DIY Half IM

Thank you so much for this weekend, was a great training day, and fab to meet some piratey peeps! Mr SA senior was a star on the feed station, and Jo, that was the most welcome cup of tea in history! not to mention the suasage butties!

No problem.  It was a fab weekend wasn't it     Great to see you again and to meet your BF.   See you at OW swimming Thursday.

Flat Foo.ted wrote (see)

Thats not running that's showing off....

Hahahaha!  Sounds like a great weekend.  Well done to Mr & Mrs SA & Jordy for putting on a great event, and to all those who took part.  Hopefully i'll be in a position to join in the next time (helping and taking part!).  Need to get my tri stuff in gear next year

Well done to everybody who took part on Sunday, it sounds like you had just as much fun as we did on Saturday, and Marshallini wow, I couldn't sprint 100m at that pace, let alone run 13miles in a HIM.

Moving Along - so that's where my helmet, gloves and glasses went . I assumed that I'd left them in SA's garage. Don't worry about it, just bring them to Outlaw.

I will at some point today get around to doing a race report, but I am supposed to be at work, so....

Well done everyone hope you had as much fun as we did on saturday, Great time Marshallini and once again thanks to all who made it possible and I am sure it will give all who took part a good insight into what to expect on the day.

I had a fab weekend and there were some great moments that stuck out in my mind .... but the best one has to be when i was on "bike watch" yesterday before the swim.    I glanced into the reception area of the leisure centre as everyone was waiting for the pool to open ...... oap's out for their sunday morning swim, excited little kiddies armed with their arm bands and rubber rings ............... 8 very nervous lycra clad pirates

lol 

After choosing to dry off and get changed indoors, I left the changing room but wasn't sure which way the exit was, not to worry as I was last out I just had to follow the big trail of wet footprints thru the building and out thru reception.

Lol

Sounds like it was a great weekend guys... well done to all those who completed and especially to those who organised it... wish I could have been there

deleted due to bastard formatting issues

Slagiatt - it was still most amusing despite the formatting! Sounds like you guys had a great weekend!!

Silent Assassins DIY 70.3

Day one , 5 am start to drive up with Slags Mate Tony for supporting duty, I will let the race reports of BB Plodder , Horse , Moving Along , Mrs SA and Cake tell the story but will just say from my point of view it was a great day and myself and SMT were pleased to have been able to help out .
Must just say though, Cake.. what a legend covered in mud from the ride in, sporting  the biggest nicotine patch I’ve  ever seen , and wearing what can only be described as school socks.. just the most amazing character.... basically think  winnie the poohs "tigger" in a pirate shirt , an infectious happiness kind of a guy.
Sat night .. Hotel from hell ... Beware of posh sounding hotels with impossibly cheap rooms.. the Britannia in Stockport .. what a toilet ( the hotel not the town) . Filthy room- check, bed linen that stinks of cigarettes - check , fire alarm going off every few mins from 11-midnight - check , stag party in the rooms either side- check... yep all the ingredients for a perfect nights sleep.   
Breakfast served from 8 but "Ze Germans" start queuing from about 7 ,  glad we weren’t bothering and instead on the breakfast of champions , cereal bars and SIS supplements.

Race day

Swim

A short ride from SA HQ down to the leisure centre . Rack the bike against the wall and join the queue waiting for the pool to open. The tills opened at 10 on the dot, and we make our way through. left my bike shorts top and HRM in change room and head to  the water . Schoolboy errors 1 & 2 occur in quick succession.. 1, forgetting to press start button on stopwatch , 2, Joining the swim lane occupied by Marshallini , Doner Kebab , and SA. OK so lets be clear from the outset Marshilini is not "normal" i think he is actually the product of a Secret Swiss Genetics laboratory experiment whose aim was to create some kind of triathlon monster . Somewhere in that genetic mix there must be dolphin DNA cos the man goes through the water faster that Katie price goes through fellas. Can only apologise to the three of you for keep being in the way so often .. on the brightside i got more feet rubbing action in those 45 mins than i have done in 12 years of marriage .. so lapped by Marshallini about 30 times , and by the others about 5 or 6 times.  My laps finaly complete .. most of the others now long gone, just SMT on his final lap remains. Quick shower to de-chlorinate a bit into the change room and begin the dance of a fat wet man trying to put on a compression top thats probably  already a size too small. Out to the bike and on with shoes socks and pirate shirt... back in to the leisure centre for a quick wee .. then finally ready to go, now firmly in last spot after my less than rapid T1 

TBC

 That was fun and for those that know me well you will be pleased to know that I managed to get lost a few times even with sign's everything. I'll write up a race report went I can and stick it up. but for now. Q, Jo and Jordy thank you so much for this weekend and for being the star's you are. and for the rest of you kids well done and thankyou for your help and generally being cool kids.

