Chester Deva Divas

Let me introduce you to my lovely friends Vanesa & Jess. Vanesa is a crazy Spanish chick who will make you laugh until your ribs hurt! Jess is just as nuts and has been one of my best friends in the world since I met her 14 years ago.

My journey to Chester Deva Divas triathlon started about a month ago:
* Jess ~ "Why don't you do Diva's with me and come and stay"
* Me ~ "Great sounds fun, count me in"

3 weeks later the start list is sent out, minus Jess's name:
* Me ~ "Jess why aren't you on the start list?"
* Jess ~ "I can't be bothered, I'll just watch you win it!"

Oh great, I better race well then! Friday night in Chester was amazing! We went out for Tapas and sat in a courtyard, it was like we were abroad! One bottle of cava lead to another, and another, then we were on the prosecco and the cocktails. There was a sangria thrown in there somewhere and just when we thought "maybe that's enough", Vanesa appears with another bottle of Cava! Woop woop!

"Good friends don't let you do stupid things......alone"

Thanks Pam for the wetsuit!

When most people would like to relax the morning after the night before, our Saturday went like this:
* Up at 8:00am - couldn't face breakfast
* Somehow survived Vanesa's driving to Manley Mere, every time we went over a speed bump my head was through the roof!
* A dip in the lake in a lush Huub wetsuit I had borrowed from Pammie babes after splitting mine last week!
* A hot chocolate, scone and read of the paper in the sunshine - this would be so much more enjoyable if I was not hungover!
* Googling on my phone 'how long does a hangover last'
* Back in the car with Vanesa, dear god
* Out on the bikes to recce the race bike course
* Lunch at The Architect sat on the table next to Michael Owen
* Back in the car with Vanesa (clinging on for dear life) to go and register at the race tent
* Finally home to shower and put PJs on
* A healthy dinner of pizza and jelly babies
* Wondering if a 72 hour hangover is really in store for me
* Start to watch a film but the room is still spinning so at 8pm I go to bed
* Get up every hour to see if I need to be sick
* Finally fall asleep thinking "I am never drinking again!


We arrived at race venue 'The Meadows' the next morning at 7:15am.  There was a great buzz around the place, the atmosphere was fab! There were 350 women racing, from all different backgrounds and all different abilities. I spent most of the morning in the portaloos (nice!) but tried to 'talk myself into it' and kick some ass.

The swim was in the River Dee and was a lovely calm swim starting at one point, and swimming up (or down?) stream to the next. I led for the first half of the swim until someone swam past me and I latched onto her feet. We went slightly wrong at the end, almost forgetting to go through the 'gate' before exiting the water. Out of the water in 2nd and Jess gave me the biggest cheer ever! A quick T1 saw me out on the bike first with about 4 other girls in close pursuit, grabbing their bikes and following me.


Being the first athlete out on the bike course meant the crowd were going wild! They were screaming and shouting and applauding as if I were a celebrity! I loved soaking up the atmosphere and for the first time all morning, felt alright! If bike courses were made for me, then this would be it. Mostly flat, a few drags and rolls on an out and back course. By the time I got to the turn around point, I already had a huge lead. The headwind on the way out had played to my strengths but coming back in with a tail wind it would be harder to make more time on my competitors. I got a little held up on the way back; mostly because all of the other girls from later waves were still heading out on the bike course so when the roads got narrow, the cars infront of me stopped to let them through safely, but in the process meant I was sitting in their traffic jam! That happened a couple of times which was a little frustrating. Coming to the end of the bike course I was navigating the last few roads around the estate back to transition when 2 marshals sent me back out again with the other athletes. I don't think they realised I was the first girl back. Most athletes would use their common sense and just carry on but me being me, meant that I turned round to start the bike course again until they started calling me back! Haha what an idiot!

Back into T2 and Jess was going wild again! The commentator announced that last year I had won the British and European Championships (I felt a bit embarrassed by this) and he also told the crowds how I was fuelled for today's race by prosecco and cava, cringe!!! Off on the run and this is where I felt really bad. I could just taste alcohol. So gross! I had been running for about 3 minutes when I heard the commentator announce the next girl into T2. Ah great, I thought, I have a nice big lead I can just plod round and try to feel human. However Dee Allen of TeamFreeSpeed had other ideas. She was a gazelle! I have raced with super speedsters like Emma Pallant and Katie Hewison in the past and I swear Dee would give them a run for their money! On lap 1 the marshalls were saying "I think it's safe to say you're going to win this one love!" but by lap 2 it had changed to a frantic "you better get a move on!" I tried to pick it up a bit with 2k to go and a little bit of sick came up so I decided to go back to plodding. It will be alright, I thought. Then Jess was legging it towards me shouting to get a move on, (Is it bad if I admit that I wanted to punch her in the face!) Haha! I was just hating every second and replied to Jess that I didn't mind if I didn't win.

