Race Report : Outlaw Half 2nd June 2013
After hearing good things about the full distance Outlaw, as soon as I saw this race advertised I registered, which was a good decision as it sold old really really quickly. I thought this would be a great way to train for the Ironman 70.3 UK in Exmoor, which I’d heard would be incredibly tough and I figured this may be an easier introduction into the distance, two weeks prior to my main event.
However, after not a brilliant winter of training due to the miserable weather,
Saturday morning I spent packing my car with my tri gear and headed to a little b&b close by in Nottingham. The sprint champs were on on Saturday, and I'd hoped to catch some of that, and it was also the emergency services tri comp which was pretty impressive though it made me feel a little small as all the giant firemen and police and a hefty contingent from the military pounded past!
Sunday morning I had to wake at 4am to get into my breakfast routine (two bowls of muesli and a snickers bar) then prep the bike and take to transition. Unlike the ironman events you couldn’t rack the day before so I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t get everything done in time, so I got to the venue super early, and I’m glad I did, the little bit of sleep I maybe lost out on was made up for by being relaxed and having plenty of time to lay my gear out. I always find being relaxed before the race is the best start you can have.
I was the first wave at 6:30. The swim went as I expected with no dramas, I’m slow but steady and just tried to stay out of trouble. This was my first real mass swim start but it was still only 200 or so people (compared to 1000 or more at an ironman – so again this is a great intro to this type of distance). So overall the swim went great, 40 minutes for me (slow for most but I was stoked, I usually take nearly an hour in a pool – I love Open water and my wetsuit!!) Getting my shoes and socks onto wet feet took a while once I was out of the water, definitely would have benefited from a full size towel rather than the hand size I had.
Finally I was out onto the bike. We had one lap of the lake on the service road which I decided to push as hard as I could to gain some places back from the swim and to warm up. I really found this helped, it’s perfectly flat so there really is no need to take it gentle, you can get your temp up and really get into the rhythm quickly. Out onto the roads I was still trying to push, but it was a bit crowded so after 10 minutes or so I decided to push more to get past them until I got some clear air. The course was well marshalled and we had either closed roads or controlled junctions so could fly through most roundabouts. Overall the bike is pretty quick, I managed 3:05 which is very quick for me, and that was with a chain problem about halfway that cost me only about 5 minutes but maybe 30-40 positions.
Transition 2 was slow. I struggled to get my running socks on, and I also couldn’t get my bike gloves off and my camel bak so decided to leave them all on and ran with them!
So I set off at a comfortable pace but was really struggling in the first 4-5 km – I always find that first set difficult but always get a 2nd wind after that so just pushed on through, the heat was tough, but I kept hoping that once I was 4-5 km in I would start to feel better. Finally after 5km I found my rhythm. It’s a very flat run course but I found the first lap long and ardous but the 2nd just flew by. The path by the river was a bit narrow on the first lap, with a lot of faster runners on it, but by lap 2 it was thinning out and I knew I only had a few miles left so upped the pace. I felt very quick on the last lap, which means my first lap must have been quite slow. I finished in 1:45 which I was happy with, but I’m sure I can do 1:35-1:40 next year.
Overall it's a fantastic well run race. The bike is only mildly undulating, and the run is nice and flat so this must be a great course for PB’s.
