So the Vitruvian was a not a race I had not planned to do this year as all I wanted to focus was the Outlaw Triathlon. The Vit was full and in early May I decided to e-mail them to see if they had any spare spaces that I could take. Not even an hour after I sent my email I had a reply saying that they have opened up the website again and if I wanted a place to be quick. Straight I was signed up and I was happy that I had an event to look forward to.
Throughout August I never really trained much this was due to me completing the Outlaw triathlon and that I had taken everything out of me. I had done a couple of open water swims and about a handful of runs. I hadn't even looked at my bike at all. My TT bike was still needing cleaning and it was the Thursday night before the Vit that I finally got time to clean my bike.
I went down on the Friday to collect my race pack and take in the atmosphere. I knew we could rack the bikes the night before but I decided that I would rack it on the day. There was loads of people racking up their bikes and I did have a little doubt that maybe I should of brought my bike down.
Race kit all ready and I managed to get 5 hours sleep before I had to leave my house at 0330hrs to get to Rutland waters.
Bike racked and I'm all ready to go. I had decided that I wasn't going to race this event but I was going to go out and enjoy my last triathlon of the season.
Picture above is whilst everyone is at the race brief, I was just taking my time and enjoying the quiet time before it all kicks off in the swim.
I was looking forward to the swim even though last time I swam in this lake at the Dambuster Triathlon I had a nightmare with people swimming in to me or pulling me back. This time I positioned myself further to the side and I knew that this would be better for me as I would be able to swim past the slower swimmers quicker and hopefully I won't get caught up in what seems like a mass brawl in the middle. The swim was two laps which involved getting out of the water and running back in. I had never done this before so was looking forward to getting out and running back in and try and look professional when I dive back in.
Swim went with out any issues and I was happy with time of 35:30 mins
In to T1 and I could tell I felt really relaxed as I even stopped to have a energy gel. T1 time 2:16 mins
The bike course is really enjoyable as you get a good mixture of hills and fast straights. You do two laps of the course and when you finish the first lap you head back down towards the lake to go through the feed station. I never picked up an extra water bottle and I wished I had as towards the end of the bike I could feel a bit of cramp coming on.
I managed to push it a bit harder on the series of hills on the second lap and I was looking forward to see what I could do on the run as on my last half Iron distance race my legs was in bits from pushing it too hard and my running suffered.
Bike time was 2:49:46 hours
T2 went well as my bike was on the end of the rack so had no issues finding my spot and I was soon out on the run T2 time 1:49 mins
On to the final discipline the run. The run course is flat and fast and the weather was perfect, no wind and the sun was out.
On the first lap of the run running towards the church I could feel a light breeze which was great in keeping me cool. the problem was when we had to turn round at the church and we were running with the wind. This became hard work as there was nothing to cool me down apart from the water at the feed stations. I felt nice and comfortable on the first lap and was still feeling quite relaxed and never really focussed on my overall time or what pace I was running at. I was secretly racing some one the course as they started the run about the same time as me and we were running the same pace. The second lap I wanted to try and push away from the person I had stayed with on the first lap but I think he had the same idea and he was soon pulling away from me. I didn't react as I didn't want to over cook it and ruin my race. Coming back towards the finish with approx. 200 metres to a go and there was loads of people cheering everyone in and was a great atmosphere.
Pleased with run time of 1:45:02
Overall time was 5:14:03 hours.
On to my last event for the season for now which is another crazy idea Equinox 24. A 24 hour endurance race.
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