Wow. Its taken me a while to come to terms with what happened last weekend and I am finally here putting my thoughts down.
This race was in St Neots and not only was it the British Triathlon Championships; it was also the 2015 Worlds qualifier and 2016 European qualifier. We arrived the day before to register where we discovered that there were about 1000 people racing and as a result the transition was so vast it would have been easier to find your way out of a maze! Anyway we went back to our own athletes village (A little travelodge off the A14) to rest for the big day ahead....
This race was in St Neots and not only was it the British Triathlon Championships; it was also the 2015 Worlds qualifier and 2016 European qualifier. We arrived the day before to register where we discovered that there were about 1000 people racing and as a result the transition was so vast it would have been easier to find your way out of a maze! Anyway we went back to our own athletes village (A little travelodge off the A14) to rest for the big day ahead....
RACE DAY T-3:00 hours
I woke up bright and early at 5:00am, engulfed my specialist race nutrition (rice krispies & oats) washed down by a slightly electrolyte tea from the limescale ridden kettle and off we went to the venue.
TRANSITION PREP T-1:30hours
We arrived at 6:30am and this is when I encountered problem#1 I had no jumper and it was 9 degrees....So I did the only rational thing and put 4 t-shirts on and Kiera's cycling top. We then went straight into transition to prepare our shoes, helmet, bike e.t.c This is when I encountered problem#2.. I had my running shoes which I had to leave in transition along with my cycling shoes and all I had left were my flip flops in 9 degree weather, great. By the way did anyone else hear socks and flip flops are back in fashion? We faffed a bit more and then went for the obligatory pre-race weight loss technique, to the portaloos. This is problem#3, What the organisers forgot was that every triathlete has this same tactic and so 10 portaloos is insufficient to support what can only be described as a sea of people. one 30 minute queue and a 10 minute warm up later I was listening to the race brief, suited and booted in my wetsuit race ready.
SWIM 750m T-0:00
My wave was U29's and consisted of 200 people all of which were older than me. Despite my best efforts of positioning myself out of the white water of a swim start, after the horn went I still found myself amongst it. Brutal, savage and violent. Who knew wrestling had been added to a triathlon? after being kicked, dunked, scratched and punched I finally found some clear water despite having to take a slightly longer swim route and it paid off coming out the water in 10:44 12th best swim time on the day. My first transition was atrocious, loosing up to 1 minute on my rivals so I HAD to have a good bike and run.
BIKE 24k T+00:13
The bike was pretty uneventful itself, a bit of wind, a few hills and hundreds of cyclists sums it up. I averaged just under 24mph after struggling to get going but doing some good speeds during the latter parts of the discipline. 66th best bike on the day so there is room for improvement here but still a solid split. So it was down to the final run, my favourite. I came into T2 pretty fast nearly tripping up but I had a very clean transition running 150m and changing from cycling to running (change shoes&take off helmet) in just 34 secs.
RUN 5k T+00:51
I came out of transition with Chris Green, an older GB athlete, and at the speed he went striding off at, you could tell. I thought if I stayed with him it would kill me but also I might gain a few positions, so like any rational person (again) I matched stride for stride, struggling stride by stride with pain enveloping my entire body. My form dropped, my breathing was erratic but I was fixated, consumed by the moment. Untouchable. The beautiful crisp British Triathlon blue finishing straight came into view and with a dash to line I realized I was wrong. I was not dead; but I was damn close! The run done in 15:16 7th best on the day. Overall time 1:06:38 and 2nd in U20's age group.
A big Thank you to Perry Agass and http://www.kieratippett.com/
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
I woke up bright and early at 5:00am, engulfed my specialist race nutrition (rice krispies & oats) washed down by a slightly electrolyte tea from the limescale ridden kettle and off we went to the venue.
TRANSITION PREP T-1:30hours
We arrived at 6:30am and this is when I encountered problem#1 I had no jumper and it was 9 degrees....So I did the only rational thing and put 4 t-shirts on and Kiera's cycling top. We then went straight into transition to prepare our shoes, helmet, bike e.t.c This is when I encountered problem#2.. I had my running shoes which I had to leave in transition along with my cycling shoes and all I had left were my flip flops in 9 degree weather, great. By the way did anyone else hear socks and flip flops are back in fashion? We faffed a bit more and then went for the obligatory pre-race weight loss technique, to the portaloos. This is problem#3, What the organisers forgot was that every triathlete has this same tactic and so 10 portaloos is insufficient to support what can only be described as a sea of people. one 30 minute queue and a 10 minute warm up later I was listening to the race brief, suited and booted in my wetsuit race ready.
SWIM 750m T-0:00
My wave was U29's and consisted of 200 people all of which were older than me. Despite my best efforts of positioning myself out of the white water of a swim start, after the horn went I still found myself amongst it. Brutal, savage and violent. Who knew wrestling had been added to a triathlon? after being kicked, dunked, scratched and punched I finally found some clear water despite having to take a slightly longer swim route and it paid off coming out the water in 10:44 12th best swim time on the day. My first transition was atrocious, loosing up to 1 minute on my rivals so I HAD to have a good bike and run.
BIKE 24k T+00:13
The bike was pretty uneventful itself, a bit of wind, a few hills and hundreds of cyclists sums it up. I averaged just under 24mph after struggling to get going but doing some good speeds during the latter parts of the discipline. 66th best bike on the day so there is room for improvement here but still a solid split. So it was down to the final run, my favourite. I came into T2 pretty fast nearly tripping up but I had a very clean transition running 150m and changing from cycling to running (change shoes&take off helmet) in just 34 secs.
RUN 5k T+00:51
I came out of transition with Chris Green, an older GB athlete, and at the speed he went striding off at, you could tell. I thought if I stayed with him it would kill me but also I might gain a few positions, so like any rational person (again) I matched stride for stride, struggling stride by stride with pain enveloping my entire body. My form dropped, my breathing was erratic but I was fixated, consumed by the moment. Untouchable. The beautiful crisp British Triathlon blue finishing straight came into view and with a dash to line I realized I was wrong. I was not dead; but I was damn close! The run done in 15:16 7th best on the day. Overall time 1:06:38 and 2nd in U20's age group.
A big Thank you to Perry Agass and http://www.kieratippett.com/
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
- I came 2nd in British Triathlon Championships :)
- I have qualified for 2015 World Triathlon Championships in chicago.
- I have qualified for 2016 European Triathlon Championships in lisbon.
- I NEED YOUR HELP. flights,hotels,entrance fees,bike,shoes,wetsuit,trisuit,coaching fees all add up. Please support me below to allow me to continue on this journey. ANYTHING helps. Thank you.
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