Am I ready? Maybe. Am I nervous? Yes. Am I going to finish it? Damn right. Am I going to get the time I wanted? The day will decide that.
Last week was a decent week of final prep. A nice 4025 metre swim, aided with my toys, a few decent bike rides and few short sharp runs. Nothing too stressful to the body. Also managed to get a massage in on the Saturday to help loosen up the tight and worryingly tired muscles.
And now onto the final week and it is nearly here. The event I have been training for since November. Challenge Roth.
I honestly can’t believe how quickly it has come round. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was parting with my hard-earned cash to enter this race. Now come Sunday 1st July I will be there, on the start line after 10 nervous toilet visits, ready to compete against novices, enthusiasts, and pro’s alike.
Friends have been asking me all week if I am ready, and my usual answer has been “as ready as I can be”. I know that if the event came in another months time then I would be giving the answer as “Yes – I am ready”. I have started to be able to throw in brick sessions recently as the injuries have subsided, and I truly feel that another month of training would have had me in better condition to tackle the beast. However, that is not the case, so I go into Sunday with the knowledge that I am as ready as I will ever be.
Another common question has been if I have a time in mind. And yes I do. However, I will keep this to myself, just in case I miss that time. Then whatever time I do get will be the time I wanted 🙂 I have gone from trying to compete into trying to complete.
Complete seemed an impossibily on Wednesday when Nath hit me with some bad news when he announced the water temperature – and it was hot enough to make it a non wetsuit swim for the pro’s (anything over 21.9 degrees makes it non wetsuit swim for pro’s) and it is only going to get warmer!! I am screwed! There is no way I would complete the swim in the time limit without the wetsuit. So I ordered a swimskin just in case. Then looking at the pre race report it suggests that as it is a canal swim the organisers always make it a wetsuit swim by opening locks up to allow cooler water into the canal. PHEW!! Game back on! As long as the report is to be believed!
Then another blow was hit when I looked at the weather. Damn……. 29 degrees with no cloud! I could have done with 20 degrees with cloud cover and a light breeze. One help is the low wind speed, so that will help on the bike leg.
But 29 degrees!! And am I right in thinking the weather always reports shaded temperatures?!?!?! The run is going to be a scorcher. I am praying they have water showers scattered along the run course, with multiple water stops throughout.
Still the wife support will be happy as they can soak in the rays while we drown in the pain.
Saturday the bike was cleaned and prepped. Sunday night I did the list of what I needed to take. I started to pack the bags, and get the kit ready. It is amazing how much I need to take. Get ready for the list below.
Tonight and tomorrow I will finish ticking this list off as I go along, and then Wednesday we load up the vehicle and get ready for the road trip.
So this is it guys and girls. My last blog before I report back on the big day. Hoping that the next blog will be all about how I smashed it up and made it look and feel easy 🙂 Train hard race easy.
I will try to get the blog up ASAP after the race, but expect it to take me a few days to recover and report.
See you on the other side……
Big G – a very apprehensive and nervous Big G
Accidental Cyclist 