May 2013 seems like a long time ago..... I have had good intentions since then with draft blog entries on Mongolia (July 2013), cycling (Paris, Amsterdam, Alpes, Pyrenees), riding out for the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, a road trip round France, my first ever Olympic Distance tri (Hyde Park), becoming a Godmother (twice) and some back-country skiing to break up the winter drudge. Add to this a few issues with my back, intensive pilates and sports massage and working far too hard, the training has, if I'm honest, been a bit of a challenge.
Last year saw a break from triathlon with the focus on cycling and the Raid Pyrenees (720km and 12000m ascent in under 100 hours from Med to Atlantic coastlines). I was a little scared putting my wetsuit on for the first time two weeks ago as I thought either a.) I wouldn't fit into it or b.) it would disintegrate. In fact, it was fine, aside from having to cut a bit off one of the legs, but I figured that wasn't an integral part to it.
So why get back into the open water I hear you say?
Some of the Raid Pyrenees crew came up with a hair-brained idea to do a half-ironman this year. I was heard, in true Steve-Redgrave style, announcing my retirement from any more ironman competition and refusing to run any further than 10km at the time. This was probably after I'd broken down in tears at the top of the Col de l'Aubisque having been chased by an angry French hotelier and only done 40km of uphill in circa 4 hours with 120km still to go. Sense of humour failure (the second of the trip). Tick.
However, the seed had been planted. Ali, Smithy and Sam had entered the main ballot for Wimbleball and been given places. And then tragedy struck. Wham. Early December and one of the lads from University - probably the most outgoing, driven and adventurous of our uni crowd - very tragically committed suicide. He'd been with all his friends the previous weekend and, despite recovering from knee surgery, had also mooted having a go at the half-ironman.
A bit more about Vijay here: http://inmemoryofvijay.org/ in particular here: http://inmemoryofvijay.org/post/104746036554/example-check-out-from-about-minute-50-to-see
So what better excuse to come out of Ironman retirement, or half-ironman [I mean, lets be sensible, I definitely don't need to do a full one again] and take on probably one of the more challenging courses down in Exmoor at Wimbleball? Some have branded it 'the world's toughest half-ironman'. Good. I'm more into the 'spectacular scenery' than the 'challenging bike course' (1400m ascent with a tight cut off time).
Either way, it's going to be a great weekend away with a big group of us. Profiles of our fellow competitors to follow and no doubt plenty of entertaining stories from both training efforts and antics on the day. At the end of all this misery, drudgery and pain, most of us are simply trying to raise money for Charity: Vijay's Dad is setting up a fund in his memory. Details to follow but hopefully you'll all agree it's a worthy cause.
