Toughest Amateur Event in the World?: UK June 1-10!

I've started another thread to grab some deliberate attention to those not following the existing EnduroMan thread.

You may have seen this 'provocative' tag in my TT signature: Toughest Amateur Event in the World?

anyway, it makes you think. :?:

So why have I started this thread.

1. To ask the above question, and if it isnt this, what is :?:

2. To make people aware, and 'big up' the EnduroMan Deca / Quin / Triple / Double etc IronMan-distance   extravaganza that starts on June 1st -10th 2012 and follow it on www.enduromanlive.com

Coz nearly every one missed it last year!! :doh: hock: There were live lap timings, the works, and you missed the epic drama. So lets not make the same mistake this year.

So, there's a Deca EnduroMan (IronMan) event then. www.enduroman.com

Obvious first question, which format is it: Continuous 38km swim, 1120 m bike, 262 mile run OR 1x IM a day for 10 days.

Well, its the 'easy' Deca type. 1x IronMan a day. I couldnt swim that far for starters, and the continuous format wouldnt be much fun I reckon, which defeats the object for all but the bravest.

So that's no SO hard is it? 

Pace yourself, feed well, dont do nowt daft, get fixed up and massaged and recover in compression gear all night etc. Instead of your e.g. 11hr stand alone IM, then pace it as 12-13 hours?

Nice little wake up swim each morning, steady bike ride, easy jog. Bob's your uncle, repeat 10 times Groundhog Day style and you're a Deca IronMan.

Well in theory, yes. You can go to Mexico like Peter Cusick Putt Putt, or to Sicily like Dave Clamp, and do this. See both their reports below. Fair play to em - Chapeau :worship: 

2009 Mexico - Peter Cusick  http://www.tritalk.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=64199 

2011 Sicily EnduroMan - Dave Clamp 

http://www.tritalk.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1305660#1305660 

But this is UK EnduroMan. Bluntly, the organisers Steve Haywood and Eddie Ette are sadists. :twisted:

If only it was that easy.

This is a Deca EnduroMan. The only thing vaguely normal is the swim, and that's in a small outdoor lake, not the usual indoor pool format of most such events.

At all such events, the laps are small. Basically so they can keep an eye on you before you drop dead! and you can get frequent pit stops from your essential crew. On other events the bike might be 5-10km and the run 1-1.5 km. Typically on closed roads or round a park circuit etc. For the UK EnduroMan, the bike laps are unusual, and are nearly 12 miles, on open public roads. :!: 

The Swim starts 6.00am every day (or 6.05am for me :roll. The sooner you finish, the more recovery you have for the next day. Stage race. Add all the times up to get your winner.

On later days (day 2 for me!) you jump in the small lake and think its cold. But it is no different. It's you that is cold, your core temp is down. When I did the Quintuple EnduroMan in June 2011 I was wearing jackets n hats on the bike! The only Deca lady Monique got to day 8 before she retired due to being nearly asleep at the wheel on the bike. She had 10 layers of clothes on and was still feeling cold. PSF retired on Swim Day 3, as he just couldnt feel his hands. Hence Pork Scratchings Paul Fowler who completed the Double last year and is an OW swim coach in Lincoln has recommended us skinny uns to wear surfers 'rash' vests for extra upper body warmth. Cheers m8 :thumbsup:

&n

The Bike is nearly 120 miles not 112 :!: Just the way the 10 laps add up. It's in the New Forest. No big hill but an unrelenting surprisingly hilly course, near Burley, based at Avon Tyrell youth activity centre. Incl pit stops, a 7-8 hour bike split is quite good. No seriously, we are not carp: Its just a slow course. You sit there reading this thinking, 'these pussies are just going too slow' like I did seeing the first 5 days results come through before I started the Quin on Deca Day 6. But I kid you not, it really does take that long. I have done IM Austria bike split in 5h10 btw, and on the SoftRide 8)

Run was nearer 28 miles last year due to the fantastic things that can happen the first year any event is run was supposed to be 26x 1 mile laps. Hilly! incl a long hard surfaced descent, which I think has been removed this year . Mainly off road. Twisty n technical. Basically it wrecks your soft tissues eg ankles. This was many folks' limiting factor. My feet swelled up like balloons the day after the Quin. 5-6-7 hour run splits were quite normal and pretty good, many took longer! It all sounds hard to believe, but you go try it. Some folks like Big Ted 8) were doing 21hr days, getting an hour or two's sleep IN A TENT, and then doing it all over again :worship:  

3 / 20 finished the 2011 Deca. http://www.enduroman.com/ 

So we have all learnt from 2011, and as a result, all athletes have proper accommodation under a warm dry roof in the Avon Tyrell house (included in your £1100 entry fee) or some have more deluxe (hopefully) log cabins.

All athletes must have crew. The run course is less technical and will hopefully be 26.2 miles or thereabouts this time. The bike is unchanged tho! 

So who is stupid enough to have a go?

12 of us, mainly repeat EnduroMan offenders who experienced the brutal course last year and should know better, are daft enough to give it a shot this year too, at the full Deca. There are 12 Quinners too, not many in the triple but maxed out at 50 in the Double, which is the official UK National Champs for this year.

