This British Triathlon Championship race attracted a very strong field with a big representation by GBR age group athletes so I was fairly sure it was going to be tough. However the toughest competition turned out to be the course.

Earlier in the week an email was sent to all competitors notifying a necessary change in the bike course due to road works which would increase the distance by 1.5km and include an additional 2 right turns making 4 in total. I, along with a few others it seems, replied to the organisers suggesting the course be reversed to make the 4 right turns left turns and thus make the course safer. They replied stating there were actually more left turns so it would remain as was. They did also advise that there were a total of twelve round-a-bouts on this open road course, just what you want for a race!! Anyway, I arrived just in time for the race briefing, having already registered the night before, and got my bike racked. I donned my wetsuit and headed to the river, oh yes, didn’t I mention that? It was a river swim,
750m upstream and 750m downstream. The organisers stated in the briefing that the river had been dredged, really?

What with? A teaspoon?? For the first half of the swim we had to battle with thick weed which, in places, was as close as 6” from the surface. So for the majority of the first half of the swim we were up to our elbows in long, thick, straw like weed. It was very hard work and seemed to take a lot of effort. The return leg wasn’t as bad but we still hit pockets of it every now and again. I had therefore reserved myself to the fact that in this, my worst, discipline I was likely to get a poor time and colliding with another competitor in a wave behind me heading upstream didn’t exactly help matters! However, that said, I actually climbed out of the water and hit T1 in 00:29:38, my quickest 1500 open water to date (by 1 minute)!

So all credit to Coach Curtin, I’d loved to have seen the time had it not been noodle soup! Next, out on the bike which wasn’t without it’s hiccups either. Whoever had racked next to me had caught one of my shoes when they unracked and snapped the elastic holding the right shoe horizontal. As I leapt on to my trusty steed I had every kind of trouble getting the shoe turned over, it caught the floor jolted the bike, my other foot slipped then I had two shoes catching the floor and was forced to slow to a crawl to get the shoes the right way up so I could crack on. I was somewhat upset with myself and set off trying to make the time back muttering various expletives under my breath.

The roads weren’t in great condition and a lot of the surfaces hindered pace and made it really hard work. There was one stretch where I swear I was going downhill and tried to press on but pedalling was becoming more and more difficult, I felt like I was cycling through blamange. For a moment I thought the swim had taken so much out of me that I had bonked, then I realised that despite the fact that it still looked downhill it must have been a gradual incline. About 2/3’s of the way through I had to remind myself this was a race and to pull my finger out, which I did and inside the last 5k passed not one but two GBR age group athletes, only one of whom would regain his position on the run. I headed in to T2 with a bike leg of 01:10:57 and headed out for my strongest discipline, the run. This 10k consisted of three 3.3km loops of the river crossing a bridge at either end.

Before the first lap was out I had found my running legs and settled in to a good pace which I picked up heading in to the third lap. With about 800m to go I could feel a tingling in the muscles on the inside of both legs just above the knee which gradually became worse than a tingle and I did wonder if something was going to go ‘ping’ however with
the finish in sight I gritted my teeth and pressed on trying to turn up the pace gradually to the line. I didn’t manage my usual sprint finish but did pick up the pace considerably and completed the run in 00:38:37. With a T1 of 54 seconds and a T2 of 49 seconds my final time was 02:20:57 placing me 154th overall and 30th in age group. All in all, and taking gremlins in to account, a very pleasing result. Bring on Bala on the 12th September!