SEC Slate Day At Lakesman

Lakesman 2023

So the Lakesman weekend is a favourite of the SEC team, and this year didn’t disappoint. We had 11 athletes entered in the half, 9 in the full, and 4 relay teams….so there was interest in all competitions.

This is a review of the full weekend from my personal perspective drawing on moments from many athlete’s races. With so many athletes looking to compete, the build-up was unlikely to go 100% smoothly.

Sadly Dave Leyland lost his father a few weeks before the race and the funeral was the Friday before the race….understandably Dave chose to defer his entry to next year, but came up with his support crew to support the event anyway. Dave will be back for sure in 2024.

Mark Colman finally succumbed to a knee injury that was preventing him from running and took the tough but correct decision to convert to a relay and do the swim and bike legs.

Vernon Anderson was in cracking run form, and then from nowhere developed an ankle problem a couple of weeks before the event and then some serious asthma in the week before. Vernon wasn’t about to give in though..

Paul Jordan developed a chest infection the weekend before which threatened to prevent him starting, but he too is made of stern stuff!

Lee Rogers (and his partner Caroline Stalker) both picked up a stomach bug in race week, most likely from a final open water swim before coming to the lakes

Finally, Graeme Watson had been struggling to shake a calf injury, but started anyway

Race week progressed, and I went against all of the advice that I give the team, and smashed out 50,000 steps in the 3 days before the race, helping to set up the registration area, the transition area, and the Friday night swim!! The usual activities came together on Saturday, with a short ride and run before racking the bikes, doing the budgie run, attending the race brief and finally home for pizza and an early night.

It was at about 8pm, that I realised I had spent very little time considering my own race preparation and this would be a bit of a “wing it” affair…..good job I am familiar with all aspects of the race, even though the swim, bike and run courses had all had to be changed for various reasons. I then settled down to the serious business of thinking about all of the things that were bound to go wrong, just to ensure I didn’t fall asleep too easily!! The biggest concern was that the tube on my disk wheel had dropped from 100PSI to 60 PSI between riding on Thursday and Saturday. Presumably that means air is coming out somewhere and it would most likely be flat in transition in the morning….cue mental preparation to change a cold GP5000 in transition at 5:30 in the morning!! The usual morning routine soon came round, 4;30 alarm, soaked oats, morning ablutions and off to transition…..Surprise, surprise, the disc wheel is fine!! I caught up with a number of the SEC team and there was no drama, all seemed calm and on we went to the swim start.

The return of the mass start – 2 waves of 400ish for the half, and one for the 200ish full competitors. I felt quite confident going into the swim, as I had been swimming a lot with the Coniston end to end coming up the week after the Lakesman, so I positioned myself boldy on the front line, prepared to gas myself a bit for the first 200m and see where that left me. Aside from negotiating a fair number of half athletes on the first loop, the swim was uneventful, I found some decent feet on the return leg of the first lap, and when we turned to start the second lap, I had a decent feeling that there were no more than 5 or so people in front of the group of 4 that I was in. I proceeded to unashamedly sit on the feet of 2 of the swimmers in the group and draft my way around the last 1900m. I have my watch set to alert every 10 mins, and I knew that the first lap took a few seconds over 30 mins, which was great, and the 1 hour mark came up with the last stretch back to shore to do – 1:02 and out of the water – happy days. The worst part of the whole day for me is the run up the hill to the Theatre By The Lake, but dropped down into transition with some nice support from the spectators. The weather was warm, so T1 was straightforward – wetsuit off, number belt on – helmet and shoes on my bike and off (4th fastest T1 in the end!)

The bike course started fine, no major dramas, and gradually started to pick off some of the later half athletes which was quite motivational. Round the hilly loop, on the return, I passed a couple of SEC athletes on the 70.3 course, and as I passed Bassenthwaite Water, I saw Danny going back out again on the second lap, he was probably 20 mins in front of me, which was about right, and I counted back to the second place guy, who was 10 mins behind him….sweet. I turned at Keswick in 2:32, on plan and onto the second lap, it was good to see SEC athletes coming back the other way….its always a worry until everyone is back in transition. The second lap was equally uneventful, the road was quieter with cyclists, but busier with traffic. A marshal on the hilly loop told me I was 9th and after overtaking one other on the way back, ended up back in T2 after 5:20 in 8th place, which was OK, maybe 5 mins slower than I would have wanted, but happy to be back in one piece with no flat disc!! Jumped off my bike and the event camera man ran in front of me videoing me running through transition…later to be seen on the race video! Threw me completely, racked my bike, said hi to a couple of the relay runners waiting in transition (good to see Danny’s bike back, and all the 70.3 berths in the SEC racking zone taken), into the tent, and promptly took the wrong bag from the peg and emptied my wetsuit onto the floor. God lover Kate, who sorted that for me whilst I grabbed the right bag….out of the wrong exit, back into the tent and out of the right one and somehow ended up with the 6th fasted T2 of the day!!

