The night before
The Dambuster adventure started the night before as our MSTC athletes battled their way up the Motorways for a long journey up to Leicestershire. Exhausted Rose & Trev arrived at the Travelodge at 11pm, after driving for 4 hours navigating around the closed A1 which didn't stop Trev loading up on route for his pre-race dinner of chips and baked beans. Trev managed 4 hours sleep and surprisingly felt rested on the morning of the race! While poor Rose was up at 4am for the day to begin.
Jeff had his support team (Sue & two of his daughters) with him at the Travelodge to give home encouragement - again an early start for them all as checkout was 5am - now that's what I call a support team!
Nancy had all her support team in the campervan, but next time she is very keen to leave it at home and book a hotel (don't blame her!).
Poor Steve & Kay didn't arrive at the hotel until 00:30, so not a good start. Kay made the wise decision that with the lack of sleep, over worked and a bad cold that it was time to pull out and - oh it was so tempting for sleep-deprived Steve to do the same. Good job Steve found the strength to compete as he ended up thoroughly enjoying the swim and achieved a fantastic 9th in his age group.
The swim
So Suited and ready to go...... the girls' warm up included a lesson in lip gloss application from Julie!!!..... a complete dance routine for which they won an award!!! "For best warm up"
So all warmed up and ready to go on the start line in bib number order were James, Ant, Steve B, Trev, Steve Mac, Jeff, Sam, Hazel, Pippa, Nancy, Rachel, Jules, Rose and our lovely lip-glossed Julie.
To best grasp the atmosphere and high/lows of this race, I can only do the report justice if I now hand over to the athletes' own words:
ANT - "I kinda went a bit off course on the swim, following a group of other swimmers to the right on the back leg of the swim. Maybe that was why my swim time was so slow?"
TREV - "I spent half of the swim drafting Ant - I can thoroughly recommend it as he swims in a very straight line and I would have stayed there if some idiot hadn't rammed into me from the side. Even after I lost him it all went very well and I loved the swim."
Nancy - "I was SOOO nervous beforehand but hanging out with the club members and some spontaneous wetsuit dancing helped to calm the nerves. I had a dreadful swim - kept going in the wrong direction, more practice at Ardingly and Southwater required!"
STEVE B - "Swim - sat at a comfortable pace, middle of the pack... Tried not to drink too much water as it was a bit choppy out there."
Rose -
"Totally loved the swim.... made the mistake of waiting at the back
to start which meant I got kicked by lots of breaststrokers :(....
but once I swam through and found clear water it was a joy..... so
came out the water with a big smile on my face.... fabulous support
from Kay... suspect I lost time telling her how much I enjoyed the
swim..... Fell over in transition think the body was still
swimming!!!!!......"
Jeff - "I was disappointed by my swim after having done quite a bit recently, I was a good 5mins over my normal time for 1500m, but just didn't get into a comfortably rhythm.. Longish T1 so plenty of room for improvement."
The bike
Ant: "On the bike transition I got shouted at by a Marshall for mounting my bike before the bike start line, even though I asked her if it was OK - she was too busy speaking to the other Marshall and got very upset when she noticed I had got a 'leg over'. Muttered stuff like 2 minutes time penalty, which fortunately I didn't get.
The bike was a bit of a nightmare for me. On the big downhill my rather large 90cm front wheel caught some turbulence and oscillated all the way to the bottom. How I managed to stay on is beyond me. That kinda shook me up so all the other descents were taken a lot slower! Traffic was also a problem in some parts as the slower riders were holding up the cars which left no overtaking room.
I was looking out for Macca on the bike, and was quite surprised not to have seen him. Little did I know what a superb swim time he had done"
Trev - "Enjoyed the bike but found it pretty windy. I've no idea which was the Ripple bit, it all seemed ripply to me."
Nancy - "I felt like I was flying on the bike and over took loads of people uphill so my bike confidence is brimming - which is lucky since I've signed up for the Brighton 100 miler. Unusually for me I wasn't the slowest person in transition - not fast but I did actually try for once."
Steve B:
"- with front 82 section wheel and lots of wind..... Not
a great combination for the conditions ... (but looks good)
...Had some very scary moments down the hills with the
wind blowing me into the centre of the road, hanging on for
dear life as bike front end wobbles... I still managed to
clock 67 km/hr (41.6 m/hr) top speed, and could have gone
faster!!!"
Rose: "Out on the bike.... Great to be greeted by Lucy along the route shouting support and encouragement, it's this that makes our club special and made me more determined...... So now I understand the meaning of the word ripple.... if it went down it went up and again and again and again.... Thought I was lost towards the end as lack of signage but finally made it into transition...."
Jeff: "Cycle ok but steady stream of people overtaking me - including Rachel who gave me words of encouragement - sorry if you didn't catch my laboured response Rachel! Then I saw Lucy running along the cycle route which confused me somewhat........"
