Yesterday I took part in my second ever middle distance event at Eastnor castle event situated in the picturesque Herefordshire countryside. The race distance was supposed to be 1500m / 90k / 21k but the run distance was changed last minute and a true distance was not calculated. The website now shows 13k but one runner had a Garmin which indicated about 11mile, so not sure.

The swim was in the castle lake which made for an interesting time as the course layout was set to swim from the start diagonally to the 2^nd buoy and then 2 complete laps. One of the buoys was situated in about 2 foot of water so your hands went through the gloopy mud on the bottom or you just stood up and ran round the buoy whichever was easier. I didnt have a very good swim as felt very heavy in the arms and also lost my nose clip very quickly which didn’t help as I hate swimming without it.

The bike course was 4x 14mile laps and was scenic and hot. A long gradual climb from about 1k after T1 and a long descent made a nice warm up for the legs. The rest of the course was mildly undulating with some nice long downhill sections to speed along until you hit the hill leading up to British camp which was a long steep killer climb and by the 3^rd and 4^th laps took all your energy until over the top. The bike course felt easier than the Wimbleball course of a few weeks ago but with the killer climb I managed exactly the same time as the IM 70.3.

The run was supposed to be 2 x10k laps consisting of a long slow climb from start and then undulating to a long killer climb about 1k from home. I was wondering why I was managed a 50min 10k on the 1^st lap and then to my disappointment found out the course was short at the end. The run was hard as ever as I may as well run backwards still despite the amount of effort I have put into my run training lately. I guess I will just never be a runner and will have to accept that.

Overall was a great day, in a great setting and I met some very friendly people.  Staying on site at the event made it so much more enjoyable as the evening before there was lots of chatting between athletes with various war stories of past events.  This also made it good the next day as with the mulitlap course we could all cheer each other on as we passed many times.  The campsite was in a beautiful setting in the deer park close to a river which gave my kids plenty of play time, so much so they slept virtually all the way home in the back of the motorhome.  Am now looking forward to a rest and a few shorter events (Tidworth and relays) before heading back up to Herefordshire for The Little Woody middle distance in August and then the Accelerance Extreme some time after.

Competitor             Finish       Swim         Cycle        Run

Kelvin Storey          05:40:47  00:34:11    03:25:12   01:35:52