Pushing the Boundaries at Plas y Brenin - Snowdonia Showpiece 2017 Part 2

It was just as well I'd planned a 4:15am start as my equipment was in assorted bags and in completely the wrong order. I had to go to the shed lock-up to put everything together and into compartments for the race and having loaded the car up I could at long last go into the Western-themed kitchen to make breakfast. And what an organisational mess this was; only one of the two microwaves were user-friendly so making porridge was a bit of a stuff-up. The toast doorsteps left from my previous loaf were a real boom but the only other food I had to hand were the last two scones (bought for lunchtime the day before at a reduced counter in Tesco but as I still had a couple remaining I thought I might as well use them for extra calories). Having shovelled all this down and driven to the race venue I managed to get as far as racking the bike before the nerves kicked in. I've mentioned in other social media outlets that this was more of a seismic shift for me than the trip to Leicester was last year as I'd only been in one lake before and never surrounded by 150 other crazies fighting for position. Also, walking in barefoot through the pitlane reminded me why I always leave bike shoes at pool sides at the shorter events. So I walked around with no shoes on to try and get used to the "feet in flames" feeling that comes with standing on pavement and listened to the race briefing before making my way down to the starting ramp with the others. The men would go first at 8:00 followed by the ladies five minutes later. So the minutes ticked down, the the seconds which felt more like hours, until we got the five-second countdown and finally the horn to begin the one we'd all been waiting for, the 2017 Snowman Sprint Triathlon!

DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT MY GOGGLES, DO NOT TRY AND WALK ON WATER

Starting reasonably in the middle meant that I could get a bit of space once the front runners got a gap early doors but after about 100 metres some swimmers behind me for so excited at the sight of the first buoy that they simply flew past me only to overshoot the marker. One also caught my goggles which made sighting extremely difficult but once past the halfway mark things got a bit clearer as we only had to pick out one more buoy and then aim straight for the shoreline or, by that time, the swim caps in the water denoting the start of the ladies' race. What surprised me the most though was just how many were happy to stop swimming 10 metres from shore and simply walk the last part to dry land, lending a new meaning to the phrase "don't try to walk on water". I made up about half a dozen places by chasing all the way to the line and this gave me track position to try and peel out of my wetsuit while running to transition. I was making all the right moves, getting everything in order, before struggling to get the legs out despite having rubbed the Bodyglide over twice before the race. Anyhow I quickly got my feet into my new Shimano TR5 tri shoes and after running to the mount line I could set off down the hill into Capel Curig itself for nineteen miles of speed freak heaven.

WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN, WHAT MUST FLY MUST ALSO SLOW DOWN

My first victim was Ribble Man who was dispatched before we got to the T-junction and after that it was back past the hostel and towards Betws-y-Coed with a particularly glorious descent punctuated only by a tight bridge crossing. This was a bit hair-raising but it didn't stop my forward drive as fast swimmer after fast swimmer was overtaken even as we made our way into the tourist town. The course then bends left away from the A5 towards Llanrwst where I raced in 2015, complete with the tough run in Gwydir forest and the cafe on the bridge. I didn't remember much of the south end of town, indeed it was fairly typical of many villages you find on the Wirral and in north Wales, but although we would avoid the town centre we survived a near-miss with a white van who backed me and Chris from the previous evening into each other just as I went to overtake. He was on a Giant TCR with American Classic wheels and I got a huge fright just as I went to pass him; a patch of gravel on the racing line had me scrambling for grip and this allowed my friend to get back past me! I was lucky that I could effect a second pass just before the traffic built up, indeed I even overtook two cars when they were unable to pass slower competitors. The man on the Argon 18 was perhaps the most surprising scalp but after the return to Betws-y-Coed the course was a redux of the first few miles so it was a very gradual incline all the way back to the youth hostel. This made trying to catch and pass the trio in front very difficult and I could see why they weren't racing each other that hard. I closed on them somewhat approaching Capel Curig and was right on the tail of the third man as we entered T2 with me now seriously challenging for a top-10 finish. Could I hold out for a special result?

