The Outlaw 2010
The Outlaw saw many of the PSoF taking part. Also we ran an aid station on the bike course.
Great race, great time had by all from what I’ve read.
There’s many reports and information on the Outlaw thread. I’ve taken a couple of the reports at random and put them here on the site but there’s more on the thread if you’re interested.
First timer Ironman – Purpletrilady – who was more than a little worried about the cutoffs!
Swim
The weather was fab and I couldn’t have wished for a better morning. The sun was just rising and the lake looked spectacular. I wondered down to the lake with a few pirates and I felt astonishingly calm after the nerves of the previous weeks. I had two objectives for the day, one was to finish and other was to enjoy the day. I had trained for nine months and I had been so looking forward to this day, I wanted to cherish every minute of it.
We got into the water, it was bloody cold and I was glad I had 5 minutes in water to acclimatise as I struggle to breathe when I am really cold. “Breathe slowly, stay clam”, that was my mantra as I stood waiting. The hooter went of , and immediately I had problems. I couldn’t breathe and my chest was really tight. I’ve had lots of problems with OW swimming, I’m a confident pool swimmer but in OW everything goes wrong.,
I tried to calm down, I stopped, did a bit of breaststroke, stopped again. I took a look behind me and saw that there were just a few stragglers behind me, I was right at the back. I suddenly had a panic thought that I might not make it out of the swim. I knew the distance wasn’t a problem, I had done it many times in training, I just needed to HTFU and get going. Normally I breathe every 3 strokes so I tried breathing every two strokes and managed to get going. Then suddenly, after about 5 minutes of swimming I was breathing better and the tightness in my chest went. I tried to swim every three strokes but every time I did the tightness came back. So I swam the whole way breathing every two strokes, something I had never done before. The weeds were awful, like trying to swim through bit thick mats. I had too stop a few times as a I got tangled up in them.
Someone one once told me that if you say “bubble” as you breathe out it helps you expel air. I spent the whole 3.8K saying “bubble, breathe, bubble breathe” it was the only way I could stay calm. About ¾ of the way around I started to feel cold and shivery and that frighted me. I kicked my legs and tried to swim quicker to warm up. Luckily the cold feeling didn’t last long. Bizarrely the tight chested feeling came back when I saw the speedo gantry, I had to focus on keeping calm right to the end. Needless to stay I was mightily relieved when I got out of the water.
1:30 swim, much slower than I am capable of, but I was just pleased to be out of the water.
T1
I was so pleased that there was someone help me get my wetsuit of. I struggle to get it off at the best of times and I was still feeling a bit panicky so it was good to get some help. The transition tent was very empty when I got there. Once I got my bike gear on , a big smile appeared on my face I knew the worse was over and I could enjoy the rest of the day.
Bike
The pirate feed station was at 16 miles and I spent the first hour of my ride counting the miles to get there. I was so looking forward to seeing some friendly faces. It didn’t disappoint ! The signs really made me laugh and the support was fab.
I struggled a bit on the first loop as I was expecting it to be very flat and there were more up hills than I expected. Those of you that have followed my training will know that I hate hills with a passion. However, at the end of the loop I realised it wasn’t bad at all and I knew I was going to make it round. The 2nd lap was brill, the support was just amazing. I cried when I got through Southwell, I was just over whelmed by all the support. I had to stop quickly though as I couldn’t see as my sunglasses filled with water!
The 3rd lap was a bit lonely, there was only a few of us left out and most of the supporters had gone. My race plan was to keep my average mph between 14 and 14.5 mph. I arrived at t2 having done an average of 14.4mph. I was very pleased.
7:44 for the bike
T2
Put my running gear on with a big smile on my face. The worse was over, I love running and I had 7.5hrs to do a marathon.
Run
There is not a lot I can say about the run other than I loved every minute of it. The support was brill and I couldn’t stop smiling all the way round. Every mile done was a mile closer to the end and I got more and more excited as time went on. I was amazed that I kept running, I think I was being powered by adrenalin. I had only ran 15 miles in training so I kept expecting my legs to give up at some point, but it never happened. I just kept on running.
4:54 for the run (a marathon pb for me!!, only done one before and it took 5:10)
The finish was everything I had hoped for. I felt full of energy as I ran down towards the finish line. Pirates you were brill, fabulous support!
