So, I went to Ripon Racecourse Lake last night for my open water swim induction. A bit late in the day this, my first triathlon is on 9th July and I've yet to do ANY open water swimming, but hey-ho - better late than never eh? I'll get a few in before the big day. Anyhow, while I was there waiting for the induction-bloke from NYP Tri to show up, I got chatting with the other lad who was waiting for him too. He looked a bit shaken up and I asked him why? Turns out that he was looking for the correct entrance to the racecourse lake and mistakenly turned into the entrance for Ripon Marina (a few hundred yards bfore the racecourse), only to be greeted by the sight of a car with a hosepipe plugged into the exhaust and leading into the car! The door was open and the guy inside was still alive (ie. had a pulse), so he called an ambulance and pulled the guy out of the car to get him into the fresh air ... I actually DID see the ambulance there and wondered what was going on. Bloody hell eh? He saved that person's life .... funny thing though, he'll never know who saved him (assuming he wanted to be saved - this had to be cry for help at 5.30pm on a busy road) as the ambulance crew didn't even ask this lad's name. He genuinely was shaken up though and I don't blame him. As for the person who tried to kill himself? Well, I hope he's OK but my thoughts are very much along the "you selfish bastard" line. Is that a way out? What was he leaving behind him? Was there a family, a life, children, a whole gamut of people who would have to live with the knowledge that someone close to them chose to die in a car park in Ripon? Perhaps it's wrong of me to be judgemental, but the whole suicide thing is anaethma to my soul.
Anyhow, the induction went well, I am now a second-claim member of Ripon Tri (which means ditching my affiliation to the RNAC) and can swim in the lake at the training sessions. I dashed home from there, a quick change to running kit and it was out to Arkendale for a club Point-to-Point. I didn't expect to do well, have been doing a lot of hard training of late and it's left me tired, however things didn't go too badly. I managed a consistent 7 min pace on a slightly undulating course, nobody overtook me and I overhauled about 4 other runners. Legs felt good, no aches or pains so generally I think things are OK. I think I could have improved on that had I been fresher, but I'm in a training phase at the moment and didn't expect to break any records. Course (out and back) below:
Changing subject, am looking forward very much to supporting Dave A's BGR attempt on Friday and will be getting camping gear etc ready tonight, Stuart is picking me up early on Friday morning so camp should be all set up by midday. Hope Thirlspot is not too crowded, rumour has it that Dark Peak FRC are descending en-masse, so decent pitches will be at a premium. Weather forecast looks like we're going to get rain which is a bit disappointing, but hopefully that won't be accompanied by high wind. I refuse to believe the weather could be as bad as it was the last time I did BGR support.
Changing subject, am looking forward very much to supporting Dave A's BGR attempt on Friday and will be getting camping gear etc ready tonight, Stuart is picking me up early on Friday morning so camp should be all set up by midday. Hope Thirlspot is not too crowded, rumour has it that Dark Peak FRC are descending en-masse, so decent pitches will be at a premium. Weather forecast looks like we're going to get rain which is a bit disappointing, but hopefully that won't be accompanied by high wind. I refuse to believe the weather could be as bad as it was the last time I did BGR support.
Better get some work done!
