Semi-Ferrous Man

Well, there it is, done. My challenge of the year. In fact, of the last two years but I wimped out of doing the Antwerp one in 2011. Yesterday saw me successfully complete the Challenge Henley Half Ironman Middle Distance Triathlon.

The reasons for why I should find it necessary to swim 1.9km, bike 85km then run 21.1km in a single session, with 800 other people, in the Berkshire countryside are not worth going into (mainly because they are insubstantial and spurious). However, the important thing is that having decided to do it, I went through with it without too much torment.

A very quick round-up of my training. The main ingredient was a good base level of fitness. My background running meant the half-marathon element wouldn't be too tricky (I did the London marathon in April, in 3h45). I typically managed a weekly spin session, maybe two, and another stint in the gym or something similar. After we came back from a Peru trip at the end of June, we had 4 weekends of weddings, and then in late July, I started dedicated training. Not really textbook preparation.

Dedicated training equalled 2-3 swims a week, ideally one in Parliament Hill lido. A double spin session on Tuesday, and a proper bike ride on Saturday, ramping up from 4 laps of Regents Park to a mind-numbing 16 laps (80km) at the peak. Stick in a decent length run after the Sunday long swim, and maybe a 5k and a 10k run during the week, and that was about it.

I had intended to do the full distance as a dress rehearsal 2 weeks before the race - however 45 minutes into the bike (which was first on the list for logistical reasons) I managed to stack it heavily enough to make the rest of the training undesirable, although fortunately without lasting damage to bike or rider. So everything was a bit anxiety-inducing come Saturday - particularly my weak, non-bike accustomed wrists. Without going into the tedious minutiae of the race itself, let's cover off some key aspects:

Things I was very glad of:

• The weather was perfect - cool, no rain, sun stayed in until 2pm or so
• At the last minute, I bought arm warmers and full gloves. I saw no-one else with full gloves, but my permanently cold hands were very happy to have them.
• Overstims nutrition - I used a "marathon pack" for London in April, and was so impressed with the outcome I bought a "triathlon pack" for this. The distances were longer, but still, I once again felt I was looking after what my system needed - highly recommended.
• I had my bike serviced. Ok, my drive gear got stuck in low (fortunately), but still, no serious mishaps. Seeing the poor fuckers by the side of the road messing about trying to reinflate tyres and what-not made me very thankful.

Things I wish I'd known beforehand:

• Actually, I was pretty well on top of everything. The race organisers could have been more detailed about the ferry shuttles going back from the end of the race to the start, and quite why the bag to put your Run stuff in was Blue while your Bike stuff went in a Red one is lost on me, but there were no other errors or omissions, I'm pleased to say.

Other general observations:

• The major one (ok, the top one is, "Christ, I'm glad that's over, no more for me", that's true) was that during the bike and the run, where half-ironmen were doing laps alongside the full-ironmen (just not as many), where I was thinking "yeah, this is going ok, feeling not too bad, decent pace etc", these superheroes would go past me like I was stationary. Unbelievable. Truly breathtaking and it gave me a new appreciation for what these people ("people" in the broadest sense, as they could well class as a different species entirely) are capable of.
• The area around Henley is lovely. The bike ride was far more enjoyable than it could have been due to going through some beautiful scenery. Christmas Common was an area I didn't know previously, and the village of Stonor with its charming-looking pub The Quince Tree is now definitely on the list for the future.

You can check out my results on the Challenge Henley site (although the split times are all over the shop, the actual end time looks right). 6h 7m all told, complete with relaxed transition times. More than satisfactory as I would have been happy with 6h30, and not disappointed with sub-7h.

What next? No more cycling events, that is a pledge to myself and my good lady. But, I'm sure there'll be something. Aquathlons, maybe a Tough Mudder, perhaps a smidge-longer-than-a-marathon ultramarathon.