Thames Turbo Race 4

As with all Bank Holidays, I was yet again involved in another of the Thames Turbo sprint races. This was the last of the 2008 season and I felt confident that all I needed to do was to get round to secure myself a good placing in the overall series.

Things did not start off too well however, I was losing pace on the chap in front of me in the pool and was even eventually caught by the guy behind me. I am pretty sure that I was not swimming that slow on this occasion, it appears that I just happened to get sandwiched between a couple of faster people.

Out on the bike I was fully aware that there was going to be little to no chance of finally going under 30 minutes for the 21k ride. This time we had some roadworks on the course which meant that, on this occasion, we would need to get off our bikes and run around the works - running on a bike leg is not the most conducive to producing fast times. Anyway, today was not to be my day anyway, after about 5k of the ride I was sure that the back tire had totally deflated as I suddenly felt like I was a lot closer to the ground. I thought that the race was over so I slowed down, got off the bike and checked the tire. It was only then that I realised that it was in fact my saddle which had slipped a few inches. I quickly realised that I would still be able to ride, so jumped on and headed back off....I initially assumed I would need to stand for the rest of the ride, but gently returned to the seat and managed to ride the rest of the race in the BMX position with my knees almost touching my elbows on every revolution...not really the best position for riding anyway.

Out on the run I was most keen on just laying the demons of the London Triathlon to rest by actually having a decent run. I knew that I was not going to be super fast as I had done hardly any speed work, what with my first half Ironman this weekend, but I hoped to at least run consistently and faster than I had at London. I ended up feeling good all the way round and I even think that I started to speed up towards the end. In the end, the run time was the second fastest that I have done on that course but my overall time was only enough to secure me 4th place in the race. That was my lowest finishing position this year, but I would like to think that it was not that bad considering the time that I lost on the bike leg. It was enough to secure 2nd place in the Series so that was good.