Out on the run course and time to see how the 70.3 people had got on! The rugby club is great for this, as you run backwards and forwards through it twice per lap, so plenty of time to see people, and hear about what’s been going on.

On the first pass, I gathered:

Helen Pickett had won her AG

Mark Colman was fine

Lucy lamb was over the moon – bike PB and half female relay winner

Maurizio had PB’d

Katherine Locke was very happy (later found out she’d PB’d), but she always seems to be smiling!!

Lee Roger’s stomach bug had caught up with him on the run, and he hadn’t been able to finish

That’s was enough to keep me occupied for now, whilst I set about looking for the 2 numbers that I thought might be competition in my AG. As luck would have it for me, just after seeing Becca Smth’s parents waiting for her to come back in off the bike, I saw one of the key numbers exiting transition as I completed my first lap – excellent – a 35-40 min lead was good! I proceeded to run the next 4 laps either 20m in front or behind this guy!!

I saw Dan doing his usual super-focused, eyes ahead run with the lead bike with him, like that! Gradually I started to see the other full athletes on the run, and I saw Lyndsay Straughton coming back in the bike, and it wasnt long before their relay runner Rachel Jeff came steaming passed me!! Soon I saw the 2nd “number” at least a lap behind me, so I felt quite relaxed that the only thing I needed to do was finish sensibly and the AG win should be mine.

I soon saw Mark Bedford and Louise Ireland, who both seemed to be struggling with GI issues…Louise’s passed a little, Mark’s didn’t, he had suffered all day. Paul Jordan then appeared which was great to see, as he had been on the “sick” list earlier in the week.

The only person I hadn’t seen on the run course was Mark Taylor, and he’s a good runner, so I expected to see him motoring passed me at some point……then I saw him off the course at the SEC supporter station, and found out he’d had a crash and DNF’d…..hate that. He looked in some pain too, and it later transpired that he was, and continued to be for a few days….but he will heal and be back for sure.

I then started to turn my attention to Becca Smith. I had seen her looking good on the run, and believed she had an 11 hour finish in her, which should get her close to the front of the race. The next time I saw her, she was about 150m behind the lead female bike, but what I couldn’t see from the lap bands was whether she was 150m off the lead or a lap and 150m…..Then as I made my way leisurely through the rugby club aid station, she came passed me with the lead bike – amazing!!! I saw her shortly afterwards on the highway and she said she had one more lap to do after that one, and was looking great!! I ticked the laps off, keeping an eye on the guy 1 lap behind me, and eventually walked / ran the last couple of kms with Vernon Anderson, who despite his illnesses, would claim his medal and fight another day, and proceeded to cross the finish line in 10:34….a bang on average day for me over the 7 years of doing this (but knowing that the course was longer than previous years I was very happy!). I proceeded to succumb to the usual bout of emotion in a heap on the floor surrounded by wife Ann, daughter Rachel and race winner Danny. Off to the food tent for double sticky toffee pudding and back to the finish to watch Becca come over the line – she was an emotional mess too, as were her family, which was just fantastic to see – so proud of her!! This is exactly why I do this “job” to see the joy and elation achieving and surpassing your goals brings to athletes and their support crews – priceless.

In summary, it was a day of amazing highs for SEC – male winner, female winner, 70.3 female relay winner, 140.6 female relay winner, AG wins for myself, Louise and Helen, a 2nd place for Alan and Katie and PBs for Nathan and Maurizio. Some tough days for Mark B, Vernon, Holly, Paul J and Tom who all claimed their medals, but not without digging very deep. A shocking day for Mark T, and illness / injury related DNFs for Graeme and Lee.

I guess when you have so many of your team racing one race, its never going to be all glory, but for those that claimed slate, you should be truly satisfied with your day, and take an enormous amount of pride that the work you put in was today fully rewarded. For those that didn’t….that’s racing, and you will be back stronger in the future.