One of the advantages of my job is the ocassional opportunity to visit Vancouver. This is the first time I’d visited the city ( or Canada, in fact, though I have been to the US a few times ) and I wanted to make the most of the free time I had.

Having decided do go for a hike in the surrounding mountains, I only really had one full day free, limiting my options to what was easily accessible and returnable from in a day. Some of my colleagues had previously been to Grouse Mountain and mentioned it as a possible destination, but having never been higher than Ben Nevis ( at 1344m, 4409 ft, the highest mountain in the UK ) I wanted to use this opportunity to improve on that. Further to the west than Grouse, Cypress Provincial Park offers a number of peaks starting at around 1350m and steadily increasing in height as you go further north. These peaks form part of the popular Howe Sound Crest Trail, the full length of which is around 30km but I would only be doing the portion as far as The Lions – two 1600m peaks visible from Vancouver that are not entirely dissimilar from Garbh Chioch Mhòr and Sgùrr Na Cìche in Knoydart. From what I can ascertain, ascending The Lions themselves requires scrambling ( class 4 according to Wikipedia, though I have no idea what that is in UK terms ), however strange peaks in strange countries merit appropriate safety gear, so this time at least I would content myself to the summit of Unnecessary Mountain, which at 1530m fulfilled my "higher than Nevis" criterion well enough.

Cypress Mountain to Lions Bay

I dislike retracing my steps, so I prefer circular routes where possible, or failing that a destination served by public transport back to my starting point. With that in mind I perused the useful Vancouver Trails website for a suitable route. I opted for a portion of the Howe Sound Crest Trail, taking me over St Mark’s Summit and Unnecessary Mountain to The Lions, and then a sharp descent to Lions Bay from where a regular bus service goes back to Vancouver.

Vancouver Trails rates its routes as Easy/Intermediate/Difficult, but this means little if you have no basis for comparison. The portion as far as St Mark’s Summit ( intermediate ) is virtually a gravel track for most of the way, with a few sections of clambering over fallen trees near the top. Compared to hiking in the UK it’s a luxurious highway. Between St Mark’s Summit and Mount Unnecessary a sign indicates that the improvements that have been done to the trail by the local authorities come to an end, after which the ground is rough and going is hard and a map is all but useless – but there are orange tags and other such markers hanging from branches, nailed to trees and sprayed on rocks for the entire route making it difficult to miss.

The portion on the ridge itself is the most rewarding, with its spectacular views. At this time ( late September ) there was a little snow but most of it avoidable, and even where not avoidable it wasn’t anything that would necessitate crampons, the worst consequences of a slip being embarrassment and a wet arse. There are some fixed ropes left in some areas to ease clambering off the rocks but personally I prefer not to trust my wellbeing to ropes when I have no idea who put them there. In any case they aren’t really necessary to progress.

The ascent and descent from Lions Bay is described as ‘difficult’ by Vancouver Trails, and though I would only be doing the descent it’s a bit of a slog and I would say that although being both longer and higher than Ben Nevis via the Pony Trail, it’s a route of similar character. The last section however, where the track widens and zig-zags down the hill is tedious beyond belief, and what I wouldn’t have given for a mountain bike at that stage.

One major difference between hiking in Scotland and Canada is the presence of bears. Hikers are advised to carry various forms of protection as an emergency measure, such as a pepper spray variant available from outdoor shops in the area. Bears, I am told, tend to avoid the smell and noise of people anyway, which I imagine is true since I didn’t see a single one. I did buy the pepper spray, however, though I was unable to take it on the plane back to the UK.

The interactive map

A quick word on the interactive map above for those interested ( if you’re viewing this as a Facebook note or RSS feed, you’ll need to view the original post to see it ). The basic service is provided by Microsoft, the reason I don’t use Google Maps is that Microsoft provide access to the UK’s Ordnance Survey topographical mapping. I have customised it somewhat for this specific post, using the Canadian Government’s Geogratis service to download a local topographic map in pdf format, and then used MapCruncher from Microsoft Research to prepare it in a format so that it can be used with Bing. The details on how to do this are available from MSDN for interested web geeks, but it’s probably not of any interest to anyone else.

Gallery

High resolution images are available from Flickr.

