Bedford tri

I did the Bedford triathlon at Olympic distance as well recently. For a change I had some company in the form of Mark from the Cambridge tri club. It rained on the way their but was not so bad for the race. The swim was in the river Ouse, which made a change. Got covered in water weed and was very slow but still fun enough.

Here is the start of my wave for said triathlon. I am here somewhere towards the back

Wellington Harbour City Marathon

I went to New Zealand in late June/early July after being invited to a conference there. Had a great time looking round nd doing the parachute jumping, white water rafting and bungy jumping that NZ is famous for.

For some reason I also signed up for the Wellington Harbour city marathon. I was very nervous the night before this race and I don`t know why. It was my tenth one and it went quite well. We started out quite early, before dawn so I go to see the sun rise on the way round :-)

This is an out and back course and also included a half marathon and 10km option which was annoying on the way back when you got overtaken by people just doing the half. The scenery was fantastic on the way out of Wellington, just one fantastic bay and stretch of coastline after another. I ran with my head permanently facing left on the way out but avoided this on the way back (after a near miss with several other runners and a lamp post).

A very enjoyable race overall and afterwards I had an excuse to go to a great vegan cafe I found in Wellington and stuff myself on their great food and sweets :-)

UK Ironman 70.3

Hi all,

I`m sorry I know I have been bad at uploading things here for the last few months. I have just been relly busy.

I am in Japan at present. I am supposed to be working in a lab here but there is less to do than I thought so I am taking the chance to job hunt and catch up on other non-work stuff.

So the next race I have to tell you about is the longest I have ever done. The UK Ironman 70.3 triathlon. This is half ironman distance so a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike and then a half marathon. It was over tough ground in Somerset and the swim had to be done in an hour, the bike had to be done in 4.5 hours, as did the run.

I was pretty nervous before this race I can tell you. I was not sure I would be able to do it and seriously considered pulling out. In the end I didn`t though. I thought it was worth at least giving it a go. I`m very glad I did as I had quite a good time. The weather was nice and although I only just made the cut off times for the swim and bike sections I was OK on the run. The bike section was particularly hard, very hilly and a hell of a long way. I didn`t know when I booked in to do it but apparently the UK Ironman 70.3 is the toughest in the world! It took me 7 hours 40 minutes in all. I would have been a bit quicker but I had a bit of a toilet emergency after eating nothing but energy gels and bananas for 7 hours. It`s quite tricky to get out of a tri suit fast in a portaloo and answer the call of nature while outside all you can hear is people shouting "you can do it" as they cheer there friends and family round. As usualy I was at the race by myself so noone to cheer me on but I did meet a couple of nice people at the B and B, both students and they both beat me but what the hey I am a lot older and on a vegan diet.

Overall not a bad experience, there is nothing like doing a 56 mile bike ride and then realaising that you still have a half marathon to run. Still it was a very well organised race and it ran like clockwork. So although I was not the fastest round I was not the slowest and I did not get pulled out of the race like some did. I would do this again and am even wondering if I could do a full Ironman.

Pic from Blenheim

Some kind soul on Facebook uploaded a few pics from Blenheim. I put this one up so you could see how miserable the weather was.