Nick Cook - Man Of Steel!

Nick ran his first Half-Ironman last week at the New Forest. He sent us the following report and pictures.

New Forest Middle Distance Triathlon 22/9/2013
Registration and bike racking for this triathlon was on the Saturday, so we arranged to stay with friends for the night and trundled off down to Sandy Balls Holiday Park in the morning. I registered and picked up the race pack before heading off for the briefing. First time NFMDTers got a round of applause before sniggers when hills were mentioned. We were given three kit bags and were advised to leave our running stuff in one of them there and then in the change tent.
This is a two location tri event, so we then had to drive down to Ellingham lake and leave my bike in transition there. We then drove the bike course (funny how hills don’t seem quite so steep in a car). Back at our friends house I packed the bike kit in one bag and swim stuff in the other. I didn’t want to be messing about with kit in the morning.
Sunday morning the alarm went off at 4:45 and I was out at 5:15 for the half hour drive to Sandy Balls. From there, it was a five minute coach ride to the lake. Got in the loo queue and then got changed, put dry stuff in one of the bags to be taken back to the finish at Sandy Balls, then back in the loo queue again. 7:00 and it was still foggy, so the swim was delayed for 20 minutes and the course shortened. The director said it was only 200 metres short, but if so, that was the fastest 1.7k swim I’ve ever done – 31 minutes (I took 45 minutes to do 1.9k the previous week). I’m rubbish at sighting in open water and looked up at one point to see myself on my own in the middle of the course. Slight direction adjustment and back on course again. Out of the lake, into transition and off on the bike.
I had intended to stay at a gentle 16/16.5 mph on the bike, but after an hour my average was 19.2 mph so slowed down a bit, although it is hard when you’ve got bikes in front that you know you can overtake. Horses and cows have no respect for cyclists in the New Forest and riding over cattle grids was a new experience too. The bike course was about 57 miles and I completed that in 3 hours 17 minutes, so was pleased with that. The really steep hill in the last mile didn’t help at all! Back at transition my bike was taken off me and chairs were supplied in the changing tent – luxury! A quick slug of Lucozade, a gel and then off for the run.
I massively underestimated how hard the run was going to be, particularly as I thought my running had been going quite well. The first hill took everything out of me, after that I walked up the rest of the hills. It was an out and back course, so it was quite gratifying seeing faster runners walking up the hills on their way back. At 5 miles friends and family were waiting at Fritham with a well needed boost of lucozade and gels, then a nice flat stretch to the turning point. Back to Fritham to the support team and then the return hilly bit. I got overtaken by quite a few runners on this stretch as my pace was getting slower and slower. At last I was back onto the road for the last mile slightly downhill to the finish. I was well over my anticipated time of 2:10 as I finished in 2:25, but I finished the whole event in 6 hours 19 minutes, 10 minutes better than I’d expected.
I really enjoyed my first experience of a middle distance triathlon, but I don’t think I’ll be doing another one anytime soon!