AVR athlete Luke Reed took on the UK Half Ironman on Exmoor, writes Dave Mutter.
It involved a 7.30am start at Wimbleball Lake and, with the weather unsettled, it made for an interesting day!
Luke had a good 1.2-mile swim in the lake, completing the section in 30:40.
As he exited the water the heavens opened to make conditions difficult for the next stage, the 56-mile bike race.
That sort of distance is tough enough, but it was extra difficult with driving rain and increasing winds – and there was a 5,000 foot climb involved as well!
Luke eventually finished this part in 3:21:43 which took him next into the final stage, a three-lap run. He took a while to find his legs, but once he settled into the stage he made good progress to finish the run element in 1:41:59.
This gave Luke an overall time of 5.41.19 and 181st out of 1500 finishers.
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