Beat the Beaver: 

1900m swim, 80 km bike, 13 mile run - 15 July 2007

Clare and Kraig Cole, Mark Phlio and Trish McCarthy and the prolific Martin Stacey took part in the Beaver middle distance event on 15th July, with Sue Potter taking part in the Olympic distance and repeating her Norwich Tri success and winning her age group – well done Sue!

Trish’s story

The swim was in the darkest water you have ever seen, with only 22 girls after around 700m I had a really clear swim.

With a 8 min jog to T1 and through then around another 2 Min's of jogging before the mount area, I was already tired of running.

I found the bike course very hard, as it took me 30Min's longer than planned, having to do 3 1/2 laps, the big hill was a nightmare, being in my smallest gear before the hill really began could therefore only lead to a hard push at the top. But I did manage to get up there all three times, without walking. The good news was there were some very fast down hill bits giving me an max speed of 37mph.

Around a three min walk/jog each way for T2, time was moving on.

The first mile of the run was up, up, up, up, up, up, up, and up some more, but for some mad reason I was feeling okay, then down, down, down we came, still feeling okay, along 2 flat out and backs, we came back to the start of the run for the 2nd and 3rd lap, still I felt okay, strange as I have only ran about 2 times in the last month.

Then came in sight the finish line, I began to cry and hyperventilate, but I reminded myself I still had about 200m to go. I went over the finish line and thankfully the ground came up to meet me with the comfort of a lay down all seemed okay.

The main crowd had all gone, other than the faithful tri-anglia members who stayed to the end to watch us all come through the finish line, taking a little longer than planned, but well inside the cut of time, they stood there cheering until the end, thank you for that.

Resting today, with 362 days to the next big one!!!!!!!!! Bring on Ironman Austria and a 17 hour cut off. 

Clare’s report

All told it was a fantastic day, we had been lucky with the weather as the rain had held off but it was overcast and fairly cool for mid-July giving ideal running conditions. The wind had begun to pick up as the bike stage drew to an end but what you lost in the head wind on the return straight you’d gained with it pushing you along the outward straight. The lake water tasted better than it looked. I emerged from the swim with a mud moustache which I just hope I had wiped off before I set off around the surrounding villages on my bike! Transition really was a long way from the swim exit as you can see from the photo of Kraig – this was taken at the side of the lake….yes, the huge transition area is up there somewhere. It took me 10 minutes from swim to bike, although I do confess I walked most of it and practically everyone else at least managed a jog. The bike was quite pleasant apart from the longest steepest hill on the course that hadn’t seemed that bad in the car the night before but which had me in the lowest gear from about the first 5 metres, never mind – only had to do it 3 times. On the 2nd and 3rd lap there was a couple near the top with a cow bell – it almost felt like the Alps on the Tour de France (anyone reading this who has done the course before is probably now sniggering – the hills aren’t very big in Lincolnshire!). Anyway, I made it round on two bananas, 2 gels and 2 bottles of energy drink and came back into transition with more time in hand than I had hoped for to complete the run/shuffle/walk. The course was 3 laps around the Castle grounds which were beautiful and so there was a lot to enjoy about it. The race numbers had been printed with our names so we got loads of support which really helped – and on top of this we had our own team support group, massive thanks to Marie, Paul, Rob, Kerry, Darryl, Clarissa & Lydia who delivered and collected our discarded or forgotten equipment and clothing throughout the day as well as cheering and being generally wonderful. I was surprised how emotional I felt when I finished, it did seem like an achievement and with a time of 6 hours 40 I was pleased as before the race started I was worried I might not make the 7h 30m cut off. Hats off to all you ironmen and women out there – I’m already looking forward to next year’s exploits but make mine another half (or 2)!

Kraig’s report

I’ve beaten the Beaver! Whoever sorted the waves for the swim didn’t have much imagination – 22 girls in wave 1 followed by 116 blokes in wave 2. I did find space though surprisingly which means I was 15 metres from the start line when the horn went off and spent the next 40 minutes at the back of the wave but I was soon being dragged out the mire by the helpful marshals to run up to transition and jump on the bike and follow Philo’s backside onto the bike route. The first section of the bike was quite tough with a sharp hill early on then a long drag up to the back of the castle but then there was a long outward straight - cruising on the tri-bars at 29 mph for 4 -5 miles was great fun. You may have thought the girls were making a meal of the hill, but I admit I was in the bottom gear pretty quickly as well, although I only had to get out the saddle once to overtake someone on the steep bit. I managed to pass Mark on the end of the first lap but knew he’s be breathing down my neck on the run. On my way back into transition I nearly hit someone already on the run coming out of the trees and running across the road without looking after (presumably) having a wee but just managed to miss them and make it safely off the bike. The first mile of the run is up hill and quite steep, but then it goes down for another mile so that helped, then out and back down two of the castle lanes completed one loop of three and I was back to the uphill bit. By the third time I struggled up it and even Clare managed to gain on me as for some reason she prefers going up to going down. Mark flew past me about a mile and a half out from the finish – he’s such a good runner he’d made up the 16 minutes I’d gained on the bike without too much trouble, mind you by that time I think I was running backwards! So, 106th on the swim, 37th on the bike and 75th on the run – I’m not particularly consistent but I was pleased with 5h 21m 56s and 60th place overall! Prizes for the effort were a more emotional sense of achievement than I had imagined, a glass block with bubbly swimmer, cyclist and runner inside and a T-shirt with the rather dodgy slogan “How much Beaver can you handle?”. 

Mark's Report

Tri-Anglia fielded a good entry of participants in the 2nd year of the "Beaver Fest". The event is offered as an olympic or middle distance.

Despite unfortunate last minute retirements from Rob Evans and Graham Pigg, we were still able to field Sue Potter in the Olympic and for the middle distance, Mark Philo, Martin Stacey along with Trish McCarthy, Kraig and Clare Cole doing their first event at this distance.

Add to that a great cast of Tri-Anglia support crew who came for the day and we were on for a good event. The predicted rain thankfully never came leaving an overcast and warm, light wind day. Having set up our kit, we cast our attention to just how bloody far the swim was from the transition area. It must have been around 500 meters being an uphill run through a field.

The Olympics went off first with Sue eventually winning her group.

For the middle distance, the ladies went off first followed by the gents 15 minutes later. The swim was in a silty lake (water was low apparently) so vision was non-existent. Other than that, a couple of laps of zig-zags and you were haled out and sent on the long run to transition. Over 6 minutes after getting out of the water, I was finally on the bike.

The bike was 3 laps around the small roads of Belvoir Castle. Each lap contained one moderate climb and one large climb, fortunately with their corresponding descents. Kraig had an excellent bike blazing past with the "big boys".

Fifty Two miles later and it was back to transition and 3 laps of a 13 mile run. Each lap started with a hill climb up to the base of the castle and then a descent through the castle grounds. You then feed into out-and-back loops from a cross-roads offering and excellent viewing spot for our fantastic set of supporters who therefore got to see us all on the run at regular intervals. For me, the loops out and back allowed me to gauge how far Kraig had made on me on the bike and after several pass-bys, I realised I was gaining quite well on him. I pushed hard on into the run and was able to catch him on the final leg to finish just a couple of minutes ahead.

My legs paid for it the next day, mind. Martin came in a few minutes after us. 

Meanwhile, the girls where out on their run and we were able to support them towards the finish. Kerry got caught up in the moment and had to run the last lap with Trish. They displayed a true fighting spirit and absolute determination and both finished in great style. I can't congratulate them enough on a superb effort.

Results

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