Here's some info on a few of us:

Me - Toyota_Crown ('TC') - Anthony Gerundini, LincolnTri: Yes the berk who used to race every weekend and on a SoftRide, and in denim lycra shorts. I did a clean sweep of ALL the UK ironDistance events last year, and the Lanza Double&Single IM plus Helvellyn and Wensleydale Middles, and 11 marathons/ultras. I would have had a go at the Deca last year but was ill with a chest infection when the Deca started !!, but it just cleared up in time for me to be stoopid enough to still enter the Quintuple (Five IMs in 5  days) which started on the Deca Day 6, and I got away with it and even won the damn thing. Unfortunately I've been feeling awful all year and will be praying g0d sends me some mojo soon.

(Reverend) Graham Marcussen, Grimsby - TT's own "The Daddie" is a month short of 60 years old FFS :!: hock:, and has a gippy hip/quad injury just sprung up on him, never mind his other lovable attributes.

2010 Triple UK report: http://www.tritalk.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=71691&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight= 

He's a hero just for having the nerve to enter and hopefully putting himself on the start line. :worship:

Edward Page - Barton on Humber, N.Lincs - If you haven't read Big Teds EnduroMan reports Triple 2010 or Deca 2011 then do so now! :!: Truly inspirational. He's the ultimate numpT. A slow family man, but who dreams bi

Edward Page - Barton on Humber, N.Lincs - If you haven't read Big Teds EnduroMan reports Triple 2010 or Deca 2011 then do so now! :!: Truly inspirational. He's the ultimate numpT. A slow family man, but who dreams big and will never give up. He was pulled from the swim on Day 7 on medical grounds, but luckily he's not bitter :P 

2010 Triple UK - Big Ted - http://www.tritalk.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=71584&sid=053314926c796cc8dd93210bf95fe816 

2011 Deca - Big Ted - http://www.tritalk.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=79562 

DaveMiles (Derby) did the Quintuple last year like me. Like me he finished it but unlike me he wasn't broken as a result and could have done more. (Tho I did recover just to do ForestMan 2 weeks later ) Given that DaveM used to be an injury magnet is amazing, ditto BigTed.

2011 Quin - DaveM - http://www.tritalk.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=79443 

Shame he jumped into a pothole 2 weeks ago and had a whacking sprained ankle... Fingers crossed he's has recovered OK as his improvement in training this year has been stellar and we want to see the reward.

Monique Hollinshead (Pirate) was the only lady daft enough to have a go last year. She shared the Most Amazing Person On The Planet Award with Big Ted for getting to Day 8. It seemed she could motor round the tricky run course blindfolded. She's just done a LEJOG to get her bike legs up to speed, which was her weak link last year. This year an American lady Michele Santilhano will be providing some serious opposition. She did the Arch 2 Arc EnduroMan event last year. 8)

Chris Ette from Worthing (The Scalpinator / Gulliblinator) is Eddie Ette's son (well allegedly but he doesnt seem belivable to me :P ) and rocked up to Lanza in Feb2011, and decided for his first IM he'd try the Double not the Single he'd trained for. No bother, and finished quite well. Then for his 2nd event, on a £150 bike (and losing 3 laps due to major mechanical and numpTness) he WON the Hardest Ever Triple IronMan In The World at least years (continuous format) brutal event. :worship:

(Wakefield) Guy Willard did fantastically well to finish 2nd at Lanza Double this year, only beaten by a Pro, despite carrying a spare tyre :P around the course and literally defying gravity. He recovered from that so well he's game to give it a (good) shot :thumbsup:

I hope that has piqued your interest, and you have fun following this. Please bump this if you would others to get wind of this. Follow us on www.endurmanlive.com !

oops, that should be www.enduromanlive.com 

I'll follow it, but I thought for a minute you were asking people to enter the thing! 

Good luck TC 

Mad as a box of frogs.

Easy - Parenthood!

TC, I remember you, you're from Tripe talk and we did the Double together in 2009. I was the only female that wasn't Monique

But maybe be a bit more less in our faces if you want to really promote this. You are looking like a spammer full on.

No I think it's good.

I haven't had time to keep up with the EnduroMan thread so it's good to have a detailed post of exactly what's going on and have a bit of background info refresher. Thanks TC!

Love that Mon got 'Most Amazing Person on the Planet' award

TC I do hope you have washed the denim shorts

TC - A brilliant overview and introduction to the nutters doing the Deca's.

Denim shorts??? 
**thoughts of chaffing hell!**

Hope wrote (see)

Denim shorts??? 
**thoughts of chaffing hell!**

Not *quite* denim material but they do need to be seen to be believed !!!

I might not get down there this year, but wish all the competitors the very best of luck. Even that young man Schmunks and I managed to embarrass the pants off last year by shouting out encouragement in the form of 'Phoar, gorgeous legs'.

It was only afterwards that his parents told us he was incredibly shy...

you have their attention TC.so now they all know who you are you had better win the thing 

the event is definitely worth following even if you ahve never done a tri in your life.these peopel doing the deca and quin are amazing.............

TC is alright.