For those that don’t know this race it starts at midday and most people finish around sunset, hence the name. It’s run by Freebird events and is based at Allerthorpe Lakeland Park near York.

Perhaps doing two middle distance races in two weeks was a bit ambitious, but I did the Sundowner last year and enjoyed it so thought I’d go again and see if I could get an Age Group place again.

The day started great, sunshine, clear skies plenty of time to rack and set up, lots of chat and the option not to wear wetsuits as the water was 21degrees. The swim is three laps of a large duck pond with a weird dog leg in the middle out, Aussie style run ten metres and back in. Found myself right at the front for the start of my wave and though ooh this is going to hurt, gave as good as I got as about fifty people swam over me, wonder if that counts as drafting? Managed the swim in my usual 45 minutes but got out feeling fresh and could still feel my extremities.

Quick transition and out on the bike and for the second race in a row it peed it down, but where as Aberfeldy it just came down here it was a real squall and it got cold very quickly. The two laps on open roads are very flat and exposed and remained windy for the two laps with some cross winds at time. This for me limits the time I send on the TT bars, still not confident in the wind and I get really tense which in turn is tiring. So 6 minutes slower than last year.

The run is three out and backs of 7 km on a really boring road with feed station at the outer turn mark. Managed a fairly consistent 10kmh for the duration and was five minutes faster than last year on the run.

Overall 6 minutes slower than last year in 6hrs 11mins and with really quick finish by someone in my age group not a snowflakes chance of qualifying.

There’s food included in the entry, a nice T shirt and a great after race party with live music. You can camp on site and I bumped into a nice lad called Allen from Fusion, we really should have a system so we know who’s going to these races.

So a week off  then Lancaster Sprint acting as a guide to Visually Impaired athlete, so only the bike and the run to do!!