Racing the Olympic Course

My goal for the 2011 season was to race on the Olympic course and in many ways I have achieved this. A very good friend of mine entered the Buckingham Palace route last year and due to circumstances, decided not to race and offered the place to me. I said yes immediately and once all the documents were received, I began to get incredibly excited about racing on the Olympic course. Obviously, I would have loved to race in the elite race, but it was not meant to be this year, so I made the most of this opportunity.

Leading in to the week post London Tri, I felt tired and I believed I had not recovered properly. Doing an Olympic distance the weekend before and doing another one again was quite daunting for me. I did not know how my body would hold up; had it recovered properly and was I still carrying some muscular fatigue? Anyway, I was pretty sure I would find this out come race morning. The "recovery" week after London Triathlon consisted of 20hours working at the hotel bar plus 3hours a day of landscape gardening, in other words, breaking down a shed and clearing as much rubbish as I can! With this amount of work, training was put to one side and only completed if my body was up for it.

The race began at 7am and I left my hotel in Marble Arch at a sociable hour of 5.45am! This was my first age group race since I started the sport and my first non drafting, so I was quite nervous as I did not know what to expect. We swam exactly the same swim course as the elites, but the bike and run differed. My swim time was 17.56sec, which appeared to be the fastest of the day including the elites! Once on to the bike, my first priority was to make sure I counted all the laps. It was only 4 laps, but it was so easy to miss count and ride an extra lap, so I made myself constantly aware of how many I had done. I felt strong and fast, but part of me wished I had a time trial bike and tear drop helmet as the bike course was flat and windy and suited the more aero guys. On to the run and I found my legs quickly and ran as hard as I could. I did not have a clue where I was in the race, but knew I just had to do my best all the way to the line and then I can ask no more from myself.

It turned out that I came away with fastest run, a solid bike and a WIN overall. I am delighted to win the whole age group race by 2mins and is my first win in the sport since I started. Although there was no podium, I still felt an enormous amount of pride, elation and a willingness to continue this habit from now on.

London Triathlon

My 3month break from racing finally came to an end at the London Triathlon. I have not raced for 3months as so much has happened in such a short space of time that racing was so far from my priorities. I needed to wait, be patient, get the enjoyment back and feel the energy for racing again. Thankfully it did come back and I was very excited when I was on the start line waiting for the horn to start for the 2011 London Elite Triathlon. With this long break I went into the elite race with one goal: to finish with the feeling of excitement for the sport that I had when I first started. Fortunately, this was the case and I knew I was back to my old self again.

The swim went better than I had expected. The swim is a 1 lap of 1500m and it does feel a long time in the water. I found myself at the front very early on and decided to swim it at my pace and if someone overtakes me then at least I have feet to draft off. At the halfway point I made a concious decision to be 1st out of the water; I thought with the amount of work I had put in, no way can anyone take my lead. I dug deep and probably put myself into some oxygen debt, but made it out the water first and first into transition.

Out of transition and I was straight into my cycling. The slight oxygen debt cost me Stu Hayes's wheel, but a pack of about 8 athletes were right behind, so I decided to fuel up and wait for them and hitch a lift to the front. The lead pack was formed after 5km and I decided to "hide" in the pack. I have not done enough riding to pull my turns and with a 10km run left, I was not sacrificing my race for some hard riding. The bike was over in no time and with the expected surges and failed attempted breakaways, we rolled in as a group ready to run the last stage. I hit the run as hard as I could and for a km I was flying, but the lack of race experience got to me and the last 9km was slightly slower than I had hoped for. I crossed the line in a respectable 14th place feeling satisfied and relived that I was back to enjoying it all again.