But once I said that I looked over my shoulder and could see Dee was catching me quickly! I thought to myself how annoyed would I be if I didn't win because I was hungover? The answer? Very! So with 1km to go I picked it up a notch and ignored all feelings of sickness! Once I came out by the car park and could see the finish, I knew Dee wouldn't catch me so could relax into the finish, crossing the line in 1:18:07, just 5 seconds ahead of Dee (she ran a sub 17 minute 5k!!!)! What a great race!! It was quite exciting having Dee push me all the way (although I didn't feel like that at the time!)

Our other friend Jess (a different one!) crossed the line not long after and then we cheered on pocket rocket Vanesa, who was fabulous! The biggest cheer of the day went to the last lady across the line who gave it everything she had to make it round the course. The crowd went wild, it was brilliant! The prize giving was lovely and I won a voucher, some high 5 energy powder and a bottle of bubbly - which I won't be drinking anytime soon!

Afterwards Jess and I cycled to Parkgate for a world famous ice cream. I used to live near here so it was lovely to be back on homesoil! All in all, it was a fantastic weekend!

Lost my bank card on a cycle to Parkgate,
pretty sure I can see the blue card on the bottom left of this picture!!!

Best ice cream in the world!

Oh no, not more bubbly!

Fantastic racing by Vanesa!

Fabulous friends!

Jenson Button, Allesley Festival & Gloucester Race Series

Well my rather varied race season continues! It may not have been a season that's gone to plan, but it's certainly been adventurous! Last weekend I won a free race entry into the Jenson Button Triathlon. It was a fabulous day, a really great event and loads of fun to mix with some celebs - I was super happy to get my photo taken with Double Ironman World Champion, Chris McCormack (especially as at the time I didn't have a clue who he was)!

I also got interviewed by Tri 247 which was fun (I think I just chatted on about having a burger?!?) and the post-race party was fabulous!

I didn't have the best of races, I completely forgot to take my cycling legs with me and was rather disappointed with my splits. In fact, I am yet to have a half decent race against the elite girls, but that said  I had the biggest smile of the day and met some fab people. You can read my full blog on the event here:

It was great catching up with Katie Hewison who finished 2nd in the final

The next day was my mum's village festival day; it's a 2 week festival which culminates in a Kids 2K run, an adults 10K race, garden walks and home made wine and pimms! Due to my ongoing dodgy hip (yes, it has returned!) I had  not entered the 10K so instead paced my nephew George and niece Issy round the 2K. They were both brilliant and loved every minute, maybe we have the next Helen Jenkins and Alister Brownlee in the making? As my hip felt fine, I then decided to run the 10k course with my sister Helen who really wanted to break the 55 minute barrier; she did it easily in 53:27 (Well done Helen, although you've got to beat that hubby of yours next time!)

With my nephew George, neice Issy and sister Helen

A pic from Henry's swimming Gala.
And a pic of Arthur's poem which reads:
'Three green dinosaurs went to get a tatoo,
one needed the loo, then there were two!' 

The talent in our family doesn't end there. My other nephew Henry is now the 5th fastest butterfly swimmer in the whole of Leeds, 8th fastest in freestyle and seems to be dominating all his school swimming galas! His younger brother Arthur is also a budding poet!

Following the 10k, we enjoyed the garden walks, home made alcohol and cakes. Quite a few of the residents had entered the scarecrow competition which was themed 'Countries of the World'. My mum and neighbour Leanne had a pretty good go with Great Britain, creating the Queen and her Corgi, unfortunately she couldn't sit up right for too long so they didn't make the top 3!

Last night I raced in the third race of the Gloucester Triathlon Series. I first did this in May when I was pretty ill, had missed the British Champs, not trained for weeks and felt like I had to do something to keep myself sane! Returning back 4 weeks later in June I felt much stronger and then last night, despite my wetsuit completely splitting down the side and a stone in my trainer for the whole of the run, it was probably the first time all season that I've been happy with my performance! The field each month has got stronger and stronger and there's been some great competition from the girls with fellow GBR Age Grouper Sarah Smith keeping me on my toes and Nicole Walters taking the win in both the June and July races. There's one more race in August which I'm not sure I can make at this stage, although a promise of a post-race BBQ from the organisers might tempt me! The table below shows my steady improvement in the right direction.

	Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run	Total	Gender	Overall
Race 1 – May	09:07	0:56	34:31	1:01	17:31	1:03:18	1st	9th
Race 2 – June	09:03	0:42	32:27	1:04	16:49	1:00:06	2nd	6th
Race 3 - July	08:55	0:54	31:35	1:04	16:39	59:08	2nd	9th

So with 6 weeks to go until the World Championships in Canada I'm trying to take a step back from the expectations I had put on myself at the start of the season, and enjoy the adventures to come. I have some more races planned to help me to sharpen up, have lots of time booked in with friends and family and, to keep the theme of racing celebs this year, have the small task of taking on Gwen Jorgensen at the Liverpool Triathlon.

Happy Summer and Happy Training :-)

Tandem Triathlon

Throughout this blog I (Sam), will be writing in this bold, rather confident typeface.

And I (Ali), will be writing in this relaxed, more elegant font.

A little while ago, Ali and I….

That’s me.

….had an idea that was really quite random.  To take on the Bishop’s Castle Tandem Triathlon. Probably the only Tandem Triathlon in the World. So by default, the British, European and World Tandem Triathlon Championships.  Set in an area of outstanding Natural Beauty in the rolling Shropshire Hills, I was going to take on the 1k swim, tackle the tandem ….

….with me! And I was going to take on the 10k run.  How hard could it be?

We hit a couple of obstacles in the lead up to the race.  Firstly, a team name. 

Double Trouble.

Secondly, a tandem.

A tandem?!?  We haven’t got a tandem?

And thirdly, a chlorine allergy.

There is no way I am swapping to do the swim!

Finally practicing together on the Friday Evening

So in the weeks leading up to the race I managed to source a tandem: an old vintage relic with the gear shifters on the down tube.  I had volunteered myself to pilot the bike so thought I better get some practice in and made Chris sit on the back to avoid looking a bit odd on it on my own.  It didn’t go well. We couldn’t get started, couldn’t stay on it, and made it 100m away from home before Chris decided it was safer to walk home!  Oh well.  At least Ali had assured me she would be practicing daily on the back of a tandem during her week at Centre Parcs.

I had a brilliant week!  Nailed the rapids, rowing boats, high ropes, mountain bike course, several visits to the pancake house (clearly we needed to find out if sweet or salted pancakes were better)......Tandem?

Eventually it was Friday night and Ali and Jonny were here to stay! As the dinner was cooking…

Or rather not cooking, Sam had broken the oven…

we dusted the cobwebs off the tandem and went out for a quick practice.   I quickly established a running commentary such as “3, 2, 1, go,” “just making the gears harder”, “turning right here” and “stopping, stopping, foot down” which I’m sure Ali really appreciated.

Sam's running commentary lasted forever and, if it is possible to do so, just made dinner even later….

After a fantastic evening of eating drinking and yapping away, we were soon up and out early doors to make our way to the race. 

Very happy with our Double Trouble coasters

Bishops Castle - what a friendly place!  As we walked round to check out what was what we first found the registration table and could have gone home happy after getting out personalised coasters! We found the start line, we found the finish, we found the man getting naked in the street in T1...

What T1?

Oh yeah there was no T1.  The swimmers just jumped out of the pool to run round and look for their tandem buddy (me!) waiting for them with the bike.  Back to the naked man....So Mr Speedo there had decided that the best option was to make best use of his tandem buddy to hold up what can only be described as a flannel as he stripped down to his birthday suit before popping on his cycling shorts!  Naturally all of this also happened next to a man dressed as a Nun and another in a pink dress with coordinated Fluro tights!?

I had been really looking forward to the open water 1k swim. However if I’d have read the race details I’d have known it was a pool swim.

The best T1 in the world

In a 20m pool.

Meaning.…

…..50 lengths!

I was drugged up on antihistamine to fight the chlorine and before I knew it I was off. After 20 lengths I got an almighty tap on the head with the float by my lane counter. I had been promoted to the fast lane. Excellent!! I got the giggles with 10 lengths to go as I started thinking about Ali waiting at the mount line. She was probably itching to get going and I tried to speed up a little to go and greet my partner! Out of the swim in 15 minutes, fastest of the females, and I was on my way to the flying mount of the tandem!

So whilst Sam was busy deciding which lane she wanted to swim in, I tried to suss out a bit more about the race. I noticed a few bikes had all started to stand in a row so I checked with the commentator who reassured me "you can start anywhere you like love!"  Of course we could!  Deciding to stick to the spot where Sam had left us (which just coincidentally happened to be next to a large kerb to help us get on the thing, as well as being a few meters in front of everyone else....) I chatted to Derek and explained that I loved running but definitely didn't have a PB in my legs today.  "You won't be PB-ing on that course!"

What did he mean by that? Oh, oh Sam's out! Yes let's go!!!

We're doing it!!!!

The bike mount was a bit…

…..wobbly!

We cycled all of 20m to the end of the car park and then had to get off, turn the bike round to the right, and start again!