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Despite having been born and brought up for the first half of my life in Scotland, and having recently returned there, I have seen and explored little of it. Until recently I believed Fort William to be in the reasonably far north, despite the fact that the most cursory glance of a map reveals it to be only about halfway between Carlisle and Thurso. As part of what I hope will be a series of adventures to explore the rest of the land of my birth, I decided to venture into Knoydart, the region between Lochs Nevis and Hourn, at least partly inspired by the initial stages of the Cape Wrath Trail. The aim would be to reach Inverie, and its pub The Old Forge, the most remote pub in mainland Britain. Also, being of modest mountaineering ambitions, I would try to prefer high level routes where possible.

Day 1 : Glenfinnan to Strathan

I don’t drive, and so am subject to the vagaries of public transport, which in the less densely populated areas of Scotland are more vague than most. I was however able to arrive at Fort William station at a reasonable hour, making the obligatory stop at Nevisport to pick up anything I’d forgotten, including a hat, but not insect repellent, something I was to regret several times over the course of the next few days.

Rather than start my journey from Fort William, I opted to get the train to Glenfinnan and start from there. I had last been in my childhood or early teens and had taken a photograph of the monument during some appalling weather, which has since become an oil painting and present for some recently married friends. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to make a quick stop to take another picture of what is probably one of the most beautiful places in Scotland.

Here my journey began in earnest, walking from the monument under the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct. Since its appearance in the Harry Potter films, this location has brought in tourists from far and wide, these were the last people I was to see for some time, however at the time of writing there was a lot of work going on as part of a hydroelectric project and so I didn’t really begin to feel the isolation I’d been anticipating until I was well past the Glenfinnan Lodge. Here a track diverges to go up over Sgùrr nan Coireachan ( marked with a red dotted line on the map ), which I would have taken had circumstances permitted. I did consider the detour, but it was late ( about 3pm ), and the weather was less than ideal so I opted for the low level route. A little later the skies opened, and I knew that I had made the right decision.

Once out of Gleann Cuìrnean, the route crosses over the river Pean and Brook and Hinchliffe’s guide suggests avoiding the conifer forest and making your way around the edge toward Strathan. However, I found the ground here to be extremely boggy and eventually, in order to make further progress, I had to succumb to getting my feet wet and wade through about 2 feet of marsh water. To anyone attempting this route, I recommend fighting through the conifers to find the track through the forest, or perhaps going along the riverbank where the ground may be firmer.

It was by this point getting dark, and I was tired, so I decided to camp on the first bit of acceptable ground rather than continue on toward Glendassary. Unfortunately I discovered that I had neglected to bring anything with which to light my stove, and so a well needed brew was not an option. In addition, the considerable weight of the stove was now largely redundant and not for the first time I thought about how in future I might save some weight.

Day 2 : Strathan to Sourlies

I woke to find that the predicted foul weather had not yet arrived, and resolved to make an early start. I was packed up and ready to go by 8.00 am, and despite lacking a hot breakfast I was feeling pretty good and made good time along the solid track through Glendassary. I noticed that some fellow wild campers had made good use of the fact that the ground here was much nicer than at Strathan, the first people I’d seen since Glenfinnan. I made a mental note to camp here if I came this way again.

At this point I had to make the first real decision affecting my route, it was early enough that I could opt to traverse the Glendassary ridge all the way to Sourlies, however I was suspicious of the weather, both the MET office and MWIS had forecast rain and high winds on the summits, and so I opted for the valley rather than the ridge. It was a decision I still regret, but at the time it was the sensible one.

As the day went on, the rain and winds failed to materialize. In fact the weather was glorious, and the dreaded midgies took maximum advantage of the still weather and my bare arms. By about 11.00am I made the decision to try to get up onto the ridge and make the most of the conditions while they held. The OS 50,000 map indicates a path from the valley up to the ridge but I failed to find it, and instead improvised my way along sheep tracks and up gullies. While letting my mind wander it occurred to me that Sheep Track Optimization could be an unexplored avenue for heuristic optimization techniques, but I digress ( see Ant Colony Optimization in case you think I’ve gone barking mad ). Eventually I found the crest of the ridge, where there was a clearly well trodden path and a wall, over which was a dramatic view toward Loch Quoich.

It was a glorious day for walking the ridge, with a good path and plenty of opportunities for easy and totally unnecessary scrambling. The huge peaks of Garbh Chioch Mhòr and Sgùrr Na Cìche ( which rather amusingly translate as ‘Big Rough Place of the Breast’ and ‘Peak of the Breast’ respectively ) command awesome views of Knoydart and beyond.

