Bib 227; FirstName Vaughan; LastName Moseley; Club Viceroys; Category M open; 00:47:27 03:25:52.75 00:01:34.65 01:30:46.95 05:45:41.30; Finish Overall By Category 1; by Gender 1

‘Anyway I managed to pick up a win on the weekend at a weird distance event in the New Forest called The Boskman. It’s a kind of 2/3rds ironman swim and bike with middle distance x country run.

The day before was probably the worst preparation I could have had. I ordered some new tri bars on Friday on an express delivery from Amazon. They arrived at 9am which was great as I was determined to have them on for the Sunday race. I had to register in the New Forest on Saturday in time for the race briefing at 2pm and with new cables bought I made it to the race briefing just in time. That dragged on for an hour – “Watch out for the wandering animals – last year a careless cyclists head got rammed up a cows arse blah blah blah.” I then had 1.5 hours to get my new tribars on and get it racked in T1 5 miles away. 2.5 hrs later i managed to finish and luckily the security guy let me rack my bike ready for the next day. On my feet all day faffing about – not good.

Really early start 3:45. Ellingham Lake was beautiful and clear in the swim. I didn’t feel good to start with – really gassy, was sick a little bit, it took me a while to get into my stroke but was over it coming into T1 after 2.6k and ready to chase. 

It was the moment of truth to find out whether my bike faffing the day before was wise or not as I flung myself upon my eager steed and it felt good. A higher, less aero position but I was able to stay still with less pain for longer even in tuck up the many short little buggery climbs dotted about the place. I had to stop a few times, once to allow a family of ponies across the road, once to walk around a big lorry blocking the road and once to go back and pick up my bidon that had thrown itself out of its holster, but with the Forestman iron man and a middle distance race running on the same day and starting earlier it was great to always have someone to chase down. I didn’t notice passing many Boskmen during the 120k ride but I guess I must have done as I came into T2 without a clue to how I was doing – I presumed I had some bodies to hunt down.

Despite the briefing recommending against running flats for the x country run course I thought I’d take my chances and just be careful not to get a big stone under a heel or other bony bit. With a few KM on the road to get into it the run course suddenly plunged off road and steep downhill, cadence, cadence I told myself as I dodged around the stones and tried not to put the brakes on. Then steep up the other side I ground to a crawl pumping the arms as i realised how hot it was. Up and down like this for 22k – I couldn’t see any other Boskmen coming back from the turning points but I wasn’t convinced after my crappy swim. Only as I passed the last feed station with about 2km to go did they tell me I was in the lead and I skipped merrily to the finish line.’

As raced and reported by Vaughan Mosely