THIS ISN'T SALFORD BUT I'M SURE GORDON BURNS WOULD APPROVE

I lost some crucial time in T2 trying to yank my shoes open and it cost me the chance to rattle some random bloke in a green tri suit as we made our way up the steps towards the main road. This part on the asphalt was pretty much the only easy part of the run as thereafter we had to contend with grass, puddles, rocks and mud all the way to the turnaround point. Just like the Krypton Factor from decades ago you might say.  I did pass a few runners during this passage of play - not the little green man though - but others were far more confident on the descent and this cost me chunks of time trying to stay upright. Once back on the road I got to tailgate the GOG TRI runner who'd passed me but he got away once more on the descent past the start area, and for a while I thought I wouldn't see him again. However, the final big climb of the day was up the road in the form of a virtual ladder you had to stride up. This really took it out of me but even more so out of the GOG runner and although he got to the top just ahead, I passed him on the false flat that followed and my eyes lit up upon seeing the downhill as it was gradual and with a consistent gravel surface so I could get into a rhythm. This enabled me to catch the local legend Punisher Pete with 800 metres to go. He was in the two day event and was more bothered about time that position so this gave freedom to put the power down and really attack the final few hundred meters until I saw the finish line and put in one last big effort for the crowd, eventually finishing in 1:27:16, which was good enough for 12th over the line.  But there was more to come; it turned out that three of the 11 who finished in front of me were in the two-day special so in the sprint distance that put me ninth overall, my best triathlon result since Edge Hill last August!

After such an exhausting, nerve-racking day it was time to down a cup of High5 and grab my finishers medal and flapjack from the desk where we handed the timing chips in before making my way back to transition to clear the bike and other belongings and return them to the car. I went to get a post-race massage and watched the prize presentation and popped into the bar where they were serving lunch early, which was ideal given I was off into Liverpool for tapas upon returning home. So I enjoyed a cheese and ham panini with chips plus a pint of Porthmadog real ale which went down a real great despite sounding like a fairly bland meal when you think about it, and walked back to the car to head for home. I arrived back in Ormskirk at 2:20pm and faced a race against time to make it for the 3:20 into town but this I duly did, arriving as the rest of St Helens Tri made their way in. We enjoyed a tapas feast with chicken upstairs before going to our downstairs booth for endless bottles of Corona and various cocktails including the piece de resistance, the zombie, which gets blowtorched before you drink it! Come 11pm it was time to head home, but what a day it had been, a first ever open water triathlon yielding a top-10 finish and the club relays are next up at the end of August; what price a genuine attempt at a middle distance, or half Ironman next in, say, Chester on 3 June 2018? Well, that's what sounded like a plan at 10:45pm last night..........

Now for the race results, powered by Porthmadog Real Ale:

Distance: 400m/T1/31km/T2/5km
Time: 1:27:16
Final Position: 9th (equalling Jules Bianchi's best ever Formula 1 result)
White Vans: 1
Bridge Crossings: 4
Bikes Overtaken: at least 30 including 4 TT machines
Local Legends: 1, Punisher Pete
Post Race Party Rating: 8/10 (food rating 6/10, drinks rating 10/10)

REJECT OF THE RACE: White Van Man
(Ask yourself "why is that yellow arrow there" before you pull out next time)

And that wraps up the biggest race of my 2017 season, one I definitely want to do again, and one that I'd highly recommend as a group outing if we could be sure of taking over a hotel with individual rooms. You could even make a weekend of it and do either the sprint or aquathlon on the Saturday and enjoy a post race social in the bar area that night, then wake up just in time to cheer on the half or savage race entrants. If the calendar holds true the correct weekend for 2018 is 28-29 July. A big hand also for the organisers and race marshals for their expertise in handling the multi race format, thank you guys and see you next year!