50th Year Challenges Part 1,2 & 3

Dorking Bacchus Marathon 10^th September:

The first of my challenges for my 50^th year was the Dorking Bacchus Marathon, this is a marathon that is run around the Denbies wine estate in Dorking.  Being run around a wine estate it is not unsurprising that along with the water stations around the course they have something a little stronger to taste! 6 wine tasting stations per lap and for the Marathon it was 2 laps so 12 chances to taste the local produce.

Amanda dropped me off nice and early, note I wasn’t driving! Having found my way to registration and picked up my number, chip and t-shirts I was ready to go! I was quite pleased that I did arrive in plenty of time as there was quite a queue a bit later.

I dropped my bag an made my way to the start, due to standing the wrong side of the start initially I ended up quite near the front. As we started it was a bit congested even for me being near the front but this soon thinned out as we ran through the vinyards.

The course was largely off road and has some rather large hills in it but it was an enjoyable run (walk). As I approached the end of the first lap my garmin was showing less mileage that the boards at the side of the course but really this run was not about the distance and time more about having fun.

At mile 17 a fellow runner asked me if I would take his photo next to the 17 Mile marker, transpires that he had a bad experience of a marathon once at mile 17 and now likes to get a photo at that point on his runs.

Coming to the end of the second lap and the 13 mile board for the half marathon and the 26 mile board for the full marathon were attached to the same fence, now as it was the same distance from this point to the finish I was a tad amused as to how this was possible.

After crossing the line, collecting my medal and retrieving my bag it was time to partake of the hog roast and wine, by now it was starting to rain a little so I was glad to be under the shelter. At this point my fellow runner from mile 17 came up to congratulate me on finishing, he had finished somewhat earlier.

Now I had to wait for Ed to pick me up and take me home for George’s birthday meal!

Swim Serpentine 16^th September:

This was an event that I hadn’t really heard of much before but when it appeared in my twitter timeline as part of the new London Classics I just had to enter (Thanks Sophie Raworth and Susie Chan for bringing this to my attention)

I was in the first wave of the classics swimmers at 10.40 so it was an early train to London and a walk over to the Serpentine to get changed into my wetsuit ready for the start.

There was quite a bit going on with all sorts of different events happening from elite swimmers at one end to people like me who struggle round a swim at the other.

Having changed and registered it was time to wait for the start, a briefing on the pontoon before we entered the lake for a 2 lap swim.

On exiting the swim we were checked as being a bona fide classics person and then presented with 2 medals one for the 2 mile serpentine swim and the other for the Classics, which I think was also supposed to test your ability to stand up given the size and weight of it.

William decided to demonstrate the size

Having changed out of my wetsuit and had a brief look around the activities going on it was time to head back to the station and get home.

The Gauntlet 24^th September:

A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to win a place in the Bastion triathlon, I say lucky this is a full iron distance triathlon based at Hever Castle and part of the Castle Triathlon Series. It is without doubt the hardest of the iron distance triathlons I have done.

The Castle Triathlon series is a fantastic series of events and great organisation, so having taken part in one I felt that I should give something back, so last year I volunteered at the Hever Castle weekend, marshalling on the bike course for both days.  In turn Castle Triathlon donated me a place in the Gauntlet this year to add to my year of challenges for the Rockinghorse appeal.

The Gantlet is a half iron distance around a similar route as the Bastion, so again quite a tough course.

I drove over on the Saturday evening to register so that I wouldn’t have to worry about this on the morning, I have plenty else to worry about on race day!

Sunday morning arrived and an early drive to Hever to rack the bike and get sorted into my wetsuit and down to the lake for the briefing by Brian the race director and explanation of some of the rules by the BTF referee, amusingly this was Jamie who was also the ref at the Lakesman!

As soon as the formalities were out of the way we were into the lake and ready to go. The swim at Hever is quite a nice swim up the lake and then back round a river section to the finish, then it is a bit of an uphill run (well walk) to transition and time to change into bike kit and head out onto the roads.

Amanda, George and William were waiting in the ice cream van car park when I got there for my second lap. I then saw them a couple more times around the course, amusing William by throwing a bottle at George. Amanda even managed to capture a picture of my best side!

Back into transition and time to change into my running kit for the half marathon, I had completed the whole bike section with a funny feeling under my foot, I had assumed it was my socks that were causing a problem and was quite pleased that I had a spare pair with my running shoes, however even changing socks didn’t make the feeling go away, I found out later when I got home that I had cut under my big toe!

I set off on the run but was soon walking up the hills, coming round towards the end of the first lap the 2 runners in front of me went across a bridge and were promptly attacked by wasps with one of them getting stung twice on the head. I managed to get through without getting stung but was thinking about it all the way round, by the time I crossed the bridge on the second lap there was no issue!

I crossed the finish line relieved to have come to the end of the event, I then found Amanda before heading off to transition to reclaim my bike and kit. At this point I saw one of the most inspirational people I have seen at triathlon, young Bailey. He was clearly in the zone for his event so I left him to it but it was quite humbling to be in the same transition as him.

Now I am preparing for my next event which is Abingdon marathon on 22^nd October!

Please don’t forget why I am doing all of these challenges, I am trying to raise as much money as I can for the Rockinghorse Appeal who support the Royal Alex Childrens Hospital in Brighton

Donation Page

Thanks

Andy