Rules, it appears, are made to be broken

Either that or the rule of 3 simply doesn't apply to multiday races?
So I had achieved my first aim of carrying the leader's jersey into the
final day, and james had decided to stagger the starts by 5 minutes today,
which gave me a bit more of a lie in, but as it was a mediocre night's
sleep, this didn't help too much. At least I figured out why the problems
though - I was so eager to recover that I kept shovelling carbs into myself
late into the night, and couldn't sleep due to the sugar rush refusing to
allow my brain to shut down - a useful lesson to learn!
So I decided not to show up at the start until bruce had already left ...
Why not leave him wondering where I was ;-)
The first leg was a 15 or so km road ride along an A road and then over a
hilly back road, that kev and I had driven the previous night, and got a
bit concerned about how unpleasant it looked.
As it turned out it was relatively ok, and I despatched it in 41 minutes -
1 more than my nemesis ;-)
Next was a run over carlton bank on the cleveland way, and heading into the
first section I could see HHN about 5 minutes ahead, so they hadn't taken
much time either.
The cleveland way is an impressive cobbled walkway heading (literally) up
hill and down dale, and took us along the edge of a sheer ridge with
fantastic views to the north. Being sadistic, james the race director sent
us along the undulating rather than the flatter option. At least this gave
me the opportunity to see HHN approaching hilltops in front of me, and work
out that they were only slowly pulling away. Given how I was feeling, and
how hard I was thrashing myself, this was very good news!
I was amazed to find that even though this was my 4th straight day, and I
was basically running on rock, often steeply downhill, my feet still felt
fine - a great testament to the x-talon shoes that I had worn for every leg
of the race so far (paddling in them to save transition time, and using
footplates on the bike rather than bike shoes), I think I've found my
favourite multisport race shoe!
Dropping down to clay bank to switch onto the mountain bike, I jogged into
an empty transition to be told I was now 1830 minutes back - 7 minutes over
an hour and a half, not too bad, but it's on the bike that bruce would be
looking for big gains.
Next piece of good news was that pumping the tyres up this morning, a valve
had been ripped out of a tyre, and the replacement tube was leaking a touch
- oh well, at least I know, make sure the road front is available at the
next transition!
Out onto the road and I spotted a forestry road on the left and took that,
straight up, though not as straight up as the alternative it would appear -
a steep walk up the cleveland way that I had to jump a stone wall to get
to. Once up on the top, there was a nice track, that was a little
concerning due to the state of my front wheel, and the regular stone
drainage channels.
I was going fine once we turned onto a lovely, flat, smooth disused railway
line, when a hiss from the front warned me all was not well. stopping, the
front was soft, so I pulled out the CO2 canister and ... Nothing ...
Looking at it later, it had a short thread on it and didn't go into the
head far enough to pierce, so out came the minipump.
On my way again, this time it stayed up long enough to make it over the
road section, and gingerly through a length of concerningly rocky
singletrack before another pumping. Out onto glaisdale rigg and I hit the
last section of 4wd track confidently.
Too confidently, as I crested a rise at about 30mph, all I could see on the
other side was rocks and ruts, this wasn't going to be good. Sure enough
all the thinking light thoughts in the world wasn't going to save the front
tube, so it was a stop to change the tube and pump up the tyre - another 3
minutes gone - and down to the TA.
Getting the front wheel changed I headed out knowing I now only had 10
minutes lead, this was getting close!
There was really nothing left but to give it death, so I consumed the rest
of the gels and go fast that I was carrying, and headed for the whitby to
robin hoods bay cycleway.
Boy was this cycleway popular! Apologies to the small child that nearly got
run over deciding at the last minute to change sides, the dog that didn't
understand 'move' and the chap who's bike I knocked going through a gate
he'd decided to stop in the middle of, but I really wasn't stopping for
anyone!
I was quite disappointed to find that the cycleway rose almost all the way
to RHB, and then when it did drop, did so into a headwind, but at least
when I arrived, everyone in town seemed able to point me towards the
cycleway, thus making up for the lack of signs!
Onto another section that turned from tarmac to gravel, and then kevin was
stood in front of me shouting 'turn in here', where? And then just past him
a gap appeared in the hedge and I heard him saying you've got about 3
minutes.
Given I could see the gantry this was going to be plenty, but I still
sprinted to the line, dibbed in and was immediately congratulated by bruce,
very quickly followed by H2O and then a number of others.
What a great race, my time of 21:56 won by 6 minutes, and HHN held on to
win the teams race by the same margin.
Thanks to james for putting this race on, to kevin for doing so much
organising to make it possible for me to compete, to ivan for the loan of a
great boat, alex for the bike, which I shall attempt to return to it's
original pristine condition. Thanks of course also to inov8, Go Fast and
For Goodness Shakes for the products that helped get me through 4 very
intense days, and last and most importantly, to Hildy, Heather and Barry,
none of whom had even seen a multisport race before, and yet today got me
through 3 transitions in less than 1 minute 40 seconds, awesome work guys,
and thanks for all the work you did winning this with me!