I had three objectives when it comes to how quickly I wanted to do the IM. My main objective was just to finish. No2 objective was to do it in under 16 hours and no 3 objective was to do it in 15 hours. I never thought anything less than 15 hours was possible.
Finishing in 14:18 was a dream end to a dream day.
Cona
What a day, I’m in pieces this morning. Great event and even better pirate support. Well done all. Off on hol’s tomorrow so the race report will be in a week or so.
this was my first IM so alot of it was uncharted water around distance, nutrition etc. A big thanks to Ridge back max as well as his pre race pep talk on “race your own race, never push too hard on the bike, let them overtake you on the bike, you’ll catch them on the run” couldn’t of worked any better. Brief race summary:
swim – no wind wgat so ever and being open i was a little worried about cross winds. Nice start splitting the field into bays and i ended up in the middle od bay 2, only downside to the swim were the weeds, at times felt like you were crawling over ground!! reat out and back, did’t sight forward in the entire swim, just kept the bank at roughly the same distance. Better without loads of bouy turns, Think I’ll get in the cannel next spring!! Really pleased, i was hoping fir around 1.20 but was out the water in just over 1hr11min
t1 – Cossey to say the least, the change tent needs to be bigger next year. Far too many cracks close to your face when changing. Decided to go for comfort over soeed so git fully changed into bib shorts a cycle top. Took my time and all went to plan. 7min2secs
Bike – 3 loop course which had a couple of long uphill drags but nothing that felt too bad on the first loop, all went well, great support at the pirate feed station and in the small villages around the course. Didn’t feel like I was pushing too hard apart from the 2nd half of the last loop, legs starting to smart abut by this point. Ended up being about 100 yards behind FB for the full 112 miles!!!! Not a pleasent site. Finish the bike in 6hr 2min 35secs
t2 – fewer people in the 2 man tent they called t2 this time and was uneventfull. It was like a Purate convension when i got ibto change, think there were 5 of us in there. Fully changed again away I went. 5 mins 37 secs.
Run – 3 loops of around the boating lake then out and back to Notts Forrest footy stadium, good to pass so many pirates on the run course going in the oppersite direction, great for moral and support. Was feeling reatively strong until the last 10 miles when my legs we’re starting to really hurt. Managed to stick with Ridgebackmax for a period but he was too strong so left him to get a great PB. Once again, fabulous support from the pirates and all spectators around the the boating lake. Being a Pirate is something truely special as EVERYONE knows who you are and gives you a Aaarrrrrrrrrhhhhhh of encouragement. Came into the boating lake with about 2 miles to go and needed to run just under 10 min/miles to get in under 11.30. It was painful but amazing all the same. Great to run down the finish chute hear your name being called out. Got around the run in 4hr 1min 37 secs.
Finished in 11hr 28mins 12sec.
What an amazing experience! I was in the medical tent for 30 mins as I could bearly stand up, felt vey hot and light headed and had nothing left. A huge thanks to all the pirate support in the build up to the race and during the event.
And if course, the Mrs, I wouldn’t be be here without your support over the past 6 months, sorry for missing all those weekend lie ins. Love ya lots.
Right, congratulations to all pirates that finished, a huge achivement for all. Speak to you in a week when I’ll be back from doing F@CK ALL in Croatia.
