Story
Please donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee Nepal fund, they do great work and need every penny to build shelters in Nepal before the June monsoon rains come.
Post-challenge Report.
First of all, many thanks to all those who sponsored me for the 70.3mile triathon, before today I kind of though it was odd to ask friends etc to donate money to a cause you believe in because there is a challenge you want to achieve, it always didn't seem to make sense to me. As you will see below, I've been a little slow.
The Swim - 7.10am
Shortened to 500m due to Scottish Triathlon rules about water temperature. Completed in 17.07 minutes and then a mile run in wetsuit to the changing area…
Transition 1
This took longer than the swim and I found it more difficult!
There was a heated tent but it was still a car-park. We had to get out of a wetsuit and put on cycling gear, while freezing cold with nowhere to sit. And I thought a little about the Nepalese and got on with it.
Time taken: 23.16mins
The Cycle - 54miles
Typical Scottish weather - if the shorter swim means it wasn’t really a half-Ironman the weather and the hills made it harder than that. Beautiful Lomond countryside most of the way. Until my gears failed and I then had to go on up and down all these hills stuck in the middle cog, going backwards and grinding my chain. An hour later I found the mechanic and that was a relief but by that time I thought there was a good chance I would be last to finish. “It’s worse in Nepal” I thought.
Time taken: 4hrs42mins
Transition 2
My day-out on a bike bike shoes meant that by this time I seriously hadn’t felt my feet in about 5 hours. Absolutely frozen and
I had to sit on the tarmac and try to put tight running socks on my feet which were obviously someone else’s. I thought I was
Scott of the Antarctic or something, my toe nails felt like they might not be there when I next looked. I knew I was well behind so
opted to make the transition as quick as possible.
Time taken: 4mins
The Run - 13.1mies
Couldn’t feel my feet until I’d been running for about 90mins. Being way at the back meant that there is nobody to follow and
I kept running the wrong way. At one point I was having hallucinations that there were shadowy figures sitting at the riverbacks and hiding behind trees and bridges(!) but this passed quite quickly. After 8miles I did a mile of walking I confess. I thought about how maybe in Nepal there were old people having a day like this. Well "they can maybe do it if I can do it"… that’s the sort of help that getting sponsored brought me.
Time taken: 2hours46mins
The Finish: 3.30.
Last to finish by a long way, I got a very warm welcome from the crowd.
Total time: 8hours 14 mins.
Duncan
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