We were doing it!!  I didn't take my eyes off my feet for the first 10K and my knuckles were white from holding on so tightly... But we were doing it!  Of course, the most important advantage of having two people on the tandem, is that it means you can really make the most of having someone to talk to all the way round!

Ali was chatting my head off but because of the wind she couldn't quite hear my replies, so the only way to carry on chatting was to turn my head round to carry on the convo!  I sort of forgot about the fact I actually needed to look where I was going!

Not being able to see anything on the back hadn't seemed to bother me much until then!!

My best memory of the bike went a bit like this:

Sam can we free wheel for a minute?

Yes, sure, why?

My feet aren’t on the pedals?

What on earth are you doing?

Ok they’re on.

[5 mins later]

Sam, can we free wheel for a minute?   

The most exciting thing was when we saw other tandems in front of us.  We had not expected this to happen.  Without a word we both picked up the pace and rode past with a cheer!

As we saw more people up ahead, Ali started stroking my bum. "Ali what are you doing?" I'd ask to which she'd say "I'm getting more aero!" Oh God, she's on the drops!

All the chatting and taking in the views meant that before we knew it we were climbing the killer hill for the second time where we overtook a few more people who took the sensible option of getting off and walking.

We'd make it to T2!!

Jonny and Derek seemed amazed to see us! We had done brilliantly! It was a little confusing about what we were supposed to do here so we jumped off the bike and ran (or rather shuffled) with it down a little trail forest.

When can I run, when can I run?

Not yet, we need to rack the tandem. 

The best T2 in the world!

Where’s the racking?

Errr…

I spotted a free patch of grass and shouted “here!” before pushing the tandem to one side and dashing away!

Go Ali Go!!!

I think I got a bit too excited and put on a full on sprint and before I knew it I was hurtling down a pretty steep descent! Which just kept going on....and on! Until then it happened, I was faced with the first of a million hills to climb. If you weren't running down one, you were pulling yourself up.  So this is what Derek meant!!

Still managing to keep some pace and overtake a few, a cheered everyone running back in the other direction of the out-and-back course, however barely got a smile back... What was up there?!  As I finally got to the longest ever 4.5k marker I scrambled up the last steep stretch to the 5k point, very pleased with myself I quickly turned and went flying back down.

Hurry up Ali, I'm freezing!

A couple of minutes later when it started to level out I heard "where are you going?!!"  Very pleased with myself thinking he was just surprised how quickly I'd done it "back down, I've been to the top"  "You're supposed to go over it and back the other side"

Oh bugger.

"Ali, I forgot to tell you - you've got to get back on the bike!"

Once again I was climbing to the top of the summit, and this time carried on to indeed the other side.

Phew, the hills weren't quite so bad on this side but that's when the heavens opened, it was pouring it down and the trail turned to mud. Luckily I was boiling from my extra miles and I was loving it!

Jonny, Derek and I were absolutely soaked and shivering. Hurry up Ali!

Home straight! The km markers came just as slowly as they did on the way out, but finally I was stumbling up and hating the hill that I'd loved so much at the start, ready to put a quick sprint on as I went round the corner for when everyone could see me again.

Then I saw a gazelle in the distance running towards us with steam coming up off her head! FANTASTIC ALI! So I got ready again with the tandem and passed Ali’s helmet to her.

So at this stage you are probably wondering why Sam is passing me my helmet?

Ah yes.

There are many things Sam didn’t tell me about this race – like the fact the run was up a mountain, and she didn’t own a tandem. She also forgot to mention that the race was swim-bike-run-bike.  So we were back on the tandem for the final flourish!

Getting ready for the Final Flourish to the Finish!

By this point all our race nerves had gone and we jumped,

Well err, climbed…

on to the tandem and got going for the last bit.  The roads were soaking from the torrential rain and my hands had gone white because they were so cold so I couldn’t actually feel the brakes. I didn’t tell Ali that.

You never told me that!!!

And before we knew it we were at the finish! What an amazing event! We had smiled, laughed, chatted and giggled from start to finish!

And it turns out we won the women’s event by 36 minutes! We are now unofficial British

European

And world tandem triathlon champions! Haha!!

A huge thank you to Mick for loaning us the tandem, to Jonny and all of Chris’s family and Phil's family for coming to support us, and to the organisers and marshals for a fantastic event. There are so many little quirks to this event, and we would not change a thing!!!  A big well done to Chris and Phil who finished 2^nd in the men’s category, although we could match their speed on the swim and run we couldn't quite match their bike speed (with a bike split that was erm, 20 minutes *cough cough* quicker than ours!) They may be the Tandem Titans this year, but watch out next year boys!

You’re doing the run next year

Thank you Bishop’s Castle Tandem Triathlon.  See you in 2015!