part 2

Ride

Pleased that i remembered the way back to the start of the bike loops. About a mile or so in to the loop and on the horizon i can  see a yellow shirt, managed to close in on that shirt and by the first left turn and am within a few metres of  SMT. Traded places a few  times on the hills and past the feed station for the first time. Jordy, Mrs SA and Grandpa SA doing a grand  job of supporting. Lap 2 and 3 fairly uneventful, myself and SMT trading places , one or other opening up a few hundred metres , then getting reigned back in again.  I nearly skittled super Marshallini when i looked over my shoulder at one point to see where SMT was , drifted out a bit in the process at the very moment Marshallini was about to pass at warp factor 5.. sorry fella .. well avoided. (the DNA mix now thought to contain some dolphin and some lance armstrong). Gear issues started on lap 4 .. i think the result of my temporary wheel bearing fix that had changed the rear mech to sprockets alignment just slightly.. attempts to resolve with adjustment on down tube tensioner just made matters worse but eventually got to a point where it didn’t jump about too much. Lap 4 , starting to hurt now, the hills aren’t hard , but are relentless and just nowhere to recover before the next one arrives.. it was a good reminder of the IMW course .. but fortunately minus a wisemans and saundersfoot. Lap 5 and Doner Kebab comes past me going strong, Lap 6 and settling in to things a bit better now, making better use of the aero bars and making a better job of the hills, feeling less inclined to admit defeat and instead turning up the effort. Lap 7 (may have been 6) , passed by Bobby Nobby but discover i am not being lapped this time but that instead he unfortunately had some navigation issues at the start and had had a bit of a scenic route. Marshallini flashed past again at some point.  Last few laps seemed to go past pretty quickly left knee starting to complain a bit by lap 10 but the super strength nurofen are waiting for me at t2 so just try to keep the effort biased to the right on the climbs and it'll be fine.   Pass bike feed for last time and on to T2 , small navigational issue getting back to SA HQ (T2) but only 30 seconds or so.
Enter T2 .. delighted to see SA DK , BN still there albeit just about to depart, so my bike time must have been at least vaguely respectable

finally- Run

Lap 1
Painful .. knee hurting , toes still dead from the ride.. ran a little bit then decided a better strategy might be to walk until pain killers started to work their magic and sensation returned to my feet.  This took a bit longer than i had hoped and resulted in most of lap 1 being a walk. Passed by coulorin going strong , and then by Marshallini going like  japanese train ( DNA mix now though to contain a bit of Dolphin, Lance Armstrong, James Kwambai and Usain Bolt). Getting a little concerned about another issue  that started on the ride.. that being blurred vision in left eye .. had assumed it was a fly or sweat or other muck, but after lap 1 of run no better.. Mrs SA confirmed no obvious foreign bodies and its not hurting , just like looking through a steamed up window if i cover my right eye (not that i look through a lot of steamed up windows , not since the court order anyway).
Lap 2
Probably spent a bit too long gabbing at feed station but off on to lap 2 with a run 4+ walk 1 stategy.. (The 4+ being four mins or to a geographic milestone that i'd set as a goal that may take a bit longer ) Pain killers doing their thing.. toes now functional again.. eye still fogged up

Lap 3
No issues .. the run walk strategy going well... running for longer before walk intervals.

Lap 4
Pass SA HQ for the last time with a promise of a sausage sarnie when i finish .. just me plodding round now pleased to be passing the landmarks for the last time, stopped at feed 2 to thank grandpa and grandma SA for their hospitality and willingness to sit in their front garden all day with a pasting table full of bottles whilst the curtains twitched at their neighbours houses thinking they had totally lost the plot. Ran all the way home to SA HQ where the Pirate massive were all still waiting  .
Dont know the exact time as i didnt start my watch , but i estimate swim start at 10:10 , and finish at 17:20 so 7:10 +/- 10 mins.. 
i probably should take this stuff more seriously

A fabulous weekend .. The Assassins & Jordy are just the nicest people and laid on a spectacular event matched with their spectacular hospitality.  Great to meet up with so many pirates and finally have faces to go with the forum names. Fantastic bunch of people and pleased to have been part of the experience.  See you all at outlaw/wales

Hopefully this works:

Pre-Race

Having dropped off me bike the day before to Mr and Mrs SA I was fairly confident of finding my way to theirs again on Sat morning. Dropped Mrs MovingAlong at the train station, typed in the postcode to my satnav and merrily drove towards their house. At the 2nd set of lights was a little alarmed to find the Sat Nav thought I was in Holland! Having driven round Macc and being lost for 30 mins thought it best to phone ahead and let people know I was still coming. This would be a sign of things to come.

The pre-race briefing was mainly about a sharp left after a left hand bend, and then also an avoidance of standing water and gravel on another left turn. Then we headed off as a group to the swimming pool, at which point I felt knackered.

