The London Triathlon - Elite
I'd deceided to do London pretty late on. Its an Elite race that atracts many of the very best triathletes in the world and I knew there was no point in towing the line with world champions and olympic medalists if I wasn't feeling ready to be there. For the first time ever I genuinely felt that my swimming was getting good enough to compete with most of the other guys.
My race took a major blow 2 hours before the start though. The swim was to be non-wetsuit, playing right into the hands of the good swimmers and right out the hands of yours truly. Still though, it was just something I'd have to deal with. Fortunately I got my hands on one of Orca's special "Killer" suits which is designed specifically for non-wet suit swims. I stayed close to the pack for the first 300m or so, but my biggest weakness in swimming is that the harder I try to work, the worse my technique gets. And so instead of relaxing and swimming smoother I fought hard to stay with those in front and rapidly got spat out the back of the pack. A lonely but surprisingly enjoyable remaining swim saw me come out the water well over a minute down on my closest competitor (and yes LAST) and nearly 5mins down on the top guys. Considering how much faster I'd swum only 7 days ago, I was gutted to say the least. But I was determined to make it back!
Once again Sigma had very kindly leant me a team Nemesis whilst mine is repaired. I took off as fast as I could, heading away from the docklands towards the Houses of Parliament on this scenic route we were so fortunate to be able to race on. The beautifully light and stiff bike sped me along and 15k of 340+ watts later and I had caught the next guys up the road. As a group of 5 we quickly caught the next 4 guys in front but I was somewhat annoyed to be doing about 80% of the work at the front of the group. Despite my looks and shouts to try and get someone to share the work more, only a couple of them were prepared to do their turn. You're left with the decision to simply back off and KNOW that you'll loose time on those in front, or ride hard and give those sat on your wheel a free 45kph ride! I went for the latter and figured i'd just have to make sure I ran better than them as well.
Each time I road past the Excel centre my large support crew of family and friends would cheer me on and give me the extra boost I needed to keep pushing. We caught a few more in front and thankfully the pace resulted in a couple of them having to drop off the back.
By the end of the slightly short 40k bike i'd done my best t ride hard enough to keep in touch with some of the guys in front but not so hard that all the drafters (legal of course, being an Elite race) behind me weren't going to leave me for dead once the trainers came on. Leaving T2 with trainers on, my legs felt surprisingly good. The crowd were giving great support and I was looking forward to my first 10k in a triathlon for ages!
Then as we left the huge Excel building it hit us! You've got to love the irony of the hottest day of the year being today! Well over 32 degrees reflecting off the tarmac was going to takes its toll. I decided to sit in with the others around me and settle my pace for the first 2k or so, I was determined to make sure I didn't blow up in ANOTHER run again. At about 2k I felt ready to up the pace a little. I caught and passed each of my "bike passengers" before the first turn-around at 2.5k and surged long enough to make sure they weren't going to claw their way back. Once again my supporters were in great voice and I was feeling good. The orca killer suit was proving exceptionally comfortable despite it being all black in the midday heat! I had no idea where I was but I knew that I was catching all the guys I could see in front. After the halfway turn around point I was still feeling good and decided that I would slowly up the pace as much as I could handle. By the time I was on my way back to the finish line I could see the effect the sun was having on a lot of the other guys out there. 4 of them spaced out over the 200m or so in front of would be caught and passed within the final 2.5k to see me cross the line in 30th position.
Considering how badly the race had started, and how it had played out tactically for me (doing all the work on the bike) I was pretty pleased. I can't explain why I swam so badly, but I can take great confidence that next time, when it DOES go right, the top 10 is now a realistic possibility. It's a good place to start my build up for the real focus of the summer, the national champs at Vitruvian in September.
Thanks to my 2 main sponsors, Sigma Sport & Orca for all their help and all my awesome supporters!