Descending the ridge from Sgùrr Na Cìche it gradually became obvious that the gusts of wind were increasing in strength and in frequency, and that the long heralded foul weather had been merely delayed. The path had long since disappeared to give way to some fairly nondescript peatbogs, and it became clear I was not going to get off the ridge before nightfall. There was a lochan at about 400m that would have been an idyllic spot but for the fact it offered no shelter from the, by now, impressive wind blowing from the direction that I had come. I found a reasonably sheltered spot on the south side of the ridge, set up the tent and perched on a rock to watch the sun set.

Day 3 : Sourlies to Inverie

The weather arrived sometime during the night. The tent however performed admirably, staying rock solid in the face of every blast of gale force wind and every torrent of rain. Lighter tents are available, but for once I was glad to carry a bit of extra weight for something solidly constructed ( The tent is a Hilleberg Akto for those interested ). I remember listening to the noise of rain and wind and wishing I could get to sleep, only to drift off and the next thing I knew it was morning.

I woke to find that the trickle of water I had heard from a nearby stream now sounded like a full blown waterfall, though thankfully it was nowhere near the tent. It was a miserable morning, and I took my time about packing up. The rain was easing off, but I nonetheless decided to get off the ridge as quickly as possible rather than take the longer route toward the beach at Loch Nevis. Visibility gradually improved, but the going was difficult and it was the best part of an hour before I made the footbridge.

Here I was somewhat surprised to meet a couple of walkers who had spent the night at Sourlies Bothy ( ‘Luxury’, apparently, though they wouldn’t have had my views ). They had already crossed the bridge, conveniently demonstrating that it wasn’t quite the death trap it looked. Actually it was pretty solid, though it swings disconcertingly if you try to cross at speed. From here a good stalkers path climbs to the bealach at the head of Gleann Meadail.

By this time I could practically taste the beer at The Old Forge, and struck up a pace that would make a mockery of Naismith’s rule. I noted on the map that I could have taken another high level diversion here over Meall Buidhe, but again I was thwarted by the weather. As I approached Inverie, signs of civillization began to appear: the odd outbuilding, landrover tracks, highland cattle. I made it to Inverie by 4pm, and went straight to the pub where I met a walker who had come south over Ladhar Bheinn, immediately making me feel like a wimp.

Inverie, and home.

There is a perfectly good campsite at Inverie, and a bunkhouse, but I felt that I’d earned a small amount of luxury and decided to try my luck at the B&B, Knoydart Lodge. I popped my head round and managed to disturb the owners, Bob and Morag, and their guests having dinner. Luckily there was a room available.

Knoydart Lodge puts many of the hotels I have stayed in to shame, the bedroom had a huge double bed and breakfast the following morning was fresh and cooked to order. That evening I had dinner at the pub and returned to Knoydart Lodge to while away the evening chatting to Bob, Morag and their guests, who had brought guitars, a mandolin and an accordion to have ‘a wee tune’. My version ( actually Travis’ version ) of the Britney Spears hit ‘Hit me baby one more time‘ caused some hilarity but was, sadly, not really up to scratch. I was able to redeem myself with a few bars of Rachmaninoff on the piano until I reached a mental block probably caused by too much whisky.

The following morning, while well rested, I decided to expedite my route home by taking the local ferry to Mallaig, and thence the train back to Edinburgh via Fort William. Unfortunately there was a considerable gap between connections at Fort William and so I was forced to spend a few hours in The Grog and Gruel. Life is hard, sometimes.

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Somewhat late, since I have had pictures on my facebook profile for months, but I thought I should add a post about my experiences at the London Triathlon in August 2008. This was the second of three major endurance events I completed in 2008, the others being the Blenheim Triathlon and the New York Marathon, in aid of Epilepsy Research UK. I would like to thank everyone who generously sponsored me for those events, your donations have since been passed on to the charity and will be put towards improving the quality of life for eplieptics who suffer from more severe symptoms than my own.

The Joy of Weekend Engineering Works

The Mazda London Triathlon was my first Olympic distance event, a 1500m swim, 40km cycle and 10k run. Since I had already had something of a dry run at Blenheim I knew largely what to expect during the race itself. this time however there were no generous family members around to provide transportation, so that was my responsibility, and I don’t drive. Unfortunately, National Express or whoever was running East Anglia’s railways that particular week had picked Sunday 10th August for engineering works between and Cambridge and Audley End. Audley End is a 15 mile cycle from Cambridge, quite a nice cycle on any other day, but one I could have done without on the day I’m supposed to competing in a Triathlon. If that weren’t bad enough, the first train to arrive broke down and I had to wait 45 minutes for the next one. The accumulation of delays reduced the 2 hour buffer with which I had left myself to prepare to about 30 minutes and seriously threatened my participation in the race.

