I have a new t-shirt

After all the non training whinging and bleating the weekend of reckoning arrived. Saturday I set off for the New Forest along with everyone else from London. I arrived just in time for registration and briefing. A fantastic sunny weekend, the first for the year! As a hundred people and extra support crews stood there in the sun, Richard the race director started his briefing. "We are probably all experienced triathletes here .....", gulp, well actually! Quick look around, is there anyone else here looking at nervous as me? No, and how come everyone is wearing Ironman finisher t-shirts or sporting M dot tattoos? Still feeling hot I took my jumper off to show the world my 'Hayle Sprint Tri' t-shirt. Yep, newbie here over here, yep, right here, new boy, I know nothing.

The first dicipline in Triathlon is understanding the instructions, 3 bags, umpteen stickers to stick everywhere, times to drop off kit, get buses, rack your bike, blah blah blah. My head was a whirl. I have to decide now, what I want to start running with tomorrow? Ohhhhh, decisions. Still I got through it, met Phil and had a chat, racked, bagged and bought new kit before going off to see my bro for pasta and no alcohol.

4:15am the alarm went off, porridge, mixed 3 bottles of drinks, and set off in the dark to Sandy Balls, where I parked and boarded a bus to the lake. Sat down and started chatting with a young south african guy from Bath. He's not done this distance either. Then he said he had been looking at the run course profile and thought it was a flat easy run! Not what I had heard. I thought about it and then told him the scale was in metres not feet. Wander if he noticed later in the day?

The sun came up, the toilets got used, transition was set up and the temperature went from 8 derees ohhh all of to 8.5 degrees. The swim is 2 circuits around the perimeter of the lake. I am in the same wave as Phil, but shortly after getting in the water I lost sight of him. Not surprising really, 70 people in black wetsuits, white swim hats and goggles we all look the same. The hooter went and we were off. White hats, arms flying, bodies bumping, legs kicking and bubbles everywhere. It's tough to swim like this, you can't get a decent stroke going and you don't want to get kicked. Soon there was free space to swim and we were all headed for the bouy that is just a small blob far far far off on the horizon. In fact it was so far off that earlier in the day you could not see it for the fog. But it's green and eventually comes into sight. We all bunch up again round the bouy and you have hold your own, no saying sorry for touching the toes of the guy in front around here. As I started the last long leg I saw green hats. Green set off 3 minutes behind me, and these guys were really moving. Quick sight around, there are other white hats and red hats, how many red hats? Well it looks like quite a few. Now I never expected to be near a red hat, so I assumed they were slow and just got on with it. Out of the swim, up the ramp. Kim (Phils wife), shouts out, 'awesome swim Andy' as I search for the leash and start peeling off my wetsuit, then theres my brother as well. Ha, he got out of bed early. Into T1 and I must admit it took a fair bit of time for T1, mainly just trying to stand up and not wobble about and getting arm warmers/socks/shoes on wet feet.

Got off to a flying start, clipped in easily and pumped on the pedals to get away and off up the first hill. Awesome, awesome countryside, cattlegrids, piggies, deer, cows and ponies. The route dived below the A31 and down Ornamental drive, my water bottle fell off as I went over the cattle grid, as did a couple of other guys bottles. We stopped picked them up figuring its too early to go without the fluid. The course really is fantastically scenic. Back above the A31 down through Lover and off across the top heathland. This is where I was down in my drops when Phil came past me. 'What you doing in front' he asked! I was amazed, all this time I thought he was in front somewhere and I was hoping to catch him, never thought he was behind me. But he soon took off and I could do nothing except watch him as he got out of the saddle to climb the hills. As I struggled up the hills back onto the top heathland I got overtaken by (among others) a chap with straight handlebars, 'no, you can't do that' I protested, 'I'll catch you on the run' I called. 'you'll get me on the flat', he returned. Sure enough, the hill ended, the flat began and I caught him. 'ha, your in trouble now!' We laughed. It's funny as you cycle along overtaking and then being caught again by the same people, you pass banter. Through out the cycle I got aching knees, first the left, then the right, then both, then neither, then the right again. By the end of the bike though I was feeling OK, I had sucked down 2 bottles (1.3 litres) of energy drink and hornet juice mix (thats after 500mls before the swim and close your eye now, left down the wetsuit), 1 energy bar and 3 gels.

Off the bike, run throught he Sandy Balls courtyard echoing with cheering and clapping, ahhhh I felt like Chris McCormack. Rack the bike and off for a run, well lets call it a shuffle, at about a 10min/mile pace it was slow. Luckily there was plenty of energy drink on the run and luckily I was not the only one walking the hills. The leaders passed me as I about 1.5 miles in, so they were about 2 hours ahead of me. Awesome and focused, or super human experiments? 2:30 the run took me. thats the slowest 1/2 marathon ever, so whats my excuse? Big hills? Sandy tracks? The heat? Yeah that will do. Passed Phil again, he's struggling with a knee injury and I thought he was going to walk, but he came in about 11-15mins behind me so he must have run most of it.

Managed a run back into the Finish, a proper finish chute with blow up finish arch. Yeah, hands in the air, give myself a cheer and a cup of water, I think I earned it.

The day after, I ache. Not as bad as after a marathon, but my hips and knees still remember it! Ahhhhh, right when's the next one? I have now done a half Ironman distance triathlon. Just so we are clear here, thats 1.9km swim, 90km bike and 21km run (1.8/56/13.1 miles). If I do another can I then call myself an Ironman? No afraid not, get on with it wimp.

pictures here even one of me coming down the steps into the water. White cap, silver shoulders on my wetsuit.