The Outlaw X is a new middle distance (half ironman) triathlon for 2019 celebrating 10 years of OSB events. After my injury during the IRONMAN 70.3 MALLORCA 4 months ago, I decided that I would sign up to race this one right at the very end of the UK triathlon season.

4 months of injury recovery has gone quite well and I am going into this one with the aim of finishing the event in a healthy state and try to push on to beat the 5:37.47 PB from IRONMAN 70.3 STAFFORDSHIRE 2018

Training has been going well over the past month and I was fortunate enough to be able to swim and bike during the early phase of the injury recovery. Running a half marathon and 5k PB a few weeks ago gave me the confidence that I am now back running fast again. This gave the confidence going into Outlaw X that I could quite easily beat my PB from 2018 and hold a little back to not affect my New York City Marathon training too much.

My plan was to do the swim as well as I can, swimming is my weakest discipline and I just have one speed that gradually slows as the distance goes on. That said, in the Mallorca 70.3 in May, I did swim 7 mins faster than Staffs 70.3 so I was expecting to comfortably beat my Staffs swim PB.

The bike plan was just ride hard but not go crazy, the course looks like it could be a fast ride, no major climbs and with total elevation gain under 2,000ft it shouldn’t be much of a challenge. I was going to aim for a 20mph ave and make sure that I have something left in the legs to hit the run course hard.

The run plan was simple, go out hard and see what we have in the legs. In 2018 I faded during the run resulting in a few run/walk spells coming over the line in a disappointing 1:45. My running has come on a lot since then and I am confident of running a 1:30 on this course.

Registration & Racking

Saturday morning I drove the 2 hours to take my bike and pick up the race pack. My wife and daughter came with me as it was a nice hot sunny day, probably the last decent day of weather for 2019.

Parking was simple and just a 5 min walk from the registration tent, anyone who has a young child will know that a 5 minute walk usually turns into a 10 minute walk with constant stops and calls of “pick me up”.

The registration was really easy and I had my wrist band and race pack in less than 2 mins, the expo wasn’t massive but I wasn’t interested in buying any more merch this year.

I racked the bike and attended the 1pm race briefing whilst my wife and daughter sat out in the sun. The race brief was in a really nice hall, quite a change from the usual stuffy marque style.

They did seem a little concerned by the weather forecast for Sunday. Currently, the BBC Weather App is showing a high chance of rain from 10am for the rest of the day. If that holds true, I should be coming towards the end of the bike leg by then so a little rain on the run would be welcomed.

I came out and had a quick look around the site to familiarise myself, we couldn’t get to the lake today as it is on private land but we were able to see the run into transition so had a good idea where to go in the morning.

After that, I headed back home, another 2 hour drive. The alarm was set for 3:45am for a 4:30am departure to Thoresby Hall.

I was there and parked up by 5:55, quick toilet stop on the way to transition to check the tyres. Strangely the front tyre was down at 30psi but the rear still at 80psi, I had lowered the tyre pressure before racking the bike knowing that it would be left in the direct sun yesterday and also with a chance of rain I was going for more grip, less speed. 30psi is probably what I would have used on sand rather than the roads. I had brought my track pump with me so no issues there, checked the pressure an hour later and no change.

Swim – 1.2 Miles – 00:36:07

I was in the 2nd wave to start 2mins after the elites went off. We were in the water about 10 mins before the start which gave us a good chance to get used to the water. I was expecting it to be really cold but it wasn’t too bad. After the 14’c water temp at the Great North Swim back in June, this felt like a warm bath.

The water was crystal clear but had a few weeds in but what do you expect in a lake at the end of September. The weeds weren’t a problem for me, occasionally felt them on my hands as we swam around but nothing to worry about. The lake was pretty shallow at around 10ft so you could see the bottom at all times.

I had lined up in the middle of the start buoys, they suggested the quicker swimmers line up to the left. I seeded myself at mid-pack which seemed to go well.

When the hooter went it was the usual free for all during that first 100m but I go off hard to try and get ahead of the pushing and kicking. I quickly realised that I couldn’t see where the buoys were and had no idea which direction to head in. Being an average swimmer always meant that someone was in front of me so I put my trust in them and followed the pack all the way around.

I felt pretty comfortable and not swimming too hard. I came out in 36:07, 5:37 faster than my swim at Ironman Staffs last year and was in 230th overall.

Really pleased to have swum quite a bit faster than at Stafford last year but 2 mins slower than the swim at the Mallorca 70.3, I suspect the warmer salty seawater may helped on that swim.

T1 – 6:32

The run from the lake to T1 was about 500m, after having issues getting the wetsuit off in the past three triathlons I was over the moon when the zip came down with no issues. Once out of the wetsuit I ran past 5 people on that 500m.

I did take a little time putting my bike gear on, opting to go off in my cycle gloves in case the rain came down, my thinking was the gloves would give some protection from the wind chill on wet hands and offer more grip.

I came out of T1 in 221st, up 9 places on the swim exit but the 6:32 was the 279 fastest transition.

Bike – 57.4 Miles – 02:47:16

It was still dry at the start of the bike leg, actually sunny and quite warm. I was glad I hadn’t gone with a rain jacket and stuck with the sleeveless trisuit. Gotta love those aero gains.