The Swim

Had I not participated this article would have been rather pointless, so suffice to say all problems were resolved and I made it to the ExCel centre and into Prince Albert dock for the beginning of the swim. As at Blenheim I was surprised at the number of triathletes who hadn’t done any open water swimming preparation – I certainly would not have liked that to be my first experience of it. Probably the most depressing part is that the markers for the super sprint and sprint distances were still up, so my initial thought was along the lines of, Oh, its not that far. No wait, that’s for the 400m race, it must be the next one. No, that’s for the 750m race. The marker for the 1500m race was a blurry orange blob in the distance somewhere near Dover. 1500m, a distance I can cover in less than 5 minutes on foot, is a hell of a long way in open water.

The start of a triathlon is a rather chaotic affair, advice is often given for novices to stay near the back and it’s advice I would be inclined to take. The stronger swimmers can make the rest of us minnows feel a bit like a cat in a washing machine during the early stages. Incidentally, it was at this point that I lost my GPS, which now lies at the bottom of Prince Albert dock. Do not be tempted to take yours into the water, leave it for the cycle and the run.

The Cycle

Whoever organizes the Mazda events seems to be intent on making the transitions as painful as possible. In Blenheim there was a 400m uphill run out of the water, in London there is a flight of stairs after the swim, which left me barely able to breathe. Nonetheless, even without the GPS, the cycle is by a huge margin my favourite event and at that time was the only part of the triathlon where I feel I can really compete and not just hold my own. I still had my rather old fashioned road bike but I had finally invested in a set of SPD pedals and, having gone through the baptism of traffic light embarassments, was keen to see what improvement they might make.

There is a certain amount of Schadenfreude to be enjoyed when overtaking someone who clearly spent more on their bicycle than some people do on their cars, with an 8 year old road bike that originally cost less than £200 ( ok, it’s had a few upgrades since then ). Of course, this is just making up for the experience of being overtaken in the water by people twice my age doing breaststroke, so I cannot allow myself to feel too smug about it.

As I said, I didn’t have the GPS so couldn’t be too accurate about pace but I found someone who was just slightly above my standard and followed them around the route ( not too close though, drafting is illegal in most Triathlons, including this one ).

The Run

A word about T2 ( the cycle->run transition ) in the London race. The ExCel centre is huge, as anyone who’s ever been to a conference there will know. Transition to the 10k run involved running around most of the perimeter of the event hall, which, from a rough calculation, is about 400m. That’s just transition, and is not actually part of the run component but it is mitigated somewhat in that the actual run is slightly short of the standard 10km. This was the most difficult part of the race, as the leg muscles adapt to the difference between cycling and running and at one point I didn’t think I was actually going to make it out of the conference centre. It was painful, and involved no small amount of willpower to keep going.

Once that transition period is over though the previous disciplines are forgotten and it becomes all about the run. I am a better 10k runner than I was, but even at that time I was good enough to enjoy it particularly without the blistering heat we had enjoyed at Blenheim in June. The difficult part is that it is a 2 lap race, so there is a psychological impact when you come to the end of the first lap and see the runners ahead of you finishing, knowing that you still have 5,000m to run. At the end of the second lap, there is a punishing uphill ramp to the finishing straight and it was at this final point that I was overtaken by someone who had decided to do a sprint finish and I still regret not taking him on. Next time.

Finish

My final time was 2:56:01, which I think was pretty good for a first effort particularly given a rather poor swim time. A final thanks to fellow triathlete Mark Oxenham who saved me the grief of a train journey home by providing transportation, and to Suzy and Anna for coming down to offer moral support.

Gallery

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On 27th September 2008 I and three friends took part in the Hearts First Bike Ride from Oxford to Cambridge in aid of the British Heart Foundation.

My friends stayed in Oxford overnight and probably started the day with a hearty breakfast. Unfortunately I had to make the start in Cambridge resulting in a 6.00am coach ride from Cambridge, a coach ride I almost missed due to a faulty alarm clock. One coffee cup and a muffin is no way to start a 90 mile bike ride ( or 86.78 according to my GPS ). I completed the ride in just shy of 5 hours, which admittedly is not that great but I use the excuse that it wasn’t a race and I had no one to draft.

Anyone who knows the route and takes a closer look at the map below may be wondering why I took a wrong turn in the centre of Cambridge resulting in me having to go down King St instead of the more sensible Emmanuel Rd route. This was basically because I wasn’t paying attention and I still had the London to Cambridge ride in the back of my mind, which took the former route.

