Now it’s all over. A project, which started with a telephone conversation late at night in September, ended on Sunday around teatime.
When Adam Hampson and I crossed the line together at Holme Pierrepoint to complete Adam’s marathon in the Outlaw Triathlon, a journey of almost 10 months was completed. There have been many ups and downs, including people pulling out of the race, injuries to myself, highs and lows during training and fundraising but in the end we set out to complete the Outlaw Iron distance triathlon and to raise as much money as possible for the Karen Green Foundation.
The team was absolutely immense and also, the guys that came down from Scotland who were set up as “Jocks for The Karen Green Foundation” against us as “Notts for The Karen Green Foundation”
The swim started with 1000 people in the water at Holme Pierrepont at 6am as the sun came up. The starter blew the air horn and off they went like a massive human washing machine. The only set back to this was that Stuart from ‘the jocks’ has planned to swim in just his speedos!! and right before the start was told that a wetsuit was compulsory. He has to run back, change into his wetsuit and miss the start by 2 minutes. This didn’t stop him passing more than 90% of the field to come out the water in less than an hour after swimming 2.4 miles in the lake. That set Paul off on the bike for the jocks 2 minutes ahead of me after Liz’s amazing swim of 61 minutes. I was further hampered by a mechanical issue with my bike half way around Holme Pierrepont in the first couple of miles which meant I had to stop for approximately 3 minutes giving Paul a 5 minute head start. Strangely for me, the set back didn’t phase me and I managed to get my head down and get into some sort of decent rhythm on the bike on my way to the best performance of my life on a bike and the best bike ride I have ever done. I caught Paul on Oxton Bank near Southwell at about 58 minutes and then passed him. I carried on cycling really well through the rest of the ride, despite the strong winds and ended up back at Holme Pierrepont at 5 hours 36 minutes with a 20mph average, better than my wild dreams! I handed over to Adam Hampson to run the marathon giving him a 20-minute head start over Ferg from ‘the jocks’ then I went to help at the feed station with all the guys from Campbell and Peace as they assisted the marathon runners in their epic challenge. We saw Ferg come through but there was no sign of Adam. I didn’t realise at that stage that Fergus was running the most amazing marathon and was set to come in at 3 hours and 36 minutes: 45 minutes taken off Adam who ended up running 4 hours and 16. What started with a 20-minute head start for ‘Nott’s for KGF’ was wiped out by Ferg’s incredible marathon with the jocks winning by 25 minutes. The effort put in by the 2 marathon runners, Adam Hampson and Fergus McClafferty from our 2 teams was absolutely enormous and it was fantastic to be able to get off the bike and rush over to the feed station on the marathon loop to see them come through. In the end I was at the finish line when Fergus ran through for a 3.36 marathon which is totally unbelievable and there to run down the finishing chute with Adam where we both crossed the line together. I though of many things as I rode my bike for over 5 and a half hours on my own around the course; the long winter training runs, the injuries in March which I though would put me out of the Outlaw and all the effort and hard work that people have put in, particularly the guys at the practice and their fantastic cycle the week before. It was a privilege to be involved in this. One of the best things I have ever done, to be part of a bigger picture, to be part of a bigger purpose but doing something that I love. I will never, ever forget the 1st July 2012.
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