Vitruvian 2011
I decided late last year to enter the Vitruvian as my first half iron distance race. I spent most of the year knocking out the long rides, long runs and getting in as much open water swimming as I could. Unfortunately two weeks before the big day, during my last brick session, I managed to pull my left hamstring. So my taper began and ended with two weeks rest, icing and anti-inflammatories. Any dreams I had of putting in a fast performance were gone and my aim turned into survival rather than competing. We headed up to Rutland the afternoon before the race and camped that night.
I got out of bed at 4am, wolfed down as much coffee and porridge as I could stomach and headed down to transition.
The race :
The first thing I noted when entering the surprisingly warm water was that I sank knee deep into gunge. Not a pleasant way to wait for the start, with all sorts of thoughts going through my head as to what I was standing in. The swim start was a bit brutal. I got punched, kicked and even had some swine behind who kept grabbing my feet and hauling me back. I gave as good as I got but it took 5mins until the first turn before anyone could get into a decent stroke. I got out the water in about 38 minutes before running up to T1. Overall time was 38:38. Consensus afterwards from guys wearing GPS was that swim was long at about 2100m so my disappointing time wasn’t as bad as I thought.
In T1 I wrapped my hamstring as best as I could and headed out onto the bike. The first lap was windy, cold and foggy. My pace was slow and I was in quite a bit of pain from the leg. My strategy early on was to try and use my right leg as much as I could to peddle up the hills. The course is quite lumpy with the Rutland ripple only one of the climbs so obviously this was going to bite me later on. After about an hour the pain in my left leg eased as it warmed up and I had about an hour where I could peddle freely and I put the hammer down a bit. Unfortunately all my right legged peddling caught up with me and I ended up with cramp in the right thigh. The rest of the bike was a night mare as I couldn’t stand at all. I finished the bike in a disappointing 2:54:29, 15 minutes slower than I had figured on.
My strategy for the run was to jog it slowly, walk every aid station and avoid doing any more damage to my hamstring or my cramping thigh. I actually ran all the way in a dismally slow 2:04:55. I was in pain all the way and several times made the decision to pack up all this stupid triathlon rubbish, but I got through it. Mission accomplished. Overall time was 5:43:20. Not spectacular and probably 20-25 minutes slower than I would have been fully fit but I managed to get through it without doing any more damage and can now add a half to my CV. I also have a time to aim for next year if I can stay fit.
To anyone who hasn’t done this race I would happily recommend it. Organisation was excellent. Swim is a bit of a fist fight. The bike is up and down which makes it interesting, although living across here isn’t ideal preparation for the ripple. It is quite exposed and the wind on Saturday made it tough going. Overall a fast course though without the wind. The run is a double lap and flat as a pancake with feed stations every mile. I would recommend camping as the field is only a few hundred yards to transition.
Only point to note is that the mounted bike marshals were very strict. One guy was DQ’d for having a loo stop in a field. (It is against official BTA rules but almost never enforced without a prior warning). They also had four motorcycle police out on the course and two guys were DQ’d for traffic infringements.
All in all though a good day out. Bring on 2012.