good warm up / practice for Vitruvian
by Alice O'Neill

Review Made: 02.07.2016

Jack de Bokx

As I am doing the Vitruvian again later this year, I thought it would be nice to do the Dambuster - good to know the bike course, which is pretty tough with the Rutland Ripple, three climbs in a few miles. We decided to stay over with the motorhome, which allowed for a somewhat more relaxed start. But it was cold - getting into the water felt like freezing (I must have lived somewhere warm in a previous life!) and I suffered for the first 500 meter to get my head properly down, absolutely slow - warmed up and the last 1000 meter went a lot faster and overtook quite a bit of other swimmers.

On to the bike, started easy to warm up a bit, the first miles are a slow ascent, but got into a nice speed down and up to the Ripple. Middle piece of the ride is pretty fast, with a tougher last few miles. Quite pleased with my cycling time, just over 20m/h average - on to the run, still feeling pretty cold - but soon warmed up - not as fast as  Neal but still a decent speed, just over 42 minutes for close to 10km. Finish time was 2:33:07 which puts right in between Neal and Kevin and 9th in AG. Aiming for a top 10 in AG (quite a bit of competition due to this being a qualifier for worlds) and 2:30-ish so spot on. If only the temperature would have been a few degrees higher :-)…. all in all a well organised event and certainly something I can suggest if you look for a tough but nice standard distance.

Race Ratings

Organisation:
Course:		Tough but nice
Venue:
Value For Money: