also seemed to then become litter monitor as I got gel wrappers and bottles chucked at me on the way up ;) First Pirate was Iron Rose, then Hollywood, then Funkin…then again I get confused, I managed to see JulesR though, who was looking really comfortable and waited for Shiraz to come through. After she had appeared, also looking strangely comfortable, I then zoomed off to the halfway point on the run.

I didn’t quite get to the halfway bit, I saw some Pirates sitting having lunch at what transpired to be about 6 miles in. At this point I thought I would get a drink, as I was sorting that out, the car suddenly started to move off down the hill! Eeeek! I ran along the side of it and jumped in, luckily. Phew. New max HR methinks…where’s the 305 when you need it?

Anyway, back to the supporting. A few more Pirate supporters arrived at this point. The marshal was almost run over by a Micra. It was all action packed. Once again, Iron Rose appeared first, then we had to wait a while for the next Pirate. We had a bit of friendly reciprocal boo’ing with some TriTalkers (all taken in the spirit in which it was intended I think)… Hollywood appeared, then a few more Pirates including JulesR and Calf. Then I started to get really really worried. No Funkin yet. I know it’s silly but I really thought he had come a cropper on the bike. I was really panicking and decided I would head back to the finish to see if he was in a scabby, bleeding heap somewhere. Many thanks to whoever it was from that support group who texted Mrs Gom to let me know he was safe. Apologies to everyone for all my twittering and worrying. Turned out his back wheel is somewhat worse for wear after clipping the kerb in the first mile. Anyway…

So, at the finish line, it was great fun (once I knew Funkin was safe!). The Pirate contingent really is quite a sight to behold. Every Pirate got a huge cheer, every other finisher got a cheer/clap/well done. I was really quite emotional. I got more emotional when I saw Hollywood come in, he had finally been overtaken on the run by Calf. A couple more Pirates came along and then in the distance I could recognise the running style of my very own Pirate. I ran down to the finish line after he had gone past us and could see that he seemed OK, was chatting away, having a drink. Once we had said hello (and I had shed a sneaky little tear), we walked up to the Pirate area and carried on cheering people in.

I think the biggest cheer of the day was saved for Squishy. She got quite a greeting, let me tell you! I was very proud to be a teeny part of something so special. I know this is a bit “gushy” but I really mean it. The support that the Pirates offer each other (and others) is phenomenal. Truly fantastic. What a weekend. I fear, however, that I have lost Funkin to the dream of doing an Ironman…I guess being a triathlon widow isn’t so bad after all…? Someone convince me :) Please…

Finally, we took over 200 photographs this weekend, with most of them taken by Sharon - with our ‘more personal set’ found over at Sharon’s gallery and a more generic set over at rowephoto.co.uk - together with links to full resolution versions.

After a miserable Tuesday night running in the wet with Ranelagh Harriers the sun came out and shone brightly all day Wednesday and into the evening for the “St. Mary’s Classic” track meeting - held at St. Mary’s University College in Twickenham.

Sharon, Danny and myself went along to watch the racing and it was fantastic. The track at St. Mary’s is really good for spectating and there were a few hundred people milling about eating, drinking and watching the top class athletes racing in events from the 200m through to 3000m steeplechase. Some of these athletes were seriously quick - for example the 800m race was won in 1 minute 47 seconds (by Joseph Sajeesh of India).

For me the main highlights of the event were the U20’s Women 3000m race featuring Steph Twell and Emma Pallant (Emma pulled ahead on the final lap and won) and a 1500m mens race featuring Mo Farah who, after going from last to first in the space of 300 metres and then dropping back to second, pulled off a turbo-charged finish to win the race.

Naturally I was there armed with the camera and took just over 100 photos from the evenings racing which can now be found over at the Rowe Photo website.

Results from the event can be found at the St. Mary’s website and a short report is online at the UK Athletics website.