Quintana Smooth & Dorney Relays

Bike Update

Johnny 5 is Alive!!! I picked the Quintana Poo up from it's new mechanic last Thursday and it was smoooooth. FINALLY it looks like I might have a bike to ride that's quiet. I'm Happy.

People keep reminding me how close Ironman Florida is. I really don't want to know!! I know I haven't done anywhere near enough training, nothing new there then. It's all going to come down to pacing (and nutrition). Get it right and it'll be a good day. Get it wrong ................ you know what happens then!!

It's almost time to start thinking about what (if anything) I'm going to have done to my hair. Normally I stand out from the crowd a little(!!!), but this year I'm not sure I can be bothered to have anything done. I know that if I don't then once I'm there I'll wish I had, it's such a fuss for something that's covered for almost the entire race. It's a real ice breaker at registration though - not so much at US Immigration Control.

Training's not been going great. I've only done 4hrs of swimming in the last 2 months, not that swimming matters. My biking hours aren't bad, but while there are plenty of 60-70 mile rides there's been nothing over 80miles which is generally where I start to suffer.

Anyway, time for a quick race report from the Dorney Lake Club Relays. I've been sneaky and cut/paste it from my Tri Clubs forum so if there are little bits that you don't understand I apologise. I'll try to tweak it and add some pics if I get time tomorrow.

Until next time.

Keep Tri-ing.

DORNEY LAKE SPRINT TRIATHLON RELAYS - My team were Dave S, Phill & Myself.

One of my clubmates commented that this race was very poor VFM. £40 and not even a tee-shirt for the expense/travel etc to show for it is very poor. But.............. ........... I didn't do it for the tee-shirt.
I can admit now that Shelly wasn't happy when I said I wasn't planning to race and while sad that clubmate Damo had to pull out she was also ecstatic because it meant she that we got to go . We drove up on Saturday morning to be greeted by the mahoosive registration queue, so carried all the stuff over the 'NDTC corner' and left registering until last minute. Luckily I didn't have to pretend to be Damo as my arrival at the Registration Desk I was greeted by a cheery "Hello Iain". How can I live with the fame?
Anyway, onto the race............ I didn't see the start as I was busy rushing around thinking maybe I should put my Trisuit & wettie on, I made it to transition in time to see Club Coach Toasty blasting his way to T1 in the lead for our 'A' team, then there was a steady flow of athletes until Dave S arrived and handed his timing chip to Phill. Wave 2 started appearing with Chris having had a fine swim and still in the mix although he did run up to the change area shouting that he'd lost his chip and so Tim took off without. Chris's declaration led to a demostration of how to put your timing chip on to make sure it stayed put and then amazingly Phill turned up 4th out of the water. Chip exchanged and I was away swinging my arms and yelling as I charged along the pontoon before doing a dive that Tom Davey would be proud of (maybe not!).
It was the maddest swim I've done in a long time, all technique seemed to go out of the window as I charged off through the back end of the wave 2 swimmers looking for the black hat of Tim. I didn't think for a second I'd catch him, I thought the gap between us was too big, but just as I was heading for the exit ramp I spotted a black hat and new it was going to be him. I tried to sneak past on the blind side to avoid being seen (I failed) and managed to hit the exit ramp fractionally ahead before charging across to the bike park where Dave was waiting to bike. Dave and Phill both rode cracking legs while we laughed at Chris for losing his chip and then laughed more at Toasty for going blasting past the bike exit and heading out for the extra lap.
As I headed to the bike park to take my turn I witnessed the Full On Tri boys at their cheating transition tactics again (tut tut!!) and when Phill returned I grabbed my bike and ran out telling them that this was how it was done properly. After my usual useless bike mount I was away and blasting around the course. Tim was a couple of minutes up the road but it didn't stop me chasing him and looking out for him in the vain hope that he was closer than I thought, all of the chasing didn't stop me saying Hi if I caught any other Team Green members while I was out there either. The bike was great (somebody frame that comment, I don't say it very often) and all to soon I was back racking my bike and handing over to Dave S for the start of the run section. Waiting in the run pen I saw the leaders come in, then saw Chris come in and Tim went flying out of T2. I glanced at my watch to see the time distance (waste of time really). Phill was soon back, but by now there were so many people out on the course there was no way of telling what lap many of them were on, so I just ran.
I had said there was no pressure and I could take it easy but in the back of my mind was the thought that maybe the team behind us had a fast runner who'd catch me if I backed off, so I didn't. Finally over the line in 3rd place behind the NDTC monsters (Toast, Chris & Tim) and the Ful-On boys. Very happy and much better than I'd expected us to go . Then we chatted some and cheered on the rest of the NDTC boys and girls who hopefully all enjoyed themselves as much as I did before popping down to the pub for a drink and some food with them all. Cracking day out, I very much enjoyed myself. Yes it's poor on the VFM stakes but it's got better every year for me and that's down to the fact that there have been more NDTC teams to cheer each year.
Well Done to the rest of you, I'm proud to be associated with every last one of you (even Tim )
PS - Sorry about the annoying yaping thing that I bought with me, I know she was a pain in the a$$. Sorry about Rosie too ._________________