Anyway that was months ago now. To prepare, the week before I cycled the bike route twice, once on my road bike and once on my mountain bike. On both I was scared of the descents and the ascents were really hard on the mountainbike.
On the morning Billy and I met Bully, Martin and Will at 07:15 to cycle the 2.5 miles to the event, we figured that it would be easier than driving as the car park was about a mile the other side of transition and would be busy. It was a cool morning and we were amongst the first to arrive. We registered and had our tattoos put on, we put stickers on our bikes and helmets, Will wore all of our supporters stickers. We also had the dreaded wrist bands. I had to go back for another ankle strap for my timing chip as I have large ankles. We then went to rack the bikes. In true Conlin fashion that wasn't straight forwards. Billy had not had a wrist band and even though the woman on the entrance to transition and he had his number on both legs, both arms and both hands, she was unable to let him enter transition, he had to go all the way back to registration for a makeshift wristband. I had found someone else's on the grass and handed it to him, I wonder if someone else had picked it up and put it on, if the would have been allowed into transition. Anyhow, eventually Billy was allowed in to rack.
Billy was in wave 1 at 09:30 and I was in wave 4 at 10:00.
Whist I was waiting for my turn Ali and Jonny Brownlee were in transition, chatting with competitors, I got my photo taken with them, after asking permission from the ITU official to get my phone out in transition.
Soon It was time for Wave 4 to go for race briefing at the lakeside. The lake looked quite inviting. Not how it had looked a couple of weeks ago when it was choked with weeds. The dredgers had done a good job. We had a few mins to acclimatise, gosh it was cold, It's a while since I ve swum in water that cold. I normally swim wide and at he back, but had to re evaluate they tactic as there were so many beginners, I was in the middle ish and was soon in my own space, the 400 m went quickly, less than 10 mins, happy with that.
I set off up the hill to transition, struggling with my Velcro on my wet suit, eventually I got it undone, unzipped and off to my waist and ran to my bike. I struggled out of my wetsuit and put on my socks and bike shoes, put my helmet on and headed for Bike Out. Doh! Hadn't put my number on, so stopped to do that, carried on towards the mount line and set off to merge into the cyclists, already flying down the drive. I was soon breaking as my spead increased. Over the covered cattle grids, I was glad the ramps had been removed. Out onto the main road and up towards the Fountains car park entrance, the hills did not sem so bad, and I was soon at the church gate and on the dreaded 1 mile downhill section, I could feel the back wheel moving on the gravel and was back on the brakes as other cyclists sped past me, I could have kicked myself but I was just not brave enough. Back down the drive, over the covered cattle grids and back to the uphill section. I managed this bit really well again and was overtaking cars on the car park road back to the church. I tried not to brake, but it was no good I could feel the panic rising so brake it was. Soon I was off the bike, helmet off and running down the hill, gosh this was just fast and furious. I ran as fast as I could, as I turned a corner I was confronted with the awesome view of Fountains Abbey and the finish line. Wasn't as easy as that though, there was a slight incline through the trees to get over first, then a little bridge and I turned and ran right through the Abbey, Wow! It was a stunning course, soon I crossed the line.
I had estimated around an hour for me to complete this race, so was chuffed to bits to complete it in 56:52. It was great watching other triathletes crossing the line, the air was electric whith the excitement and relief.
We walked back to transition, about a mile, for warm clothes and the sarnies we'd packed, also some money so I could buy the Brownlee's book. We were catching up with friends all along the way. We then watched the race between Jonny and Ali's Twitter team.(Ali was injured from the previous weeks ITU world Championship final in London 6 days before, and so someone else would swim, he would cycle and another person would run, but Jonny would do it all. We watched the start and caught up with more friends, then set off for the finish a mile away. We watched as across the river Jonny ran through the trees and went to the finish line.
Jonny won, but Ali was there waiting for him, we didn't have long to wait for Ali's runner to finish too.
I then went to bug a book and Billy went for more food, there was lots of that about. While he was waiting for his pizza I went to get my book signed.
All too soon it was time to head off for transition to retrieve our bikes and kit, as we had to get back because we were babysitting our 6 month granddaughter. We watched gts other races as we worked our way back to transition, on the way back I met Poppyfielder Michael Evans, we chatted then I could put it off no longer, I had to go home.
We gathered our kit and walked down the drive into Studley Royal village, we then walked to the road end as there were still competitors on the route. We cycled from the road end home.
The Brownlee Triathlon at Studley Royal and Fountains Abbey 21/09/13 was a fantastic event, there were competitors of all ages, sizes, experience, many from Yorkshire and many first timers.
Alistair and Jonathan were lovely people. The atmoshere was awesome.
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