Braunton 10

First things first ........................ I hope you're all feeding my fish. I don't want them complaining to me that they're hungry ;-)

and ......................... Hello Adena :-D

Right then, to the race.

Braunton 10 is a tough old 10mile race that starts 1.5miles from my home. It's certainly not a fast course with it's two stinking hills in it, the first of which comes in two nice sections causing many an unsuspecting runner to swear out loud. Normally this is a race I do as training for Grizzly, putting in a warm up lap before the race starts to make it a nice little 20 miler. This year however I'm in no shape to go out doing 20's so it was just the 10 for me (plus running to and from home).

Shelly was over there nice and early to help out with registration while I messed around at home eating, drinking and trying my best not to leave anything I needed at home. With only 30mins remaining before the start I decided to drag my butt out into the cold and run over the the track where the start/finish was with the pup. There was a frantic 5mins before I left the house as I tore around trying (and failing) to find the HR strap for my Garmin. Ah well, no worries. Off we went and soon we were at the track, Rosie was safely in the car (she wasn't allowed to race) and I was putting my race number on, there was still 5mins to go (shocking!!). I headed out to the race start laughing at the (many) comments aimed my way by various clubmates and the race organisers about the fact that for once I'd actually made it there before the race start.

I slotted myself into the pack 5-6 rows from the front and with no intention of going haring off from the start as many people would. There were a couple of clubmates around so I chatted with them as the race started and we made our way through the early twisty section until we hit the road when we went our seperate ways and I started working my way past a few folks.

Mile 1 (6:34) was nice and easy, a reasonable paced first mile considering the slower than normal first 400m or so.

Mile 2 (6:13) was where I settled into my stride and started thinking about who was around me. People were generally running at or near my pace now.

Mile 3 (6:24) had the first water station in it and a couple of twists as we wound our way towards Pippacott Hill at

Mile 4 (8:20) I might be crazy, but I'm not stupid. I know I'm not in great shape and hitting a hill this hard early on would mean trouble later on. 350ft of climbing in the space of one mile is a tough climb in anyones books so tiny steps and an easy pace were the order of the day. NOBODY that passed me on this hill stayed ahead. It's

Mile 5 (6:13) is a nice (but slippery) steady road, descending steadily and giving you chance to stretch those legs out after the climb at Pippacott. Here I passed the people who'd come past on the way up while we headed to the next climb at Whitehall.

Mile 6 (7:40) Whitehall Hill, just over 200ft of ascent. Steadier and more consistent than Pippacott, still run easy I lost a place here but there was also a clubmate ahead that was within striking distance.

Mile 7 (6:04) A swift descent, a couple of turns and a small climb. The climbing was now all but finished and as we headed towards Ashford and Heanton along the ridge it was all systems go.

Mile 8 (6:14) Relatively flat now I reeled in my clubmate and the person who took me on the climb at Whitehall. Time to start striding out.

Mile 9 (5:51) Another relatively flat mile. Having the target of another clubmate ahead and not wanting to get caught by anyone I'd passed earlier it was just a case of keeping the screw wound up and hoping I didn't hit the wall.

Mile 10 (5:41) One final steep descent saw me catch another clubmate (who'd had an awesome race) and then there were just a few twists and turns as we headed back to the Finish Line at the athletics track. Luckily there was nobody around me so no need for a daft sprint finish, I could just cruise over the line.

Race all done and dusted in 1:05:24, good enough for 31st place in a field with 265 finishers. Outside of the 'top 10%' target that I normally set myself but and extra minute would have seen me comfortably in that range and considering the lack of training over the holiday period I won't be complaining.

So that's about it really. My training seems to have started again in the last week which is a bonus, the day of the race was actually my 6th consecutive day of training. Fingers crossed that it's not just another false dawn.

Back to basics.

Wow, it's been a month since I updated this properly. Why? Well things have been real slack here and yet as busy as hell at the same time. Unfortunately work and all the other things that ruin your social life are the things that have been busy, so the things worthy of a blog posting have been very rare indeed.

I planned a 40mile run for my 40th birthday back in Dec, but it was so freakin cold that day that I turned it into a 40k. God Bless the metric system ;-). Then 3 days later I went out for a nice gentle 7mile shake down run and pulled my calf, officially my first EVER running injury. I wasn't happy about it, or the way it appeared. If I'm going to injure myself I want it to be a full pelt hammering to the finish line of a race in a head to head, not while jogging steadily along the Tarka Trail. I've also had a diagnosis on my 'crunchy' chest that appeared shortly after Ironman Florida, it appears that I've damaged my Xiphoid process, hmmmmm maybe 5hrs in the Tri Bars squashes it a bit.

Christmas and New Year came and went without any hassles or any training due to the calf pull. They were both great of course but everybody has them so I doubt very much you'd want to read about mine.

A couple of weeks ago I got asked to write something by way of a blog post for Bideford People and/or Barnstaple People . I'm guessing that the best way to start this would be to introduce myself and as it's the start of a new year and hopefully the start of a successful Ironman Hawaii adventure. For those of you who know me you'd be better skipping the next bit ;-).

So here goes. I'm Iain, I'm a lorry driver and I live near Barnstaple in North Devon which is in the South West of the UK. Coping with my sometimes lacklustre sometimes manic lifestyle is the long long long suffering girlfriend Shelly and our 3 year old lunatic but loveable Springer Spaniel Rosie. I've been pootling along in Triathlon for 15 years or so and was running on and off for a few years before that. I can swim pretty well, I can run pretty well but my biking is a bit of a let down by comparison. Biking is my weakest discipline hence it's the discipline I like the least need to train at the most but actually (of course) train at the least.

Ironman is the daddy of Triathlon and takes a full day to complete. Comprising of a 2.4mile swim, 112mile bike ride and a 26.2mile run. To make the distances a bit easier to understand imagine popping down to Barnstaple Leisure Centre and swimming 154 lengths. After the swim you might hop on your bike and ride to Clovelly and back, just three times should cover it. Once back at the Leisure Centre for the 3rd time you could leave your bike, slip on your trainers, jump on the Tarka Trail and run to Instow and back, twice. The Elite athletes (who do this sport for a living) will complete this little lot in in 8-9hrs and those towards the back of the field will take twice that amount of time.

In 2009 I raced Ironman Florida and after many messed up attempts I finally managed to put in a decent performance, finishing the event in 9h39m. This was not only a personal best time by over an hour but finishing 8th out of the 400 in my Age Group qualified me for the World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.

Doing these races doesn't come cheap, the day after qualifying I had to hand over a full £360 just to enter the Hawaii race. My family as always have been a huge help though and with the amazing support of my Tri Club North Devon Tri helping out too (read about it here) I'm determined that come October 9th this year I will let no one down.

After a couple of minor niggles over the holiday period the big build for Kona starts now and I'm happy to have you along. The more the merrier. Please leave me comments/ideas/thoughts too so that I know you're there.

If you're a local (or not so local) business and you can think of a way we can mutually benefit each other then let me know. I'd love to be able to afford this adventure without becoming a drain on my family and friends, so if you can help and I can put a few hours in/get you some good publicity etc on the back of my training and my race then please get in touch :-)

Thanks for reading, here's to a hugely successful 2010.

It's coming.

Thanks to Joe Beer at www.jbst.com for sending me this little reminder.