This was to be the first race over the weekend with me racing up in Milton Keynes on Sunday as well. The aim of this was in preparation for my next “A” race – Austria 70.3 the following weekend. The main goal for both was to just go as hard as possible and see how I felt and how the times stacked up. I tend to race better off the back of more racing so hopefully the bounce back effect next weekend would lead to a successful race in Austria.
I went down with my coach Bridgitte Swales, good friend and Current Ironman World Champ Chrissie Wellington and younger brother Geoff in toe; a great support crew!
I lined up at the front of the swim start… something new for me. My swimming has been going great recently so I wanted to see how it would be in a race rather than a nice comfy 25m pool. The gun went and I set about going hard but trying to stay relaxed and keep my technique together. My Orca Apex 2 wetsuit meant that I had no problems with feeling restricted and the added buoyancy meant that I felt in complete control in the water for the first time EVER! It all seamed to work well as for once the leaders went, but didn’t “get away” from me. I held on close enough to them all and came out the water in 5th; less than 20seconds down on the leader James Sedgewick who I know is a fantastic swimmer. I was delighted to say the least.
A quick transition and I had already caught up most of that deficit on the 4 guys in front. I quickly settled down onto my new Cervelo P3C from Sigma and targeted the 1st place guy about 100m up the road. The course at Eaton is flat and fast and I barely needed to leave the comfort of my Oval Tri bars and within the first 2k I was race leader and pulling away. By the end of 4 laps of ignoring my wattage and just riding hard I entered a very busy transition with Chrissie, Bridge and Geoff yelling that I had about a 2 minute lead. Quickly racking my bike and helmet, and putting on my new Saucony Race shoes (recently supplied by Lanson Running) I was out of transition in less than a minute and off onto the equally flat and fast 5k run.
I’ve been working on more speed work recently with my running and it was nice to feel the benefits of this, with my pace feeling hard but comfortable and at the first turn around after 1.25k I took a time check to see how far in front of 2nd place I was. I saw good friend Dion Harrison (Thames Turbo/Sigma Sport) in second place approaching and clocked the total time difference at just over 2min30s. From there on in it was head down and just run hard. My new trainers were so light I could barely feel them on my feet and meant that the remaining km’s ticked by really quickly and left my legs feeling strong despite the effort. Knowing the win was certain I backed of a touch over the last km to try and save a little in my legs for the race on Sunday. I crossed the line in 52:34, with a finishing 5k time of 16:50 delighted with the win and a really good hard training session in the bag. With the race the following day equally as important I quickly downed a High5 recovery drink and some High5 4:1 sports drink to help maximise my recovery and ability to perform the next day.
Thanks to Chrissie, Bridge and Geoff for their great cheering support and to my sponsors Sigma Sport, Orca, High 5, R&B Capital, Upgrade Bikes (Oval) and Lanson Running.