The day started with a text from ‘Daysey’ stating he would be arriving in a bright yellow Audi and he would be clearly visible. I was not sure I would spot him though as I assumed his white teeth would blind me in the early morning mist. On the other hand, he thought me turning up in a black Dodge Nitro and shiny red trackie bottoms was a sign I might gun down all our fellow competitors.
We arrived and as we chilled waiting to go down to the start line, I was feeling confident despite being part of a few swim training sessions during the last couple of weeks where teenagers had made me look more jellyfish than shark.
First bouy and in the lead, my world was shattered by what was a torpedo (thought he must have been wearing fins!). It turned out he was an ‘ordinary ex-national standard’ swimmer turned coach who puked three times afterwards in transition. The next one passed a few minutes later. In third, Martin Brunt from 220 Magazine, also took me. This time, I decided to hang on despite feeling I was going to throw up. With two more laps to go, it was a decent pace, and Martin’s feet was where was I at…unfortunately.
Fortunately, Carl, doing the bike section had other thoughts. He nailed it. Into first place within minutes, the 2.5 hrs was done without much ado (ha ha…like a 56m bike into wind is easy). Carl was back into T2 with an outrageous lead. Despite his efforts, one week after an excellent IM UK 70.3 finish, I missed it as I was ‘recovering’ from a very hard 30 min swim in the massage tent!
So onto Daysey. Despite having a ridiculous lead and Challenge Roth (best Ironman in Europe) in a few weeks time, he easily nailed the half marathon (hilly and off-road) in 1.26.51 That takes a particular positive mind-set (and fitness!) although Carl and I did question it for a while after Daysey decided to stop after lap 1 (just over 4 miles!!) to drink electrolytes. Really. Les Bailey, who on a mountain bike was the race leader guide for Daysey, must have nearly had a heart-attack with his old skool thoughts on not needing a drink to finish a full marathon.
2 quick laps later and BOOM….Daysey had brought it home.
Worcester Triathlon had won the relay easily and Carl and I tasted our first ever victories. Daysey on the other hand probably has a trophy cabinet bigger than Chrissie Wellington.