The 4th race in 4 weekends. I was getting a bit knackered as it’s the end of the season & my fitness has been slowly dropping, & my weight slowly increasing, but I’d been looking forward to this race. I hadn’t been able to do it for the last couple of years because of a calf injury and a clavicle injury, and it’s a home race back in Cheltenham. The lido is a lovely pool to swim in, and the race is held a week after the end of the lido season. They switch the heating off and let the pool cool down, and then let us get in with wetsuits on for a 2km swim followed by a cross country run up Leckhampton Hill to the Devil’s Chimney and back. Challenging, different and lots of fun. They give you a coin (actually a locker token) to carry all the way to the Chimney to pay off the Devil and keep him underground according to local legend. (We threw them to an upturned tub rather than actually having to climb the Chimney, although that would be an interesting addition).
We had another day of shockingly good weather, with bright sun and no wind, and a lazy 10:55am start. The swim was ok, with some tactics coming into play as 3 of the 4 of us in our lane had similar paces. I drafted for over 1km as we grouped after closing our 10 second gaps, cruising and saving energy. We were lapped by the 4th man showing how much I need to improve my swimming. Late into the swim I realised my hands were getting cold, and got a bit worried about how I’d tie my laces as I’d forgotten to put elastic laces in my cross country shoes.
A big kick for the last 100m pushed me to the front and got me ready to get out of the pool with a big heave from the deep end. Not too walrus-like. I had to sit down and really focus on tying my laces but it worked out, even if I lost around 10 to 15 seconds. Off out of the park and I joined another guy straight away.
With cold legs and breathing hard I think you’ve just got to focus on technique and running tall like a triathlon run, and keep driving your knees forward until your legs start to warm up. I pushed a little harder on the slight drags to try and drop he guy I was with, and it worked. I didn’t want to drag him up the main climb with me.
I was glad to get to the main climb up Sandy Lane. Up hill, off road, and it gets steeper and steeper and goes on longer than you remember. I kept driving and working my way up it, getting warm. The last bit is very steep and I stumbled at a step. Over the top and onto the flat I found my way along the path dodging dogs, kids and families. On the way down to the chimney I passed the leader coming the other way. Not a huge gap. At the chimney I lobbed my coin. I hit the target! Yey!
The return run is fun going downhill, but to descend fast you need some real skill. Which I lack. I hit the road at the bottom and knew the gap behind me wasn’t huge because we’d passed each other after the turn so I had to push hard all the way back through the park. Ow. I checked the gap & it looked ok but I was pushed all the way to the line. 2nd overall, faster than my time in 2010 but the swim time was the same, almost to the second. I had to do all the work myself last time though, and this time I had a fair bit of cruising. Great fun, and great racing.
My cross country running is poor, and I’ll work on that this winter and hopefully do some more cross country racing in the future. Next year’s racing and training should be a little different to 2013, but I hope I can finish again at another Devil’s Aquathlon.