Monday, May 03, 2010

A B****Y Good Try

No, not what I had on Sunday, but rather, what the games master replied to William Web Ellis, when, having carried the ball over the line on that memorable day at Rugby in 1823, he asked the question "Was it a goal sir?". "No" came back the the reply "but it was...

Sunday only showed that the old adage involving lots of "p"s about the value of preparation is very definitely true.

Spending many weeks trying to master the crawl and then realising with only two weeks to go that it was a lost cause, meant that I had, once again, to swim the breaststroke.

Two thirty five minute outings on the bike, and not having sorted out the gears meant that untrained legs were labouring with just the small cog at the front and only the three smaller ones at the back, so I could neither take advantage of the flats, nor cope with the hills.  Oh yes, and the chain came off!

So when the transfer to the run came, my legs had already given their not very good best ~ and, instead of the old route, involving the relatively gentle (!) climb up Gingham Brow, the new route went straight up Foxholes!

So on I staggered to finish what was my toughest race since Snowdonia 2008.

Paul Bohannon won in 2:05, first lady Nicola King in 2:30.  New Ray (well done) 158th in 3:14, Diane (t'Yorkshireman's lass) 179th in 3:31 and yours truly 189th in 3:50 ~ 191 finished.  There were several DNF's and one competitor was disqualified for "verbally abusing race staff".

YJ enquired about my swim time.  In the results it's down as getting on for 30 minutes, but this includes my transition time, as I went over the recording mat as I left the transition, rather than entering it.  The two guys in my swim lane recorded 21:22 and 26:03 and I was about half way between them, so including the road crossing I probably did about 23:30; so sub 23 for the swim alone?

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