Outlaw 2015 - Relay

Following on from the half at the end of May, I managed to get me-sen a nice spot in the Sleaford Tri3 mens relay team for the full Outlaw event.
Our swimmer would do 3.8k, I would ride 180k and then hand over to our runner for a full marathon. Doing it solo is a very long days as I found out in 2013, however, to me, it was a 112 mile time trial in training for the ESCA 100 in tow weeks time, and the 12 hour a week later.

It kind of went like this :
After our swimmer had knocked out a 1.07 (153rd) and we had had a really swift transition, I was let loose on the bike course with a sub 5 target in mind. We were in 89th place overall and in 18th place for the Relays. There was little in the way of wind and I knew I had to maintain an average speed of 22.5mph if I was to go under the 5.

I set off on a real charge taking 55 places in the first 16 miles of the bike. It felt good and I was easily averaging 23mph and loving the southern loop of the course. Jumping on the pedals like Contador when climbing a rise, and racing through the feed stations the Southern loop was dispatched swiftly. i made my way up past Lowdham on the Northern loop and all was well, even climbing Oxton Bank in good order. First 57 miles done in an average of  22.8 mph so on target.

Right, re-set the Garmin, go through Southwell, turn a steep left, and then headwind. he wind had gotten up ahead of the weather front of rain, and turned it cold. My legs began to stiffen up, and the enjoyable ride turned into hard work. the second half average was bobbing along at a disappointing 21.2 mph and it was slow progress and draggy. then it began to rain down on the Southern loop. people were catching me  and although I was in 25th place, I found myself having to take pace in a paceline.

I was wet through when I finished the bike - strongly I might add as I picked up a bit, and had moved the team up to 25th overall, and 11th team - bike split 5.08.59.

Our runner had a stormer, and we finished in 9.16.37 - 8th overall, and 6th team on the day.