Ridgebackmax
Right here goes……
Got up on the friday and checked into the worlds smallest hotel room once I had got the bike in there there wasnt much room
Went out for a nice meal at Zizzis with about 15 pirates my race nearly ended there outside the resteraunt as I slipped on a discarded pie and nearly went arse over tit
had great night out ate a huge cornish pasty thing (calzone) and slurped a few Peronis), Cakes double desert carbo loading was an awesome sight)
Returned to the hotel which had become the worlds smallest noiseiest room with the pub opposite going full belt with a sound system from hell and the traffic roaring past all night managed a couple of hours zzzzzzzzzzs not good, swapped rooms in the morning to the back f the hotel no traffic noise and I could have swung a very small cat result
Registered met some pirates old and new and basically chilled out for the day early night nice and quiet then the 10 football supporters arrived more noise and chatter got to slep around 12 to be fair I was having trouble getting off to kip anyway
alarm at 0:3:45 leapt out of bed switched on the telly made stacks of noise for 30 mins 
then slammed the door off to the race venue
Got racked met up with SA, Cona, PTL, Kanga and a few others time to get into the water I was a bit nervous about the swim that boting lake looked a long, long way and I had seriously loafed on the swim training
the water was lovely and warm and we had a few oggy oggy oggys Then it was off the first 500m was the worse biff fest I have been in for a long time as all the starting pens tried to move to the left including some fast sandbaggers from the slow pen that seemed to zoom acrosssettled into a nice swim that I combined with weed clearance to say there was a bit of weed was an understaement I swam into some really big clinging lumps and lauged at the sight of one of the safety canoes trying to clear it you couldnt see his canoe for weed lked like he was sitting on a nest the swim turn around came pretty quickly I knew I was on for a good swom (for me) if I could only keep the dreaded cramp at bay, I had deployed ny secret weapond (Rroseys tips he gave me last year) and joy of joys my first IM swim without 10 minutes of synchronised drowning trying to backstroke in
Swim time 1:14:44 loverly
TI was a bit up close and personal with lots of sacks and cracks flying everwhere
lucky I aint the bashful type
T1 9:51
Grabbed the bike and settled in during the circuit of the lake started fueling and remined myself keep it dead easy for the first 30 miles kept my HR around 70% got onto the loops and approached the awesome support of the pirate feed station a word on the bike course its flatter then IMUK but that dont mean its easier it still has a few undulating sections and as its flatter you have to pedal faster
I am not used to flatter courses and trying to maintain a aero position 80% of the time was killing my lower back I had to pop a few IBOs to turn the pain down to acceptable after 30 miles
I was also trying to doe the race mainly on gels to keep my tum under control I had a banana for half way and a power bar just in case this plan failed sooooo…….. by 25 miles I had scoffed the banana 
and was still hungry and I had dropped the b00dy power bar somewhere bugger
saw quite a few pirates dotted around the course Slim shady and Viking spring to mind also paseed a few pirtates including Happychap who was doing sterling work on the bike for her relay team
Was starving as I approched the pirate feed station the second time and was supplied with some loverly flapjack by I think it was Aitch (aplogies if I got this wrong) who ran back to get it for me that flap jack was alifesaver I started feelina lot better and upped the pace on the bike to 75% HR last lap I was feeling realy god but stpped at the feedstation to see if I could blag more cake to be met by Barley with something like “why you stopping get a f*cking move on” no cake was fortcoming so I did what I was told and got f*cking moving ramped it up a notch and started passing lots of people at around 22 miles I saw a pirtae head it was only ” I will be really happy with a 13:30″ Cona going like the clappers he greets me with “Max! I thought you would be miles ahead!” not with you cycling like that mate I wont thinks I
kept up the pressure and into T2
Bike time 5:55:31 much better than I had hoped
T2 Cona arrived as I finished training, Fat Buddah was ther as well IIRC T2 Time 4:09
Right lets hope I packed the running legs
Run now this must rate as the flattest run course ever and a lot of it is traily cycle track perfect I settled in and started the first lap easy to get the run legs ticking over Cona caught up with me he looked really strong just hoped he wasnt going to overcook it and loose stacks of time walking. we ran together for the first halfish but I was feeling strong and had a 11:30 finish ibn my grasp so upped the pace some on the last 3 miles I realised that I could crack 11:15 but I would have to really up the pace and really get hurting I felt so strong coming round the lake for the Last time Iwas on a mission even the hooters girls couldnt distract me got to the finishing chute and my body thought thats it I have got him here and packed up 100m short cramp in both legs what before was a flowing running style turned into a gimp like clomp over the line straight into the food tent and sit down utterly spent spent a little time talking t Melifra who looked fresh as a daisy Visited Cona in the med tent who was having a little lie down after his anmazing sub 11:30 debut
run time3:48:15 for atotal time of 11:12:24 a PB by over 37 minutes not bad for a half century year went and did some supporting with the pirates glad I saw SA and Jordy what can I say I was so proud of you two the perfect father/ son moment shame I had some grit in my eye so my visio was a bit blurred
Stuck around for a couple of hours then I had to head to the hotel as I started feeling a bit grim apologies PTL and Cake I would have loved to see you finish but it was not to be
Thanks for all the support well done to all racers at last the UK has a quality Ironman this one should grow and grow a great race
