Hi All,

Well I did it! Thanks so much for your support and sponsorship, together we have raised over £1000 for Trudy’s Trust. For those of you that haven’t got round to sponsoring me or doubted I’d complete it (shame on you ! ha ha) there’s still time, to donate please visit my Just giving page: http://www.justgiving.com/Naomi-Warr1.

My final time was 11 hrs 35 mins and 39 secs. I have to say it was tough, much harder than the first one I did. Swim was ok, didn’t get too beaten up at the mass start. Bike was great, must have been something to do with my new tyres, aero helmet and of course my pink bike (colour does matter). Run was a lot harder than anticipated, the race information said slightly undulating! which included an 8 mile road and canal run with a couple of cross country hills and road hills thrown in plus 3 x 10Km loops, each with a 3 mile uphill, can’t say I was too impressed with that! I was panicking at 10 miles as at this stage I still hadn’t received a arm band which we had to collect 3 of as evidence of completing 3 loops of Bolton. Thankfully I hadn’t missed the band stop and when I received my first band I got my rhythm back and stopped shouting at the crowd about where the band stop was ( they looked back with expressions of ‘mad women’).

As everyone was so interested in what my nutrition was in the last iron distance I thought I’d share it again for this race, so here goes:

Breakfast – cornflakes, banana, cup of tea, a little of Delia's sticky date cake (home made of course, not just a pretty face and an Ironman you know!), half a high five banana bar and 2 x ride shot sweets (like haribo but better and with caffeine!)

Swim – 5 gulps of lake water and some pond weed : ( and a couple of smacks round the head!

Bike – 2 x bottles of hydration drink, 4 x bottles of water, 2 x packs of ride shots ( brilliant!), 3 x high five banana bars, 3 x iso gels (energy gels with water) and 3 x high five gels (just sugar syrup basically) and managed to get all gels and food in my mouth this time and not up my nose which is an improvement on the last one. Oh and I forgot, 2 flies!

Run – 3 x high five caffeine gels, 2 x iso gels, 1 pack of ride shots (not quite the same effect on the run as the bike unfortunately – run shot brand needed!), 1 x bottle of hydration drink, 6 x cups of water, 4 x cups of Gatorade (energy and hydration drink), 5 x cups of coke ( I don’t drink coke usually! Weird!). Nearly 1 x beer which some random bloke tried to hand to me, was tempted but gave it a miss!

After – strawberry milk shake, 1 x bottle of water. Couldn’t face solid food.

4 hours later – I know, not good recovery but did the trick, Thai curry and tiger beer! Well deserved.

My final result was 12th woman overall (4 of which were pro athletes), 6 in age group 18-20 (ok 30-34 but don’t tell too many people!), 167 overall (including all men and women – girl power!). Splits below for info.

2 mile Swim = 1 hr 12 mins and 9 secs

Transition 1 = 5 mins 11 secs (makeup took a bit longer this time round due to pond weed ha ha)

112 mile Bike = 6 hrs 15 mins and

Transition 2 = 4 mins 27 secs

26.2 mile run = 3 hrs 58 mins

Thanks again.

Naomi (Ironman) Warr