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BALA HALF IRONMAN - WALES
Bala. This is probably my favourite half ironman distance race. Great set up and amazing environment to compete in. This race was a British and Welsh championship race. Not too sure what that means apart from there are lots of very fast athletes and international representatives from all over GB with times at the end that you can only drool at.
Another warm up to Ironman Germany. It was well worth it. It's a 2k swim 84k bike and 20k run. The swim was choppy and in dark grey water that makes the pit feel tame. Managed that in 38 minutes. Out onto the bike to test the Welsh hills. It's a great bike course. Good roads numerous climbs with well earned fast descents. That's where I had my difficulties trying to handle the tri-spoke front wheel down steep hills with severe side winds. Shat my pants nearly coming off at over 40mph. A road bike with spokes would have been more suited for those. Lesson learned. Tri-spoke for flat TT's not the Welsh mountain descents. Averaged 21.5 mph. Anybody like to buy a 3 times used Hed-3?
Job done and onto the run. A half marathon or thereabouts. Flat for the first mile then undulating for 2 more then hilly for another 2 then a massive climb to a turnaround point. It's definitely faster on the way back if you let yourself go. So we both finished close together as usual. Quite happy with 1 hour 44 minutes.
Overall time : 5 hours 04 minutes.
216 out of a total 750 (all ages)
Another warm up to Ironman Germany. It was well worth it. It's a 2k swim 84k bike and 20k run. The swim was choppy and in dark grey water that makes the pit feel tame. Managed that in 38 minutes. Out onto the bike to test the Welsh hills. It's a great bike course. Good roads numerous climbs with well earned fast descents. That's where I had my difficulties trying to handle the tri-spoke front wheel down steep hills with severe side winds. Shat my pants nearly coming off at over 40mph. A road bike with spokes would have been more suited for those. Lesson learned. Tri-spoke for flat TT's not the Welsh mountain descents. Averaged 21.5 mph. Anybody like to buy a 3 times used Hed-3?
Job done and onto the run. A half marathon or thereabouts. Flat for the first mile then undulating for 2 more then hilly for another 2 then a massive climb to a turnaround point. It's definitely faster on the way back if you let yourself go. So we both finished close together as usual. Quite happy with 1 hour 44 minutes.
Overall time : 5 hours 04 minutes.
216 out of a total 750 (all ages)
Comments
Daniel
i remember cycling arounf the loch in Bala and it didnt look very inviting to me.... The hills around there are indeed a real test as i found out during the Gran Fondo Cymru which is now sadly now longer running. i think the Dave Lloyd mega challenge goes over a lot of the real nasties close by if you fancy seconds!
JD