At the beginning of the year I sat down with Coach and Sponsor and targeted Outlaw Triathlon as my big A race of the year.  Being more settled in Cyprus since March and starting to adjust to the heat and humidity for training, I felt that my preparations had been spot on.

I had picked up a niggle in the hip region and this restricted my run mileage but soon got it back up to a few 2hr runs.  After 4wks of Physio support and Biomechanics with GS PhysioMed George and the Team have supported me to be ready for Race Day.

Packed suitcases, bike and family and jumped on short 4hr flight to UK.  Arrived in Nottingham on Thursday morning and settled in hotel and managed to get out on the bike for 90min.

RACE DAY

Feeling very good and relaxed, sorted my kit out and went through last minute checks of kit bags and bike.  I was up for this !!

SWIM
Got myself positioned in the water at the front knowing I needed a clean start and to find a group/feet as soon as possible. With relay teams in the  Mass Start 1 wave as well, there was a very fast start by 4 swimmers off the front in the first 300m. Settled in my rhythm quickly and felt I was working but not too hard, found some feet and settled into a small group in 300m. Then I found myself trying to swim round this group and swimming in clear water ahead. Once I turned the 1900m half way point I noticed only 1 other white cap (individual) was just 5m back from me. So i decided to ease off a bit and wait for them to join me and realised there was actually 3 of us. We set a good pace on the return, to exit the water 56:50min. Very pleased with this swim as previous years I have been 59/60min, 2-3min quicker makes a huge difference when your exiting the water with potentially a different ability of athletes to work with on the bike (legally 12m).

A slight hick up in T1 as I forgot my race number belt in the bag, so returned to collect it losing 2-3min, and actually allowing race favourite Karl Alexander to move ahead of me and also Dominic Rohan-Gates. Later to find they pushed the pace early on, so pretty glad “I stuck to my own race plan”

BIKE
I have a bit of a reputation of “Smashing the Bike” – I was on a New Race Bike Ridely Dean Fast and I was feeling amazing. Nutrition plan was in place and focussing on Power/Feel/HR and also
any riders that past me to use them as pacing but conservatively and not going crazy. The day was perfect conditions for a quality bike split and once the first person that overtook me (Relay Team) this gave me something to focus on (12m back) or actually taking a turn to set the pace up front. At the 30mile mark I started to realise I had some company, not a bicycle but 2 motorbikes (TV Crew and race official), followed by the words from the official your riding up the field currently top 10 overall including relays and 5th on the road. I was 16th over all out of the Swim. This gave me confidence and certainly new that I was still controlling the pace and effort, rolled through the 56miles (Half Way) in 2:14hr. 244 Avg Power was spot on, 135bpm avg feeling really good.

At 70miles I caught Dominic up and had dropped the Relay Team that I started with, He mentioned to me there was 5 upfront – Karl, Kit, 2 x Relay Teams and Aled – 10miles later we passed Karl on the side of the road DNF due to back issues and then a further 5miles caught and dropped Aled and RAF Relay Team (Nick Huntley). Still feeling good and nutrition was still being taken on board. 100 mile mark bought me through he last feed station and turned round and didn’t see Dominic (He’d punctured).

Coming into T2 I now knew I was 2nd overall but a big margin behind Kit Walker, 12min actually. This was the first sign of cramping in the quads as I removed my feet from shoes (on camera, haha). Got into T2 and struggled a little with tying running shoes but was soon out on the run.

RUN
“Running” I was and cruising out onto 1st lap of the rowing lake with
good form and thinking this is too good to be true. Looked at watch and it said 6:15, “that’s not right” I should be seeing 4:30, then realised it was in min/mile so changed the watch over by 3km to min/km and it said 4:07/km – oops too fast. Deciding to bring it back and control it as I completed 5km 21:00, 10km 45:00, 15km 1:09:00, 21km 1:38:00 – Bang on pace up to 25km 2:00hr, energy levels were ok and nutrition still going in on feed stations. Quads started to cramp again, trying to keep moving but then I started to lose places 2nd then 3rd a little later. The quads were not responding and by now locked out, tried to get some salt into me but I now know this was better than never and kept moving. I’ll save you the emotion and angry commentary for the next 5km. The last 10km of the Run course is 2 laps of the rowing lake and with the encouragement from spectators you certainly find some motivation to get the job done. Running home the last 10km in 50min (some sort of running)

Swim – 56:56                 Bike – 4:52hr                 Run – 4:21hr**                          Total – 10:17hr

Gutted absolutely gutted, but not disappointed. In fact I am very pleased with my performance, this has inspired me in seeing actually what I am really capable of out there at Iron Distance. I really know I can put together a great performance Sub 9hrs is not unrealistic.

Ironman Mallorca 8wks 24th September. Can’t wait, this is going to be a tougher course and heat – Salt tablet Nutrition and pacing on the bike.