The 1st Vitruvian Triathlon Rutland Water - swim 1900m, bike 80km, run 21km 6th September 2003

Thursday night in the showers after swimming, overhear Jim saying to Ant Gray, “Skelly’s dropped out of Rutland, injured, so we haven’t got a team”. “Nobody else is doing it”.

For what it’s worth I wander across and tell him I’m doing it. A look of disbelief crosses Jim’s face and for a moment he appears almost speechless (difficult to believe I know).

“Err what time are you aiming for then? 4 hours what?” “Just to finish it and hopefully in less than 6 hours” Another moment of silence. “Look at it this way, if I finish you’ll score some points which is better than scoring none. If you win it then it will make up for my slow time”

“I won’t win, there are too many good people in this”

“You might not win but you’ll have finished and gone home before I start the run section” “What is this league anyway, Scottish division 2 or something”

Jim then goes into a detailed explanation of how it all works and all of which I’ve forgotten anyway.

Saturday morning 4:30am (the time sane people are returning from the pub); the alarm goes off in the back of the van conveniently parked 100m from the transition area next to the bike & run exits. Shove some bread & jam down, make some tea and wander down to registration that opens at 5am. Having to get up early doesn’t really bother me as I have to do it everyday for work but it’s quite amusing watching other bleary eyed people trying to get it together to juggle bikes, boxes and food on the 300m walk from their car park. Easily manage to avoid the queues for the toilet by using the disabled ones that have no queue and surprisingly no disabled patrons at that time in the morning.

For once I have the energy and no real injuries so can warm up properly. Bump into Helen form Worcester tri club who’s about as nervous as I am about this. It might not seem much to the Ironmen and women out there but to me it’s the biggest thing I’ve tried so far and it’s only just over 2 months since my first Olympic distance race. Then I spot Jim and wander over for a word. We talk about the bike route, which I’d done, at Dambuster and the new bit I’d driven the night before. Told Jim he’d be out of transition before I exited the water despite starting 10 minutes behind me. Also reminded him he’d better win the thing and broke the news I’d only ever done a ½ marathon once before.

The swim is a two-lap affair. An in water start and being old I get to start with the girls rather than the young tigers. Soon settle in to a nice rhythm with none of the bumping and barging I’ve had to get used to in the Olympic races. All too soon it’s the end of lap 1 and time to exit the water. This is new to me but nice as you get a bit of a rest and in my case some moral support from Jackie & Chris who’ve appeared by the exit. Soon back into the swing of things, when half way round lap two this streak goes past in a red hat. Some how it looks like Jim and I amuse myself thinking it can’t be there would have been speech bubbles coming out of the water (it was Jim). A few more men in red hats appear and I even managed to draft one for a bit before running out of water to swim in.  Exit and trot by Jackie in 38 minutes, 4 minutes quicker than my aim time…. What happened there then?

Transition is a struggle. I’d decided for comfort over speed but the socks and bike shoes didn’t want to play. Eventually staggered out, cycle shirt bulging with gels and energy bars.

The first lap on the bike was basically a variation on the Dambuster route to include an extra bit of hill (nice). I remembered the course being quite hard but somehow this time it didn’t seem too bad. I’d pre decided to try and keep my heart rate down and to save something for later (probably doing it all wrong but I don’t know any better). The aim was for a couple of minutes slower than my last visit but at 1:27 for the 27 miles I matched the time with less effort. Swinging back through the feed station by the water’s edge manage to grab a water bottle and not fall off. Luckily Jackie was around again to have an empty bottle hurled at her and put a stop to the on bike bottle juggling routine that had started.

There followed 2 short laps with a long draggy hill on each lap. Thought I was going quite well; just overtaking a girl uphill when this missile pulls along side briefly, says “Hi Russ” and then shoots off like I’d gone into reverse. Jim was starting his 2^nd small lap. Shortly after Ant shot by in hot pursuit (well I assumed it was him as he had an orange and black top on). Overtook a few more people on the 2^nd small lap and smiled at the man on the Softride bike being sick by the roadside. Swung in to transition to be cheered on by Annie & Kev as well as the usual suspects. Looked at the watch and I’d done it in 2hours 40 mins. Well under the target of 3 hours and the legs felt reasonable as well.

Once again comfort was the order of the day, so donned a running shirt before setting off from transition. The run was always going to be the hard bit for me so I’ll get the excuses out of the way now:-

1. My average running mileage from April to mid August has been 2 miles a week due to injury.

2.   I’ve only started running properly again 3 weeks before this escapade.

I’d set a target time of 2 hours and so plodded along at a pace I could sustain. First lap in about 57 minutes. Saw Jim who gave me some encouragement and wondered why he had some women cycling along with him. Back in to the turn around by transition and hear over the loudspeakers that some bloke called Jim Creswell is in the lead by two minutes. Err… I know him….

Starting lap 2 saw Jim again and he was indeed winning the thing. Got a wave from Ant as he pounded towards the finish. Even I managed to overtake a few people as by this stage there were more than a few walking (and lying down).

With about 1/2 mile to go Brian had appeared. “SH*T” I’ll have to look like I’m trying to run properly now.

“Come on Russ, you can catch those 3 in front, go get them”.  I guess I must be dumb or something…. I’d fallen for it at the Powerman and I fell for it again. Set off in hot pursuit and managed to sprint by 2 out of 3 but the last one got away just before the finish line. 2^nd lap done in just under 60 minutes.

Ran over the line and collected the finishers shirt and yet another Powerbar bottle to add to the collection. Wandered around aimlessly happy in the knowledge I’d completed something I wasn’t really fit enough to do and somehow under my target time. I was that far behind the bloke who won and his mate they were on the balcony of the café tucking into bacon sandwiches but at least I wasn’t last.

God only knows if Derby Tri got any points for the fantasy triathlon league out of this, you’ll have to ask Jim….

Name		Place	Swim	Bike	Run	Total
Jim Cresswell		1	00:27:19	02:08:24	01:27:43	04:03:26
Ant Gray		10	00:34:22	02:21:28	01:25:56	04:21:46
Russell Carter		128	00:41:10	02:42:12	01:57:08	05:20:30
224 Finishers