Today was supposed to be my main event of the year - well, back when I started doing triathlons in April it was the biggest event that I had signed up for and, at the time, was going to represent a challenge, just in terms of getting round.
Funny how things change though - when I was lining up to go down to the swim this morning, my objectives were simple...hang on in the swim as much as possible and try and get out in about 22 minutes, hammer it on the bike to come back into T2 in the lead and then try and hang on in for the run for the age group win in the biggest tri in the world.
The day started off pretty early..my friend and I were both up, although perhaps not awake, at 3:30 this morning and within 30 mins we were on the road to Docklands. Getting there in good time allowed me plenty of time to walk around the transitions and focus on what I had to do. Luckily, my coach arrived early and went through some of the final things, including reminding me to put my shoes on the right pedals...not sure that I will ever live that down now.
Anyway, come 6:30, we were in the water and raring to go only to be pulled out and told that there was some traffic problem at Westminster. So all 400 of us hung around on the dockside awaiting instruction to get back in the water. Finally, at about 7am the swim started. This was the biggest swim start that I had been involved in and it seemed to take a fair while to calm down to the stage where you can start working on your stroke and breathing. Once I hit a rhythm though I just stayed with it and found that I was pulling in people left right and centre whilst a small pack of people managed to stay about a minute ahead the whole time...how dearly I wanted to be in that pack for the slipstream. Still, the bike was next on the agenda and I was pumped up for this and ready to empty a can of wupass on the chaps that beat me in the swim.
Started out on the bike and within a minute I was having cramps in my quads and was worried that they would not go away. I just thought that I did not have time for this so basically decided to ride through it and thankfully after about 10 minutes it seemed to clear up and then I was on the hunt. Coach had told me on the swim exit that I was 2mins off the lead swimmer so it was all out to catch this person...whoever it was. At the start of the bike there were a couple of sections where I would pass someone and they would pass me again...slowly but surely they all drifted away though to leave me the two leaders about a minute up the road. I basically hammered it for about 5 minutes to catch them and make sure that I pass them with enough speed so that they didn't sit on my wheel like a chap did at Windsor.
From this point on it was a pretty amazing ride...I have never had a motorbike leading me out and to have this for 30k's of the ride was pretty good. It made it so much easier to follow the route and pass some of the backmarkers as he just cut a path through everyone. Still, got round the bike in a little over an hour...not the best of time but acceptable and now it was on to the run where I had been thinking that I had made some positive improvements over the last few weeks.
Still, on to the run and now my calves are cramping...this is just not gonna be the day for me with all the cramping...even though I had drunk and eaten everything that I was supposed to up to that point. The run turned out to be hard work and I knew that I was not going as fast as I would have liked to have been. Still, my aim was to stay ahead of anyone after coming in first on the bike. I could tell after the first lap that there was some young chap who was basically running a lot faster than me and was pretty sure that he would catch me...low and behold, at the start of the second lap he was past me and off into the distance. This was part of the dream over...I wanted to be first to the finish, but after catching a sneaky glimpse at the chaps face, I knew he was pretty young so was hoping that he was a 17-24 chap and therefore of no concern to me. I already knew that I had enough distance between myself and the 3rd place chap to make it home safely so perhaps I let my my foot off the gas a bit. In the end I came home with a nice sprint to take second place and first in my AG for the 1st heat of the day.
Results are now out though and it would seem that someone in the 2nd heat beat me by 1 minute...bugger! Still, I am looking at this race from the perspective of how I thought it would turn out when I entered way back and what I have achieved today. I managed to beat a good few people who had decided to race in their GB kit today as well so that has been a good confidence booster for Switzerland.
All in all...good day out, apart from the running. At least I should be getting another medal in the post though for the second place!
Results
5 comments:
That's pretty damn good going mate - nice one. Must leave you feeling confident about Switzerland - I'm sure it would be nice to be the fastest Brit.
I like the new look blog - and the photo montage for the title bar too. Good work.
There is no chance that I'll be the fastest Brit! There are a fair few people who are simply a lot faster than me at the moment - I'll have a good go though of course :-)
Excellent work Rich. Just a shame you had the cramp, otherwise you would have rinsed it.
So, has anyone asked for your autograph yet?
And does this coach cost money?
Ooh, and you also mentioned that this Triathlon is the biggest in the world. Is it really, or was that a typo?
It has the largest number of competitors. I think that over the two days that it is on some 10,000 people compete at a range of distances etc.
It is an amazing site when you go into the ExCel centre and see about 5000 bikes racked up - everything from £100 machines to £5000 carbon fibre beauties.
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