Race day, and it's that all too familiar sound of tents being unzipped, kettles feebly whistling and bushes being pee'ed on. Not Clarky's foliage though, Steve's been one step ahead of the game all week, plastic bottles! All marginal gains resulting in more valuable shuteye, Dave Brailsford eat your heart out. It's 04:15, what are we doing?
With coffee on the stove and a bigger than normal bowl of oats to get through it's time for last minute preps. A banana and a few rounds of toast with peanut butter and jam to add to last night's tuna pasta should put a few more calories in the bank.
'Can you do me a coffee please duck?' comes a yawning request from my tent.
'Sorry I haven't got time to be making coffees, too much on!!!'……….Whoa Steve!!!!, I've snapped and it's not deserved!! I don't realise it but I guess I'm in race mode and although I don't feel too nervous, I suppose I am, plus it's bloody early and I can't remember getting any sleep?
With the girls in tow all bright eyed and bushy tailed and fresh from being showered…………... oh nearly forgot didn't I, the SHOWERS! It appeared Dave wasn't far off the mark when remembering the 'shower block' he'd frequented the previous year! It's a very easy mistake to make (whilst experiencing the onset of Alzheimers disease). This so called 'block' was an outside European communal shower for bathers who've been swimming in the lake. Two shower heads in the middle of a field for Jorgen and Helga to show off their perfectly shaven bits I'm sure, is considered normal for our European cousins? We on the otherhand weren't quite so impressed! Although hats off to Jorgen, despite the freezing cold water was still sporting something the size of a baby's arm. I quickly dried and got out of there. Angie, not so quick.
The Swim
As the swim is often an unknown with too many different variables (sea swims, tidal rivers, distances being short or long, wetsuit/non wetsuit) I planned for around the hour mark. I'd have been elated with 55 mins but could live with 1 hr 2 mins, anymore and I'd be putting more pressure on myself to finish under the 10 hr mark.
Fortunately for Kev and I, we were starting in the same wave so could set up together. Despite Kev being a rookie at this distance I abandoned my original idea and detached my shoes from my pedals to follow his little nugget of advice. Being slightly more switched on than me at this early hour he'd noticed the green grass to which we stood, was sodden wet through! There was also gravel, fallen branches, (ok twigs) underfoot from the run from Transition tent.
I frantically snapped the laggy bands from my bike and asked the Marshal to put my shoes in my Transition bag. Nice one Kev, clean dry socks for the following 112 mile bike.
I didn't see much of Clarky as he was going 30 mins before me which was a shame because it turned out our times for the swim and bike were within minutes of each other, it would've given us both something to focus on. Dave pumped my tyres up after helping some German with Garmin issues. This may have explained why that in typical Hinchy style he missed his swim start by 10 minutes and had to join the next wave!
07:10 and Kev and I
I have to say as swimming venues go this wasn't the greatest. It was very warm and not sure how it qualified for a wetsuit swim. The water was murky so visibility wasn't great, a foot in the face was the first indication that you'd caught another swimmer. I suppose I'm comparing it to IM Austria's picture postcard blue lake. This was more akin to a broader Ancholme and with the two bridges set at similar distances just reminded me of my Hibaldstow to Cadney bridge training swims.
I can't really say anything exciting happened during this 2.4 mile swim, I just tried to find clear water and then switched off. I couldn't even soak up the atmosphere of the crowds lining the riverbank as I primarily breathe to the left so when you're swimming downstream on the righthand side you're looking at the furthest bank away from you and the people were out of view. When coming back upstream I'm looking away from them! That said, the crowds and the noise was everything and more that I'd been told, very impressive.
As I've said previously I really have been slack with my swimming this year, I can count on one hand how many times I've been to the pool in the last 6 months. This could have come back to bite me but fortunately my gamble paid off and even if I'd had invested tens of hours into swim training over the past half year I'm sure I wouldn't have been much more than a couple of minutes quicker.
My time, 59 minutes and a few seconds meant I was on track although I didn't actually know that at the time as I chose not to wear my Garmin for the swim.
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