Swim

Luckily we seemed to manage to get a lane to ourselves, and pretty much managed to get round without too much touching of feet. I found myself drafting behind Horse for quite a while (thanks for that Horse!) and thus managed to get out in just under 41 mins - much faster than expected. The highlight was inadvertedly holding hands with Cake at one end of the pool

T1

This was a drawn out affair. Took a while sorting all my stuff out, and felt quite relaxed changing in the swimming pool changing rooms. It was a long change as I was using this as a full dry run for Outlaw, so on came the cycling jersey, jacket and bib shorts - and a quick toilet stop maybe explains the 8 minute time! Still, I was planning for 10 at Outlaw, so 2 minutes in the bag

Cycle

Garmin didn't pick up immediately so I clocked the route as just over 54 miles (and looking at the map, think the Garmin picked up after about a mile - so perhaps a total 55.x which is close enough for me!). No idea how many laps I did, my brain was still realling from the lap counting in the pool. My thoughts of the bike course were effectively about 2.5 miles of gentle down, followed by 2.5 miles of gentle up. Mind you the bike leg was nearly cut very short by some old codger on a roundabout who decided not to use his indicators and aim for me!

On my 2nd lap I bumped into Cake. He'd apparently managed to get lost and was wondering if he could follow for a bit to work things out (I decided not to mention my journey to the race in the morning).

Throughly enjoyed the first 4 laps, the next 4 were more trying to take corners faster and faster (including on one lap misjudging the tough left mentioned in the safety brief!). Never really nailed the corner with standing water, always taking it much wider and slower than I should have. Only time I tried the racing line I hit the pothole!

The final laps become a bit of a grind and I was looking forward to jumping off the bike. Only other point worth mentioning is to the fantastic feed station crew. I didn't need to take a bottle by decided to on 1 lap in order to (a) practice for Outlaw, (b) give them something to do - every lap they jumped up waving bottles and I felt guilty giving the thumbs down!

A bike split of 3hrs 23mins was a bit faster than I was expecting, but I did get carried away on the first few laps before remembering I wasn't doing a sprint and backing things off a little. Need to be aware of this for Outlaw and be cautious at the start of the cycle.

T2

Sitting in SA & Mrs SA garage legs felt a bit done in from the bike and so I was a bit worried about what was coming next. After SA offered me everything to eat and drink under the sun I declined it all and parted from the seat with a single gel in my hand and my trainers on my feet. A grand total of 3 minutes in T2.

The Run

To keep up with the proceeding

Nearly worked. Here comes the run bit:

The Run

To keep up with the proceedings of the day I missed the 2nd run sign and nearly went the wrong way. Normally I'd just plough on, but wisely today I thought it better to back track my steps to the last sign. Then at the end of the 1st lap I missed one of the signs after the feed station and was somewhat shocked when having a little walk break when Mrs SA asked if everything was ok. I said I'm fine, just having a walk break, and she said thats cool, but you're not on the run course! Ah well, turned out I did a tiny bit extra. At the end of the lap SA explained where I'd gone wrong and sure enough there was right turn I'd missed.

Lap 2 was good. Lap 3 started to feel hard, but after a quick gel managed to feel better. It was also on this lap (I think!) that I found a lost Cake!

At the end of the lap 3 I also passed 2 lads. As they saw me I overheard them saying 'Ah, it all makes sense now. I've been wondering what the f--- all these pirate signs have been for'. Can't remember whether it was Lap 3 or 4, but a bloke who'd been working on his car turned round and asked if I was mad. I replied probably, but then asked him if he knew the latest football score, which seemed to make me seem at least semi normal to him and saved him called the emergency services.

Lap 4 seemed to go on forever, and felt like someone had somehow expanded Macclesfield. Still felt fairly good though and even tried a sprint finish, but some evil sod had put the finish at the top of a steep hill.

Summary

All in all a cracking day. Really, really enjoyed myself, and its been the ideal big weekend ahead of Outlaw and given some extra motivation to crack on with the final weeks of training. Great to meet so many new great people and now can't wait until Outlaw!

Times

All approximate because I didn't always remember to lap the watch immediately, but certainly not a million miles away:

Swim - 40m 42s
T1 - 8m 14s
Bike - 3hrs 22m 52s
T2 - 3m 01s
Run - 2hrs 7m 53s

Total - 6hrs 22m 43s

Slagiatt and Moving Along, great race reports lads, have tears rolling down my face from laughing, so great to meet you all

And what Moving Along is not saying is that he went for a warm down on Sunday morning by doing the machester 10K

Fabulous race reports folks, keep em coming

Slag,MA...brilliant race reports and again well done.

I won't be posting my race report... but I did get my hug and kiss off Cake..

MA... how did your 10k go?