So finally after leaving the bikes and bags we looked like we’d been mud wrestling and walked back up the lane that the next morning would be the first road we would ride on and hoped that they might try to clean it up a bit as the general opinion was we may be better off with mountain bikes. From there we went to the briefing in the Reebok stadium and i met the American guy who does all the Ironman announcing and is a great character and never forgets me and gave me a big hug, bless. The briefing was quite amusing as no one really seemed to know what was going on with the course and the parking/transport to the race and the majority of people stayed behind for Q&As as there were loads! One guy asked if he could leave his car in the race car park until Monday and he was told yes and he said well that’s good because it’s stuck and i can’t get it out of the mud! Ha! The race organisers seemed to be thrown by the weather which i think is a bit strange as if you are organising a big race in the north of England whatever the time of year surely you would have a contingency plan?? Or at least expect some rain??
Race morning dawned early and the holiday inn ironpeople were down at 3am scoffing breakfast in nervous silence. It’s at that point that you start asking yourself serious questions as to what the hell you were ever thinking signing up for an ironman – in my case in signing up for yet another one! We ended up getting a taxi which was the best manoeuvre as there was no race parking at the venue due to the Glastonbury fields and the other option was to drive to the reebok stadium and then get bussed from there which was a bit messy and then you had to still get your car back later or the next day anyway.
So it was more lovely mud sludging back to the transition area to set up the bikes (for people who have read my previous race reports, this time i didn’t bring my broken pump and roll of sellotape to fix it together i just asked some random guy who was busy with his own bike to pump up my tyres as i had a broken pump and i was a bit pathetic anyway on race morning!) . Mr Felt was ready despite being a bit huffy about his scruffy race feet, and we hung about next to him acquiring a fine range of new nervous pals until it was time to remove all the layers and put on the wetsuit over the mud. We were then corralled together like the cows that evidently normally live in the transition area and were shuffled down the lane towards the swim start with people getting their shoes sucked off them by the black mud stuff as we went. It was revolting and freezing. I ended up having to throw my flip flop things away as they were beyond hope of ever being wearable again.

a grey looking swim course
Mind you, the reservoir that was the scene of our swim was even more freezing. I spent the first ten minutes having a panic attack at the cold and literally not being able to move at all or get my face in the water – so much for the line of attack.! I was on the front line but couldn’t breathe or move my frozen limbs!.I heard of at least one person that got out because of the cold so at least i didn’t do that though it did cross my mind. I sort of expected that i’d warm up a bit at least as the swim went on but i just got colder and colder and colder and if the swim had been any longer i swear i would have had to have been fished out. So much for my hoped for PB swim time – even my ‘worse case slow time’ went out the window - great start then! Other people later said their times were also slower due to the current (didn’t notice that) and the theory that the swim was longer (well i guess it always seems that way!) i didn’t notice anything except for the cold and the increasing loss of feeling in my limbs so i guess my focus was taken up totally on the small matter of finding some way of keeping on going before i morphed into Iciclegirl.