What DB said! 
Eton Dorney Du - Race1 report
Strangley the past couple of days I've woken up early, bang - wide awake. Same again today. Porridge straight on to cook and kettle boiled for tea. Porridge eaten with cinnamon and raisins. I don't really like porridge after the IM training, but it does the job. Some water to wash the tea down then got dressed.
I knew it was going to be cold so had a short sleeve base layer under the pirate top, and mmy trusty 2XU LD tri shorts. I'd bought some running gloves during the week too.
Got to Dorney, registered (#3) and put stickers on everything. Instead of a proper ankle chip we had a 'dibber' to stick to our finger. Each stage would have a marshall to put the dipper into a socket. That would slow things down.
A quick spin around the course (5km) proved that the outbound bike would be fast with smooth tarmac and downwind, but the return bike on the farm road in to wind would be hard. At the beginning of the spin I tried to mount with the shoes already attached having spent a few hours before sorting this. Unfortunatey the socks I had on got stuck to the velcro on the shoes. Change of plan needed...
Racked the bike, then went for a lap of the run course (2.5km). Again, the wind would be fun. Managed to keep the lid in the effort for the in-to wind return run. Time was ticking on so took trackies and jacket off to start. Armwarmers and sunnies on.
I lined up on the second row at the start and GO! we're off. I had some idea of the pace I wanted and was aiming for ~21 minutes for the first run. Lost a load of places in the start melee, but soon settled down and started to recoup places. 2 laps of the run course were needed. It quickly became clear I would break 20 minutes for 5km - first time ever. And it didn't feel too hard. I'd chosen to run without socks and I could feel some rubbing. Ran in to T1 to find the course was slightly long - 5.15km in 20:15.
T1 was over in 42s - shoes off, helmet on, drink, run. Got to the mount line and threw myself on the bike, managed to get my feet in to the pre-attached shoes OK too. 
4 circuits needed. Each lap the downwind leg was ~45 kph and the in to wind dropped to ~30 kph. Tight turn at the top end on mud 
. Managed to stay in the top ring, but on the return legs could feel the legs building to cramp so eased off a bit. Came towards T2 and took feet from shoes, but the lack of socks meant my feet were cold and I couldn't feel them. Bike 33:48 for 20km.
T2 done in 43s.
Last run - the cramps that I kep away on the bike started to creep in on the run. Little stabs every 5s or so. Took a good km to run it out, then I could ramp the pace. 2 laps of the 2.5km course in to very strong wind. It felt a lot harder this time - but Dustboy's support made me laugh, though I may not have shown it. Finally across the line after 21:27, making 1:16:55 in total.
Grabbed a cup of gatorade from the finish. It was mixed like treacle and burnt my throat, so I struggled to talk for a few minutes. No idea on placing yet as the machine went down during the race...
All in all a bloody good race. What made the day was the wide group of competitors - people doing the supersprint (2.5/10/2.5), or the sprint like me (5/20/5). People on mountain bikes, people on expensive tri bikes. People sprinting people walking. It was a great sight, Especially people running in bike helmets 
