There was some tough competition for me, Tim and Andy, have both beaten me in some races of recent and I had also perhaps not prepared in the best fashion. On Friday night I was in Regent's park doing very hard 1min intervals for about an hour - hence, my legs weren't feeling too great come the morning of the race. Still, my main concern at the moment is the National 25 in a couple of weeks and I can't miss any bike sessions for anything as I lead up to it, this unfortunately means just training through this race and Crystal Palace Triathlon next week.
I had decided that the only way I was going to stand a chance in this race would be to swim quite hard so that I could at least try and make it out on to the bike in the lead. From there, I planned to race a bit harder than normal, not flat out, but a decent effort to see if I could build any form of a gap. Thankfully, my plan all came together. I led for most of the swim and managed to exit in 10:46 which is not too bad, not great though based on my training.
Still, I was in the lead though and I was out on the bike, this time riding my new Ceepo Venom which I am using as part of the Team's sponsorship. This was the first time that I had ridden the bike though so I didn't know what to expect. Although I am not as low as I would like, the frame is really sturdy. I quickly realised on the bike that I was managing to put some time in to my nearest opponent Tim - I could not see him on the few occasions I turned my head anyway.
Eventually, I heard a mate shout out that I had about 35 seconds as I headed out on to the run. I thought to myself that, going on my current fitness, that was never going to be enough. Tim is a good runner, and worse still, Andy is an amazing runner. They would all be hunting me down now. At the turn on the first lap it looked like Tim was really close. I thought I had done enough to hold of Andy, but it looked like Tim was catching fast. At the turn with 2.5k to go, I was told I had 25s. I thought to myself, I've only lost 10s in 2.5k and I am starting to feel better, I may actually do this. So, I put my head down and worked a bit harder, all the time feeling the lack of running in the legs.
Still, the last 400m were quite nice, a quick turn around and I knew I had done enough. Tim was too far back and Andy had not bridged the gap. So, that was it, I get to hold on to the Sprint trophy for another year. Paula also managed to win the ladies event, so we'll have a nice set of his and hers trophies.
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