Raced at the Stockton Sprint last week but it's taken me a while to write it up because of 2 main reasons. Firstly, I became mighty ill the day after the race, sickness and diarrhea, which hung around for 36 hours...not nice. Then, once I was feeling better I went away for a long weekend with the family, not too far away, just the east coast, but it gave me a chance to cycle there and back, with a long hilly run on the day between. Just under 8 hours of 'quality miles'.
Anyhoo, the race itself went reasonably well. The 750m 'city centre' river swim took me 12:56, slightly slower than I would have liked, but out of the murky water in 14th.
The 23km bike route was flat, 'compact' and REALLY technical and to be brutally honest, it was probably the worst route I've raced on! I'm not a lover of the 'stop/start' type of racing you get with city centre, multiple lap routes. There were a few roundabouts and several 180 degree dead turns on each lap, and after 3 laps I was getting dizzy! I know these type of courses are great for the spectators, but because of all the mega tight turns and sharp bends, no sooner had I got down on my aero bars than I was having to ease up and start braking ready for yet another 180 turn! Very frustrating! I was 4th fastest biker in a time of 37:19 and was lying 5th out of T2.
The 5km run was just as 'twisty' but at least it was only one lap and actually had a few lumps in it, courtesy of a few footbridges. I made up a place on the run with a split time of 17:45.
I finished 4th overall and 2nd AG in a time of 1:09:21. Happy with the overall result, especially as it was in front of some top quality support from some very vocal family members! (bunch of posers!)
A couple of days later, an email from the race organiser was asking if anyone had became ill since the race. It turns out that quite a number of us had became ill, and as a precaution we were advised to get a medical check up. They (the organisers) are worried about an illness called Weils Disease which attacks the liver and can be contracted from open water where rats use it as a toilet! Nice! After my visit to the Med Centre, I am now on anti biotics and have sacrificed an armful of blood for testing. I don't feel as though I have picked up anything nasty, but apparently this condition can lay dormant for a while, so a blast of prescription drugs is the way ahead!
So if you ever get ill after swimming in open water, I would suggest a 'better safe than sorry' trip to the doc's!
Train safe and remember kids...don't drink from rivers!!!
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