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On November 2nd I ran my first marathon. It remains to be seen if I will run another, but at least I’ll have done New York. It really is the most awesome experience, the weather was just about perfect and the crowds from start to finish were incredible.

I took a package with Sports Tours International so everything was bought and paid for. Not only was this my first marathon but it was also my first trip to NYC ( If I’m going to see the city, I may as well see 26 miles of it… ) so I didn’t want to have to worry about transfers and getting from A to B, but in the end I doubt this would have been much of a problem.

Unfortunately the route information is missing from the map below, but this link should show it accurately. Alternatively, you can download the kml file directly for Google Earth.

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I had been warned some months beforehand that the route was hilly ( well “undulating” would probably be fairer ) and it is, but not that I noticed at the beginning of the race such was the level of enthusiasm. The steepest climb is over the Verrazano-Narrows bridge at the beginning but the shallower, longer climb at the end through Central Park is much tougher, and is magnified by fatigue. Hill training helps but it’s not enough to train when you’re fresh, I think training when tired would be more beneficial and that means longer runs. My own training was interrupted by a calf problem in the last month and by a near disastrous ankle injury the weekend before, but such is the risk you take when you put in the mileage necessary during training.

I was amazed how quickly the first half of the race passed, and I put this largely down to the incredible atmosphere. The new yorkers are incredibly proud of this race, and the route is lined with crowds from start to finish. There are live bands – I high-fived a guitarist on the way round – there’s the inevitable Rocky theme music and at one point a full Gospel choir. You don’t get that on the Cambridge Boundary Run.

The one negative aspect was the size of the race ( about 40,000 competitors ) necessitates large-scale organization, which for us meant getting up for the buses from central Manhattan at 4.00 am and hanging around in the freezing cold until the 10.00 am start. I don’t think this is really necessary, and although I had some fun getting to know some of my fellow runners I would sooner have had the extra few hours sleep and a proper breakfast. So that said, here are some other things I’ll be bearing in mind if I ever do this again.

• The 7.30 am Staten Island ferry is probably sufficient to get to the start on time, but if you must take the 4.00 am buses, take some warm clothing and probably a sleeping bag and a bivvy bag – I kid you not. I raided the charity shops in the week before hand and so kept warm, but even so I looked with envious eyes upon those who were better prepared.
• You’ll need to dump your kit at least an hour before the start, so take some clothes you can dispose of en route, like the aforementioned charity wear. I bought a fleece for £3.50 from a British Heart Foundation shop, which I quickly disposed of after coming off the Verrazano-Narrows bridge and ran the rest of the race in a singlet.
• Bring your own breakfast, since you can’t rely on picking up more than a cup of coffee and a bagel at the start.
• The last few miles are uphill, and are magnified by fatigue so make sure your training takes this into account. There aren’t many hills in Cambridge but even so I could have been better prepared.
• Get your name printed on your running top, I envied the runners getting personal encouragement from the crowd toward the end of the race.
• Try to overcome any weird sense of British modesty and wear your medal everywhere you go for the next day. New Yorkers are incredibly proud of their race, the medal is like a VIP pass.
• Don’t trip over any tree roots the weekend before the race. If you do, Diclofenac is your friend.

All in all I was pleased with my time of 3:57, particularly given the trouble I had with my ankle. Luckily a large tube of diclofenac gel and an ankle support was enough to see me through the race, plus the long straight sections of the race minimized the risk of further injury. I hope I’ll be able to do this race again. No more flying economy class though. It sucks.

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The previous incarnation of this site was described by former colleague Rob Morse as being too “geeky”, as most of the content consisted of material for my Open University maths courses. So, to mitigate the inevitable geekification of PlanetMarshall, the first post of the new site will be detailing my efforts at the 2008 Blenheim Triathlon. Just to prove that you do not need to be an obese agoraphobe with a penchant for burgers and comics featuring half naked girls riding dragons to be a computer programmer.

On the 8th of June 2008 I took part in my first Triathlon, consisting of a 750m open water swim, a 20km cycle and a 5k run – a distance that is amusingly known as a “Sprint”.

Preparation

Not being a driver myself, my mother and sister had generously agreed to drive and spend the day at Blenheim Palace, which is about 2-3 hours from Cambridge. The event had clearly been organised with military precision, so I had my timing chip, race numbers and bike racked in the transition area with plenty of time to spare.

