I've swam across the river Humber

Organised by the Barracuda tri club www.barracudatriclub.com

I had a great day today. Today was the day I got to swim across the river Humber. We met at 3pm for a safety brief and after being told how dangerous the swim could be we then went to the rivers edge to get on board the lifeboat that was taking us across the river. On arrival at the other side we got into the water in 2 groups based on pace. The first group (my group) set off with the other group setting off 30 seconds later. We had to try and stay together for safety reasons and so the safety boat could keep an eye on us. The first 2/3 of the swim the current was pushing us up stream. As we got to the middle of the river it got a little choppy, the current was still pushing us up stream. With about 800m to go the tide turned and before we knew it we were having to review our approach as we were being moved towards the sea by the strong current. We arrived on the shore after covering the 1.5 mile swim in 38 mins. A fantastic afternoon swim with amazing views of the Humber bridge.

Ironman

Just looking at the rest 0f the RAF guys and was thinking of joining them in the Ironman Switzerland fun but have decided enough is enough, I am not paying 420 Euro's and that's that. No way on this earth will I pay that ransom to the Ironman franchise!

A couple of races with decent results at last

Last week was the RAF Sprint Championships at RAF Cranwell. For me it meant finishing a night shift, driving for 2 1/2 hours to Cranwell, racing and then driving home for a shower, shave, and then driving back to work for another night shift. A bit of a tiring day!
So the race, I found out I was in wave 22 of 23 waves along with Mat, Brad and JC. Its the first triathlon that JC has been at with me since our trek down to Ironman France. I had a terrible swim, including T1 (which was slick) I was 7:19 which I'm not happy about. This left me a large gap to close on the bike which fortunately I managed to do. I thought it was Mat I was catching on the bike but couldn't be sure until I got close enough to recognise the M dot tattoo on his calf. I thought it best to make sure I passed him as fast as I could and to look smooth as well (its all about mind games) so he would think he couldn't catch me and pass me back. At the same time the same plan was being used on JC as well. I got to the turn and seen I had a gap on them so pushed hard back too. I arrived back at T2 surprised that I hadn't caught Brad. I had another good transition and set off on the run to get Brad. It took a while and when I passed him I had about 1500m to go so worked at a comfortable rate all the way back. The result was 4th overall which was a good result for me especially after doing the night shift.

This weekend was the Ripon Triathlon (Black Sheep) run by the NYP Tri club. I had a faff getting there and only just made it on time to register. After setting up I went through my kit to double check everything. The race was split into three waves based on your swim time, the fastest swimmers were in wave 1, then wave 2 and 3 all 5 mins apart. I was in wave 1 and when we started I struggled through the weeds, when I got into clearer water I settled into a good pace but got caught up in weeds again at the top of the course. I exited the swim on 24:54 which I wasn't impressed with. Leaving T1 I heard the race commentator through the loud speaker, I was in 106th place. I worked hard on the bike passing lots of people but inevitably there were people trying to draft off my wheel. I told them where to get off but they still tried it on. I made great progress through the field and on hitting T2 I heard the loud speakers say I was in 16th (that means I passed 90 people on the bike!!!). I did a 1:07:01 for the 44km rolling bike course. I tried to run hard but couldn't lift my pace although I wasn't going slow! I made up a couple of places and finished 11th overall. I ran a 41:15 for the 10k (I know it was long so not worried) as the winner only did a 37:43 and he normally runs a 32 min 10k. Pleased with the finish but disappointed with my swimming at the moment. I am looking forward to the Inter-Service race as the bike is 50k which will make up for my poor swimming!

Off to swim across the river Humber on Sunday afternoon, it should be a good experience swimming near to the Humber bridge, it will provide a quite unique view of the bridge.

Finally got a couple of things lined up this month

I've now got a couple of things to do this month to keep me going. Next week I am going to attempt to get to Cranwell for the sprint champs, this is provisional as I am on nights the night before and will have to drive down straight off the night shift, do the race and drive straight back to do another night shift. A couple of days later I have the Black Sheep triathlon at Ripon race course. The week after that I am taking part in a swim across the river Humber. This is not a race its a group swim as we will be escorted across the river by the life boat due to the health and safety issues with the swim as the river is very busy and has an extremely strong current. I can't wait to do this as its a very rare opportunity. A week later I have a 100 mile sportive ride that I did last year and a few days later its the Inter-services at Sherbourne. All in a busy few weeks. Can't wait for the weekend for the tour to start as well :-)