Survived Blenheim

So today I rocked up to do Blenheim Triathon. The drive from London took almost three hours thanks to horrendous traffic in and around Blenheim Palace itself. All I can say is thankfully I decided to go early. For anyone looking to do this event in the future, go early, expect to be delayed.

Anyway got there, found parking miles from the transition but was there.

Getting in was easy (once parked) and the surroundings really are superb. I wonder what it wuld be like if the weather isn't so nice though. For us it was beautiful, warm but not too horrible.

Speaking of horrible, the water was very cold. The sign said 15 degrees but even with my wetsuit and two hats for the first time ever I felt cold in the water when I put my head in. Probably a good indicator. The state of the water was good though, not much floating about and no squeshy mud to wade through like Heron Lake.

I survived the swim but really struggled those last few meters due to the cold and my general lack of fitness. The trip from the lake back to the transition area is long and hilly. If you look at the transition 1 times of people you will notice that they are probably chunky - that's your reason.

The cycle was tough for me. Not because of fitness really, mainly because at best it could be described as undulating, at worse hellish. For my under strength back, long demanding hills were not on the list of things to do. Unfortunately there were many of them and while the going down trips were welcomed and nice, the up hills jut went on for long times and that strain was difficult to bear in parts.

By the time the run arrived I was definitely aware I'd been doing more activity than I've done in three months. Thankfully the run route was less undulating so even though it was in beautiful surroundings and not as demanding as the bike route it was all I could do to just get through it. All I wanted was for it all to be over. I was afraid if I started to walk I'd not be able to stat running again, collapsing in a heap on the grass instead.

Thankfully it didn't come to that and I finished successfully in 2 hours 13 minutes. It's hardly a time to set the world on fire, and much less than my last year's London 1 hour 53 but given the three months leading up to it I feel pretty luck I was able to turn up at all.

I'm sitting on the couch now, many hours later beginning to seize up. I've done as much as I can so will just have to see over the next few days. I don't anticipate much pain tomorrow. It'll be Tuesday before the real toll on my back will emerge. Fingers crossed it will be manageable and short lived.

Finally, thoughts on Blenheim? Beautiful location and we were blessed with the weather. There were some organisational challenges I'd prefer to see addressed (traffic queue in wasn't helped by slow access to the car park, need to improve the distance markers and finally I think the system of having the public and participants pottering about together on the journey from transition to swim isn't great. People in shoes, with prams and many many animals etc all shuffling along together not necessarily watching where they're going with the bare feet of the soon to be swimmers beside them). These are all relatively minor and perhaps just my experience rather than what everyone observed.

End of the day, I've done Blenheim and lived to tell the tale. Not bad.