My longest challenge to date

Tomorrow is the Half Outlaw! They have some funny names for these things! IronMan, Outlaw…. its all different brands competing to establish themselves within the growing area of Triathlon.

For the record, tomorrows race is:

– A 1.2 mile swim, followed by…
– A 56 mile bike ride, and then…
– A Half Marathon (13.1 mile run)

To save you doing the maths, that’s a total of 70.3 miles!

Individually, my best times for these are:

– 1.2 mile swim – about 40 mins in the pool
– 56 mile bike ride – dunno! I’ve never ridden a timed distance of 56 miles without stopping. I’ve done a couple of 50 milers, both in just under three hours, so think I would be looking at about 3hrs20 for a ride on its own!
– 13.1 mile run – 1hr55

Put these three together with 5 minutes for transition and tomorrow’s event would take me 6 hours!

It’s not as simple as that of course. Riding a 3hr20 min 56 mile ride is one thing – doing that speed after a 40 min swim isn’t quite the same. And it goes without saying that running a half marathon with the small matter of both the swim and the ride as a ‘warm up’ will make it different to any other 13.1 mile run I’ve done before.

This is just getting my excuses in early, you understand! I don’t actually know how long it will take me. Weather is apparently another big factor on longer triathlon’s. Although the forecast for tomorrow looks dry, the wind will be a factor!

Safe to say, I will be on the course for longer than any other challenge I’ve undertaken. The London Marathon was 5hr40mins!

Mostly I want to finish tomorrow, and hope that none of my niggling injuries from my Marathon adventure come back to haunt me. If I finish tomorrow in under 7 hours, I’ll be more than pleased!

Of course, the reason I’m doing this is to raise money for a cure for Type 1 Diabetes. To this end, the children and myself are now off to the house of John Mardsen in Tickhill.

He has very kindly offered to run one of his fund raising lunches to support us. Lunch is being served tomorrow, whilst I am out on the course in Nottingham. If you are around and would like a ticket, please give me a call on 01302 750717 or 07867 807010 and I’ll put you in touch with John, if there are any spare seats!!!

So with potato peeler in hand, we are off to prepare the veg….