Just like being in labour I guess, like many women say after giving birth I said that I wouldn't be repeating the experience.  However, on the drive home the next day, Colin and I were already discussing how we could improve our performance and training to improve our times.

If you are a regular or long term reader of my emails you will be aware that Fran and I have fertility issues and went through a failed attempt at IVF last spring.  This took up a lot of our time, energy and mental strength - all things needed to train for and complete any triathlon, let alone the hallowed ironman distance.

Suffice to say, the training took a back burner and I got out whenever I felt like it rather than following the plan I had designed.  If I completed 20% of it, I'd be surprised.

There hasn't been that much improvement in the amount of training I have completed this year but for very different reasons.  The Achieve Health Coaching and Therapy business has been very busy and time has been limited; I also had a cold for about 4 weeks recently which took away my ability to run.

The event I entered was the Rat Race City to Summit Extreme triathlon, which involved a 2.4 mile swim in the chilly North Sea, a 110 mile uphill cycle to Glen Coe and finishing with an off road marathon which culminated with up and down Ben Nevis.

I was a little nervous at registration the day before when I heard how much training other racers had put in, a strategy to make others nervous I have since found out :)  

My training partner Colin had battled through injury and time issues to make it to race day feeling slightly under-prepared too.  We just said that we'd get to the finish and deal with how we felt about it then.

We left registration and went back to the apartment to make final kit preparations and make sure we had everything for race day.  It was at that point I realised that I hadn't packed my goggles, big time school boy error.  It was 7.30pm on a Friday night in a little village north of Edinburgh, I didn't think my chances of finding a sports shop were going to be great.

Luckily, there was a supermarket down the road and they now stock sports kit.  My own goggles have a really soft seal, my new pair had a solid seal.  That wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't for a bone chip I have on my eye socket that most goggles press against and cause a headache.  Not ideal but needs must.

Fran and Michaela prepared us a nice meal and we got an early night.

The alarm went off at 3.45am, we needed time to get ready, have breakfast and drive 30 minutes to the race briefing (sounds very professional but essential a man on a loud speaker shouting about the rules in a car park).

At the briefing the organisers let us know that the swim distance had to be shortened to 1200m because the temperature of the sea was only 8.9°C rather than the 14°C they had planned on.  I'm not sure they realised that we were in Scotland and it was the North Sea, I guess they had never been to Skegness as a kid.

Part of me was relieved but part of me was disappointed.  I had been making a 120 mile round trip to swim in a lake near Bedford and prepare, up until Christmas 2012 the furthest I had swam front crawl was 50m and I felt ready to do the distance. 

Hey Ho, my chances of finishing before last orders had improved.

When we went down to the start, they advised us to get in and acclimatise to the cold; it was cold but didn't feel that bad.  We were told to wear booties and gloves if we had them, I hadn't swam in them before and I kept hearing myself telling others not to change anything on race day - I ignored my advise and put them on.

I hadn't done any swimming in large groups and had heard stories of people punching and kicking you in the face as you swam, not something I cope very well with being trained to retaliate and counter as a martial artist for 25 years.  I made a mental note not to break anyone's arm or choke them out as they were just trying to swim faster.

I held back until most of the group had started and set off, in all honesty the water didn't feel that cold when I got going, I didn't even get an ice cream headache.  I did take a couple of light blows as I got to the buoy to turn but nothing major and no harm needed to be done to the other swimmers :)

On the way back in, the disappointment of the shorter distance really hit me, I was feeling good and realised that the guy on the desk at the lake had been lying about the temperature down there.  It never seemed to change from 14°C but here I was swimming in sub 9°C without a problem, other than the fact that my right hand had a balloon on it in the form of my glove which I didn't pull tight enough.

Fran said that they had made the right decision though as 10 people had to be dragged out within the first 500m because of the cold.

The next part was a 300m run to the transition where you get changed from your wetsuit in to your cycling kit.  As those of you have met me will know, I have a lot of words I need to get out daily and I get distracted easily.

To say I was a little casual about the transition would be slight exaggeration.  The Brownlee brothers go through transition in under 90 seconds, I was closer to 15 minutes; although transition for ironman distance is slower because you need to make sure everything is just right for such a long ride.

I had a chat with a couple of people about the swim, some of the others were disappointed too.  It was also some of their first times swimming in the sea.  It wasn't until a man I was chatting to pointed out that I was ready to go and in a race that I realised I should get a move on.

I grabbed my bike and headed off.

I'll cover the bike and run stage tomorrow including why I thought about doing a Sylvester Stallone on the mountain.

Darren 'too casual to be competitive' Checkley

P.S.  A group of our Team Achieve members recently completed their first triathlon in Stratford and really enjoyed the experience and most have decided to enter further events, some playing with the idea of longer distances.  We regularly take part in events together, that way nerves are reduced and our members can experience things that they didn't think they ever could.

Some of Team Achieve have enter the Summer Wolf Run - if you would like to join their pack and enjoy the support of the Team on the way round, here is their pack code - 382b8de4

P.P.S.  Here is a photo of Colin and I 5 minutes before we dived in to the icy water, nice hats and smiles.