Hi

I started my first ever attempt at this distance with great trepidation having switched from the sprint event about a week earlier.

When i saw the size of the waves as we lined up on the beach i felt physically sick and was glad to get in the water and get it over with. I started right at the back and was soon in trouble on the outward leg as i can only breathe to one side and that was into the waves. We were swimming against the tide this way and it seemed to take forever to reach the turn around buoy. After the turn things were a lot better, i stopped swallowing water and started to overtake other swimmers. Again i managed to swim a straight line and found sighting on the flag on the pier easy although it seemed to take a long time to swim in to the beach at the end. I finished in a dismal 34 minutes, determined never to do a sea swim again unless its flat calm.

Transition one was okay but i didnt like the stiff climb out on the bike . Julian and Brian passed me shouting encouragement( or insults i'm not sure) going the other way as we headed down to Alum Chine and out onto the A338. Not much to report here, i overtook a lot of riders on the outward leg which seemed fast . It was a different story on the return leg with the wind in our faces and i was beginning to tire, not having cycled this far in a race before. Not long after the turn i managed to get by Julian and headed back to Bournemouth as it began to rain lightly. The end of the bike ride was a bit tricky and i lost time here negotiating the steep downhill section.

Transition two was a bit of a disaster as someone had thrown their wetsuit over my towel which i had carefully laid out so i would recognise it. I had to retrace my steps back to my place and consequently got overtaken again by Julian in transition. I set off along the seafront for the run and managed after a couple of hundred yards or so to retake Julian who had set off at a really fast pace. From then on i was overtaking runners regularly but feeling vey tired. I thought we would never get to the turn at Southbourne and it was a great relief when we did. From now on it was just a question of survival i really wanted to stop but i knew if i did i would never get started again. I tried to focus on the huge pile of sand for the surf reef at Boscombe pier but it seemed forever before i got there, i was too tired to bother with a drink at the drinks station and stumbled through the last 2K in a bit of a daze to finish the run in 48:23 and 123rd position overall and first place in the 60-64 category.

Well done to all the other club members, i have not seen the full results yet so not sure who finished where. Well done to Julian for a very good swim in those conditions and very wll done to Esther for finishing after crashing and injuring her face. As for me i think its back to the sprint distance and lake or pool swims after this.

I attended the prize giving after the race and picked up trophies and a box of beer for the second team prize which was won by Alistair Asher, Mark Roberts and Neil Richmond.Well done I will bring them to swimming Monday.( i think there is some of the beer left hic!)

Regards

Dave Ransom