Steve Mac: "the bike was a bit blowy so the deep section wheels made it interesting and although being bigger means you can control the bike easier when the head winds come up you really suffer, my main thought was not to get taken by Ant, so I was very relived to get to T2 ahead of him but I knew he was coming"
The run
Ant - "At the start of the run my quads felt completely shot, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to manage the full 10km but after a few minutes the pain lessened enough to establish sub 7 minute mile pace. By this time I had spotted Macca, a quick goose on that barn door before I pressed on, fast enough I hoped to stay in front of him (and to try and hide how tired I felt). The run section was ace, lots of high fives with Macc, Steve B and a quick Hi to Trev on the switchback section. I was starting to get tired on the second loop, the run pace was going over 7 minute mile pace now but I felt I had a big enough lead to keep in front of Macca. I even seemed to be catching up with Steve B, but then I hadn't realised he was running his iron man speed in preparation for his forthcoming event."
Trev: "The run I found hard but somehow did my best 10km time for a triathlon and my 3rd best ever for a solo 10km. All this despite my bad foot, which seems to have meant I protected it and in the process sprained my big toe. But I never felt this to afterwards so that was ok. I then demolished a wall at Roses and dropped a concrete block on the same toe! Even so I still really enjoyed it, a brilliant event. Totally recommend it."
Nancy: "With the run I managed to tuck in the 10k within my target of under 50 mins so I was happy with that. Smiling faces to cheer me on at the finish was great and made up for the heavy rain showers and hail."
Steve B: "Paced out for a 9 min mile (as I want a 4hr marathon for my Ironman) making sure I did not get sucked into racing other bodies... It's harder than I thought, as my mind and body want to race.... Dambuster was a training race for me - used it to pace out for my Ironman...Had a great race felt very comfortable and could have gone round again, oh and again and some more..."
Rose -
"..Again all the women in the club either passed me or lapped me
but all with encouraging words.... Took time to get legs working
but a fabulous playlist from the music guys really helped.... By
the time I got to the dam it started to heavily rain then hail that
stung!!!!.... So abandoning myself to the elements I had my Kate
Bush moment along the top of the Dam!!!.... you have to laugh...
and then Julie swept past me!!!!... but I kept going aware that
Joules was just ahead of me ... but there was no catching
her!!!!!..... last bit I knew you guys would all be there and you
were.... i could have finished then... Superb moment.... I'd been
worried that the marshals would have been packing up but thankfully
they were great.... So I maintained my usual place in the last 10
in every Olympic I have done ... but this time it felt good and I
truly enjoyed it :)"
Jeff - "T2 not bad and the legs took a bit of warming into the run - suffered for the first 15 mins or so. Again, sorry Steve, you saw me and shouted me, but I think I had my eyes closed at the time. I caught up and overtook some of those who went passed me on the bike, but by the end of the run I was pretty knackered. Glad to beat the 3 hour mark, but sure I can knock 10-15mins off the total time next time."
Steve Mac - "I was not looking forward to this as I had not run that far since October so I was getting ready to suffer, Ant caught me in the first mile as I was doing just over 8 min miles then it was high fives all the way round, I think I could have gone faster but didn't want to risk further injury. Good run though really enjoyed the whole race."
Final quotes from
the Dambuster gang:
"I must say WE are a great club, the support and
encouragement shown to all members is fantastic..."
"Awesome outing from everyone in the club :)...... This was a real personal achievement for me and still on a high...."
Apologies:
Our deepest sincere apologies to a particular pub in the Derby area for Jeff meeting up with his brother & family, while still wearing his tri-suit under his clothes and stunk the place out. His excuse was no shower facilities at Rutland. Lol. Didn't stop him partying all night in Crewe either!
Results:
Pos
Cat Pos Name Total
Time Swim T1
Bike T2
Run
99 21 JAMES
DEAR 02:15:36
28:32 01:21 01:07:33 00:58
37:12
262 32 ANTHONY
GREY 02:28:29
30:12 02:16 01:13:04 00:58
41:59
311 04 RACHEL
BAKER 02:31:24
26:24 02:04 01:17:23 01:15
44:18
321 46 STEVE
MCMENAMIN 02:31:53 22:55 02:08
01:19:20 01:19 46:11
391 71 STEPHEN
BIRCHALL 02:36:42 26:59 02:46
01:19:18 00:56 46:43
482 18 SAM
ANDERSON 02:43:28
25:10 02:29 01:28:47 01:28
45:34
572 89 TREVOR
MOORE 02:50:29 30:49
01:54 01:27:41 01:12 48:53
586 10 HAZEL
TUPPEN 02:52:05
29:54 03:47 01:31:01 01:31
45:52
621 51 JEFF
WOODALL 02:56:05
32:17 03:47 01:27:48 01:41
50:32
660 28 NANCY
DOYLE
03:01:54 34:21 03:29 01:32:28 02:09
49:27
701 22 JULIE
WILLIAMS 03:13:54 31:48
03:10 01:40:00 02:25 56:31
712 34 PIPPA
CROUCH 03:20:10
28:45 03:54 01:41:05
02:39 01:03:47
728
23 JULIENNE
03:30:09 34:23 02:52 01:44:06 02:25
01:06:23
730 26 ROSE RYAN
03:34:30 34:16 03:52 01:48:25
02:13 01:05:44
Author: Sharon & quotes