I was nervous before this race. More nervous than any other race I can remember and this was essentially as I was not prepared for the swim. I've swum twice this year, once in the Cheltenham triathlon (500m) and once today in a 2km swim.
For today I wore a wetsuit, the heating in the pool was turned off last week and so it has been slowly cooling. It actually wasn't that cold and the temperature was quotes as 17c. I was third off in my lane with a 9am start time. As the start time approached I was getting more nervy, fiddling with my goggles and swim cap. Removing and putting on my nose clip. I wish the race had started 5 minutes earlier.
When I was off everything felt good. The water rushed into my wetsuit and was refreshing, not cold. I settled into a rhythm where I was breathing every 2 and 4 strokes. I only breathe on my left. The two people in my lane pulled ahead and over the swim both would pass me. I really did not care. I had imagined a 40min swim time. I checked my watch at 32 lengths (the mile) and it was 27mins and change. Not fast comparatively but very good for me. I felt confident and pushed a bit in the final 8 lengths.
Getting out of the pool at the deep end was interesting. My arms were dead and my knees are not bendy so I just flopped onto the side and dragged myself up.
Into transition, I couldn't undo my wetsuit, luckily there was a volunteer on hand to give me a hand. Out of the suit, into my socks and trainers, race belt on and off out the front. I opted for my Salomon Mission XR shoes for this as this is a real road to trail type of course. I could see a couple of runners ahead of me and set about trying to catch them.
Map of the run route: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=109014887617379207138.00048e6d59a6d172e3514&ll=51.87824,-2.068605&spn=0.03921,0.111494&t=h&z=14
Through Cox's meadow I passed a lady that was ahead of me. Then on the way up Sandy Lane I passed another runner. There would be one more that I would get in front of very near to the top. The climb was tough, I ran as much as I could but ended up walking near the top. My Achilles and calves screaming under pressure. Once the trail flattened out I was running again and felt really good. The view across Cheltenham was stunning. The town was laid out with then a thin layer of cloud above which you could see the Malverns and Black Mountains. Down to the Devils Chimney and then back the way we came.
The descent was even harder. With my knees as they are I am always tentative on downhill. There were lots of runners coming up too which made it tricky.
As I made my way down there was a noise of footsteps behind me. Gaining quickly a man shouted that he was passing on my left. He flew past me, freewheeling. I tried to keep pace but he was flying. I thought I'd try to catch him once we were back on Tarmac but very quickly realised that was futile too.
Back through Coxs Meadow and the lido. As I entered I took a wrong turn heading back into transition rather than towards the finish line. A quick deviation and I crossed the line. Watch time was 1:30:44.
At the start I had figured that 1:30 would be a good time. It was but with different splits to what I had imagined. I thought I'd be 40/45-48 with a couple mins in transition. As it was the swim was better and the run worse.
Like all the lido events this was organised brilliantly and while the events are competitive they never feel exclusive.
Will I do it again? Maybe, it will all depend on how the next 12 months go and how much swimming I can do. I would not do it again without committing to that as the main focus of my nerves was that I had let myself down by not preparing properly.