1km into the bike we came to a roundabout which was traffic managed and we “should” have right of way but when I got to it there was a stream of cars coming through, I had to slam the brakes on and stop for over a minute whilst traffic came through. Over the course of the bike route, I had to stop at junctions and/or roundabouts a further four times which cost some time but my belief is I would rather lose some time than risk being hit by a car.

I really enjoyed the bike, the first 10 miles flew by, I was averaging over 20mph but the quads were starting to burn already, with 46 miles to go I decided to just keep pushing at that level and see how it goes, one thing learned from training was, often that burning feeling fades after a little while, just hold your pace and push through it.

It did fade but then the next niggle to surface was a backache, with riding on a road bike I was down on the drops to try and get a little lower. My back didn’t like this so I had to sit up for the second half of the ride.

The rain held off until 37 miles in, thankfully I was just past the downhill section with a few switchbacks. Having trained mainly in wet conditions, I wasn’t worried about the rain, it only affects the braking and I wasn’t planning on using them much over the next 20 miles.

Throughout the bike leg, I was overtaking people, picking them off one by one but also had a steady stream of TT bikes coasting past me and riding off into the distance. This did get me down a bit as I knew I was riding well but just didn’t have that aero benefit of a TT bike. I definitely think it is time to start looking at one for the next race in 2020. I could easily catch and pull away from them on any hill but as soon as we got to a downhill or flat section they pulled away from me with ease.

I got off the bike in 2:47:16, a 6:13 improvement on my Staffs bike last year. I had gone from 221st to 198th during that leg and in theory, heading into my strongest of the three disciplines. The original plan was to hold onto a 20mph ave and I managed just that 20.09mph average. I hadn’t pushed on in the last 5 miles, I slowed slightly to save the legs for the run, time to put that to use now.

T2 -3:48

The transition went really well, I was quickly out of my bike shoes and putting the Nike Vaporfly 4% on, I like to have a tight fit in my run shoes so I go with laces rather than elastics. This does cost me some time in transition, but time I know I can easily make up on the run. I decided to have a toilet stop whilst in T2 as well which is why my time isn’t that great. The thought behind that was I would rather lose time here than stopping mid-run and having to find my form/pace afterward.

I came out of transition in 199th place, losing 1 place during that toilet stop.

Run – 13.1 Miles – 01:30:48

I went into this run having only run off the bike once in the last 15 months, that was during the Abersoch Sprint Tri in June so nothing like the feeling after a 57 mile bike. I wasn’t sure how the legs would feel so I was planning on setting off at 8min/mile pace and then if ok, push up to 7:30min/mile pace for the rest of the run.

The run was three laps of a 4.3 mile loop. Mostly on paved lanes but there were sections on a gravel road which was quite muddy. The rain was coming down heavier by the second lap which meant the mud section was pretty slippery, especially in the Vaporfly’s.

Lap 1 went, I set off at what felt like a comfortable pace and deliberately didn’t check the pace on the watch for the first 5 mins, I wanted to get a feel for what felt comfortable rather than be dictated by what I think should be a comfortable pace. I ran that first mile in 6:47. I did feel this was a little too fast, but I did run a half marathon at 6:41 pace two weeks prior so I knew I could run a HM at that pace, the question is, could I do it after a 57 mile bike warm-up?

I ran lap 1 in 30:16 at 6:53min/mile pace, this was the 37th fastest 1st lap and moved me up from 199th to 142nd. Obviously, I didn’t know that at the time but the first 3 miles of that lap I was catching and passing people with ease until there was nobody in sight.

Lap 2 went the same as the first, it felt easy and like I was just coasting around, a similar feeling to when I run the Tokyo marathon, also in this pair of Vaporfly 4%. By now there were others joining the run on their first lap 1 so I had more people to chase down and pass.

I ran lap 2 in 29:15 at 6:48min/mile pace, the 20th fastest 2nd lap, moving me up from 142nd to 104th.

Lap 3 wasn’t didn’t quite feel like I was coasting now, it was a slog. The legs and body were tiring, probably from the lack of run and endurance training over the past four months. Nevertheless, there were 4 miles to run as fast as I could manage. By now the little uphills felt steeper and longer, the gravel felt like I was running over rocks, the rain felt like it was pushing me backward. Everything felt tougher.

I pushed on a finished lap 3 in 31:14 at 7:05min/mile pace, slower than the previous two laps but 113th fastest and moved me up into 103rd as I crossed the finish line with a sprint finish down that orange carpet.

My time for the run was 1:30:48 a massive 14:58 faster than at Staffs 70.3 and actually, the 30th fastest run overall out of the 1,600 field. I know there is more to come from the run side as I continue to build the miles up again but really really pleased to have improved on last year.

That is PB’s in all three disciplines coming 4 months after a grade 2 calf strain and missing 9 weeks of run training.

My finish time of 5:04:18 is a 32:29 PB and a big step in the right direction. Also by finishing in 18th place in my 35-39 Age Group and within 115% of my age group winner I have achieved my goal of getting a GB Age Group qualifying time, I won’t be registering my interest in racing for GB next year as I am on holiday when the ETU Middle Distance Championship race is scheduled but a massive confidence boost going into the offseason.