Bala Standard Tri Wales - 11th Sept 2011

Hi guys 
  
After a 5 hour drive I arrived at registration on Saturday in the pouring hard rain and wind!!! Welcome to Wales!!! Once i had registered i thought i would check out the swim course. Standing looking at this huge expanse of water, which resembled the Atlantic Ocean with white horses everywhere, i asked the guy next to me " where is the lake we will be swimming in?" He looked at me and laughed and said, "that's it there!" Oh shit, i thought let's hope the weather changes by tomorrow!!! Well it did!

Sunday morning arrived and the weather had changed, but for the worse, more rain and stronger winds!!! At  09.30hrs i watched the first wave go off and within a few minutes people were being pulled out of the water, very encouraging!!!! The next few waves were the same as swimmers were struggling against the elements!! Now it was time for my wave, with my heart in my boots, well in my feet, i made my way down the slippery slope and into the freezing cold water!! The first 750 metres was going to be out against the wind and some guy stood next to me said," you will need to swim fast otherwise you will make no headway". "Thanks mate", I said, " but i don't do fast swimming!" "Oh well, best of luck then", he said. By now the wind was so strong the waves looked like the side of houses and you could hardly see the marker buoys and i was bloody freezing!! 10.00hrs and  the hooter goes and we are off. Trying to get into some sort of rhythm i found almost impossible due to the waves, every time i tried to sight i was smacked in the face with what i saw was a huge wall of water!! Eventually after what felt like hours i made it to what i thought was the turnround buoy, only to be told by one of the rescue boats that it wasn't!!! I had to dig really deep at this point as i was feeling very cold and i knew i was struggling. From somewhere i found the self motivation to crack on and eventually i reached the REAL turnround bouy!!! I thought the 750 metre swim back was going to be easier with the wind behind but i found i was still struggling against the elements! After what felt like hours i could see the finish of the swim and remembered that we had been warned of the very rocky approach to the slipway. Suddenly a very friendly arm pulled me up out of the water and said " well done mate", i then managed a sort of run into T1 and was cheered on by the crowd and i heard the race commentator say i had taken 52 mins but i had done it!!!! I then had problems getting my wet suit off as i was so cold but at least the rain had stopped. After about 6 mins i was ready to leave transition. The bike leg was an undulating out and back course, on closed roads, and the first 12.5 miles was against the wind which was so strong that it was like cycling against a brick wall!!! By the time i had got to the turnround point i had overhauled several riders and on the return leg was able to make up more ground with the wind behind me. Arriving in T2 i decided to shed my thin long sleeve top i had put on for the bike as the sun, yes the SUN, was breaking through the clouds!!After 1min 35secs in T2 i was off on the run which was a 10k out and back undulating course on closed roads and, although the first half was against the still strong wind, i managed to overtake a few more and eventually crossed the finish line!!!

My Results:

Overall position: 461st out of 492 finishers [47 failed to finish and 28 of those were pulled out of the water!!]

Overall male position:                   374^th

Age group position [over 60's]:   7th

I was trying to qualify to represent GB next year but due to the adverse weather conditions, which really affected my swim, i failed!!! But I have entered next year's race, so hopefully the weather won't be any worse and maybe I might JUST qualify for 2013 !!!!!

One consolation i suppose if I survived THAT SWIM I can at least call myself a swimmer!!!

Author: Del Hastings