John Stratford – Ironman Weymouth 70.3

Arrived in Weymouth on Saturday in torrential rain with zero visibility, fortunately Sunday dawned with clear blue skies and the sun rising over the cliffs as the swim started in clear, flat seas. The Swim went great apart from a breaststroker kicking me in the head!
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The bike was good with c1100m of climb over the 91km and having ridden the course a few months ago I knew that the hills were mainly in the second half and was ready for them, unlike a number of people who seemed to be blowing up in the last quarter of the ride.
The run was a flat loop along the seafront in the sun most of the way round.  I struggled to get out of first gear after suffering a couple of ankle injuries over the summer playing touch rugby but kept moving forward and crossed the line in just under 7 hours.  Not the fastest time but pleased to have made it in one piece!
Throughout the day I saw fellow Viceroys which was a great lift, a quick chat with Mr Moody in T1, someone flying past me on the bike leg and a number of times paths were crossing with Viceroys  on the run loop.
All in all a great day!
As raced and reported by John Stratford
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About Kate Wallace

I've always been involved with sport of some description, particularly adrenaline sports (skiing, boarding, kite-surfing, bungi jumps, parachute jumps, mountain biking) and endurance events (7 marathons, lots of halfs, Caledonian Challenge, London to Brighton bike ride, Moonwalk, played/coached rugby), but I'm relatively new to triathlon as it's actually taken the place of other sports after a couple of bad accidents! Although looking at the biographies of all you other Viceroys I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that all I've done are a few team traitahlons (running or cycling leg) and a couple of super sprints and sprints on my own, I'm hoping that being a Viceroy might persuade me that swimming in open water over 400m is actually possible. Read more about me in the May 2012 Triathlon Plus: http://www.triradar.com/2012/04/09/were-inspired-by-kate-wallace/