The swim

This is, by some margin, my worst event. Thanks though to the Cambridge Triathlon Club I’d manage to get some open water swimming training in the weeks beforehand so I was at least prepared for the challenges that involves. Of course, you have to wear a wetsuit; this is compulsory and since the water was 15°C I wouldn’t have wanted to be in the lake without one. Additionally, under the water you can’t see a damn thing and so you need to practice “sighting”, which essentially means looking where you’re going once in a while to make sure you haven’t gone off at a 90° angle and are swimming into some swans. This happens suprisingly often. One thing that initially worried me was the “washing machine” effect of having about 100 competitive swimmers in the water all starting at the same time, most of which are considerably stronger than me. I found this to be not so much of a problem, as there was plenty of room and no one really goes off at full pelt – I suspect that there were many other first timers there and that they were being equally conservative with their effort.

Even with adequate preparation, the swim was tough. I was unable to complete the full distance in freestyle, which left me doing breast stroke for a short distance in the middle ( backstroke is disallowed for safety reasons, and butterfly would just be stupid ). Incidentally, it’s quite difficult to do breaststroke because the wetsuit is so buoyant that it makes it difficult to push your chest under the water – I was also not helped by the fact that I had now started to digest the Sainsbury’s pasta salad I had had in the car (note to self, eat earlier next time). I have a lot of work to do before the London Triathlon, which is twice the distance, and I would like to do all of it freestyle.

T1

I was glad to get the swim over with, but my initial relief after being helped out of the water by the attendants was mitigated somewhat by the 400m uphill run to the transition area. Of course, I had known about this beforehand but nothing quite prepares you for the actual experience. I kept my mind off it by attempting to dislodge my wetsuit. At this point I was pleasantly surprised to see my mother and sister cheering me on, since I had assumed they would have buggered off round the gardens and left me to it.

I had never done one of these transitions before, but it seemed a fairly straightforward affair of getting the wetsuit off and getting onto the bike. The wetsuit came off quite easily thanks to a tip I had read about putting baby oil on my ankles prior to the swim. Now, if you watch experienced competitors during this period what usually happens is that they have cycling shoes clipped to the pedals prior to starting, which they put on during the initial few seconds of the race while on the bike. My strategy was similar, in that it involved running out of T1 without having put my shoes on. Where it differed was that I did not actually have any cycling shoes, because I had decided to just cycle with conventional pedals in my running shoes, shoes that were at this point back next to my wetsuit ( note to self, get proper pedals and shoes).

The cycle

Having gone back to get my shoes, I was now able to settle in and enjoy the cycle. Cycling is my strongest discipline, and the course at Blenheim has few if any major challenges. There are some undulating sections but nothing that would greatly tax an experienced rider. I would expect most good cyclists to belt round the 20km course in less than 30 minutes. I have no idea what my time was because at about this point I realised that in my hurry to remove the wetsuit the timing chip had come with it. If that weren’t enough, I followed another rider into the transition area on the wrong lap and so had to turn round to resume the race. I contented myself with spending the remainder of the race trying to overtake people on bikes that easily cost at least 10 times what I spent on mine. Two laps later I turned into transition, correctly, picked up my missing timing chip and got settled into the run.

The run

Since running half of the Cambridge Boundary Run in February in a fairly feeble 2:01, running was the discipline that I had probably spent most time training. Still, going straight into a 5k from quite a fast cycle is still a bit of a shock when you do it for the first time. The heat was really a factor at this point and I really began to look forward to the various places on the run at which the attendants were spraying runners with cold water. There are two laps to the run, the disadvantage of this is it’s a bit demoralizing to approach the finish line on the first lap knowing you have to do it all over again. The advantage is that it gives you a chance to familiarize yourself with the course, so that when I approached the finish for the second time I was able to kick and start overtaking some of the other competitors. I stopped short of overtaking one guy right near the line though. It’s not the Olympics, after all.

So that was that, I finished, had a great experience and finished with enough left in the tank that doing the Olympic distance race in London didn’t seem impossible. Because of the timing chip mishap I didn’t get accurate split times for the transitions and the bike, but my total time in the end was 1:42:37, which is not great but not that bad either for a first try. All in all I can’t recommend this triathlon highly enough, my mother couldn’t say enough about how well organised it was and also how well exiting the car park compared to a Robbie Williams concert.

London Triathlon 2008

By the way, I’ll be participating in the London Triathlon on behalf of Epilepsy Research UK so if you’re interested in sponsoring me you can do so securely online by following the link from JustGiving below.

Images

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