Vitruvian report

This might be a little long, but stick with it......

I set off for Derbyshire on Friday, and after a quick detour (via my satnav) of some of the nicer areas of Leicester, I arrived at a wet Whitwell, Rutland. I had planned to drive the cycle route at this point but due to my detour I decided to register instead. I sauntered down to registration, bumping into the first member of the RAF Tri team, Doug Malcolm, en route. Registration was slick and it was off to stick up the marquee for Mike Masters. I'd left it too late to book any accommodation in the various nearby messes so it was camping for me! I decided to put my tent up inside the marquee, this decision proved to be genius as it p*ssed down all night!

The following morning (after a surprisingly good sleep) I racked my bike in darkness and after chatting with a few of the RAF Tri guys I got ready for my wave start. I was in the 35-39 age group, so set off about 20 mins after the young guns (Lonsy, Granty & Ghost Boy) and 20 mins before the more senior members of the team (sorry Turbo!). The water temperature was fine, the surprising thing was the amount of weed in the water at the start, but hey ho, it was the same for everyone. So the gun goes off and we are away, I do my usual bit of positioning myself right in the middle, just the right spot for the quicker guys to get away and the slow ones like me to start the mass scrum! Although it was ok this time, no kicks or punches (until we got to the first buoy anyway), more like "after you", "no,no, after you". Strange! Anyway the swim went ok by my standards and I came out of the water in about 36 mins, so far so good I was thinking.

T1 was a bit of a faff. The weather was going to be unpredictable at best, so it was on with my RAF triathlon cycling top (gilet in the rear just in case), helmet, glasses, shoes, number belt and finally gloves. That was definately the longest I'd ever spent in T1, but I thought it would be better to be safe than sorry and I definately played in safe. So we are off on the bike leg and it is all new to me. I haven't done the Vitruvian before or Dambuster and as I mentioned earlier I didn't have time to recce the course. I'd been told about the notorious Ripple and once I got up it, I didn't think it was too bad; ok I was out of the saddle but that was more to do with stretching my legs and back. I took it pretty steady out there (you can see that from my splits!) and even managed to negative split the bike leg, but I didn't want Roy catching me (started 10 mins behind me) and the thought of TurboMan catching me from 20 mins back was unthinkable! The rain managed to stay away for the whole of the time I was out there, and the wind was ok generally but did pick up a bit on the second loop.

Into T2 and I feeling pretty good. All the foul weather gear came off in a flash and I did the cardinal sin in triathlon: I tried something new on race day! I thought I'd race in my new compression socks. Yes, the same ones that Paula Radcliffe wears! I know you end up looking like a complete plonker, but I thought I'd give them a go (I'd used compression tights in training and found them to be great for recovery). So after faffing with the socks I'm out of T2 in a flash. As I said I was feeling good at this point and I promised myself that I would run the first 10k easy - so that's what I did. Well, until Andy Reardon came up to me at the 8k marker that is. He stopped for a chat and asked how I was and replied that I felt great, his response to the same question was slightly different! He was struggling - big time! So I wished him well and he was off. 30 seconds later he was behind me. He was in a bad place. I got him to run back to me and told him to stick with me and I'd run him home, but he had to stick to my pace (listen to me!). I picked up the pace a tiny bit and Andy sat there on my shoulder, acknowledging he was ok each time I asked him. We got towards the turn around point (for me anyway) and I wished him well, he thanked me and wished me good luck for the last loop of the run (Andy finished in about 4:22). Soon after this the wheels came off - not totally, but I was struggling with about 8k to go. I think that tiny injection of pace to get Andy home was coming back to bite me. I was still on for a PB and ahead of my projected time, I just had to dig in (HTFU!) and hang tough for the remaining few miles. I got to the last little hill (felt like a mountain) with a run split of about 1:39 and from here you can hear the tannoy system calling out everyone's name and telling them "Joe Bloggs...you are a Vitruvian!". I now knew it was pretty much all over, a few hundred yards left and I managed to get a second wind and sprinted the final 200 metres. It was over. I was a Vitruvian. I finished in a time of 5:03:57 and was 57th in my age group. I had hoped to go 5:10 and managed to do that comfortably - I was a happy man!

I must admit, this was probably the best organised event I've ever raced in. Pacesetters did a great job, from the registration and goody bags, through to the marshalls (fantastic!) and the sweets at the finish line! I can't fault a thing. So how am I feeling today, after a few days of rest? I did manage a short swim today to help with the recovery, but I feel great. Glutes are a tiny bit sore, but apart from that I'm good. Using the compression socks during the run and then my compression tights during the drive home definately helped. I would recommend them to anyone.

In summary, great race, awesome marshalls and some great racing (and support) from the RAF Tri guys!