My Triathlon Journey

I raced two Super Series events at the very beginning and end of the month starting with Worcester Aquathlon(s) on 2nd and the Super Series Triathlon Sunderland incorporated with the elite WTCS triathlon event on the same weekend.

British Triathlon Super Series (SS) Aquathlons📍Worcester

I say aquathlons as I raced 3 times back to back to back with hour-ish gaps in between on the same day. With varying lengths starting at a 800m swim + 1km run for Race 1, then Race 2: 500m swim + 1.5km run and Race 3: 300m swim + 2km and a bit more run.

The course changed last minute (literally 5 minutes before the first race) as the lake we were swimming in was too weedy so after at least an hour of speculation of swim course we raced in a compact lake (more like a big pond) no more than 150m long and 75 wide.

Race 1: My first race was a pretty good one and with the best 2 out of 3 counting towards an overall if I did better in the other races those results would be the ones going forward.

I came out the swim in a solid position in a couple seconds over 10 minutes. The run to transition was maybe half to more like 3 quarters of a minute so any time to gain I could make up here and in transition, as well as the run. My running is stronger than swimming so I caught a few more places as I was in a decent position after coming out the swim in 14th place. I didn’t try catching too many places desperately as there were two more races to come and two longer runs. Race 1 result: P9

Race 2: After a congested swim coming out a bit back in just over 20th I managed to work my way up well with a swift transition and a strong run being pushed the whole way round, as I worked with another athlete, to just pip in a sprint finish after picking of athletes one by one on the grass semi-out-and-back loop. Race 2 result: P6

Race 3: I had a good swim coming out just over 3 minutes, just under 15 seconds off the leader in 14th like race 1. Again I had a good transition, up there near the front, but a couple seconds slower than others as I wore a wetsuit and some didn’t. The wetsuit helped me, gaining me more time in the swim than time lost in transition compared to that of not wearing one. I had the 2nd quickest run, a second off 1st but came through on the run and caught the front group quite early on to bridge the gap before it stretched and was gone. I then went by them and held a lead over the 2 lap run to win with a 5 second gap. Race 3 result: P1

Overall Verdict: I got a better position each race (9th, 6th, 1st) getting 3rd overall and my best overall finish yet this season, so am really happy with how it turned out.

British Triathlon Super Series 📍Roker Beach, Sunderland

A week ago, I raced in the Super Series triathlon at Sunderland, had a solid race but had a pretty bad after-effect the Monday after and continuing. 

My race was 7.00am on Saturday so meant getting up at 4.30 even though I was staying on the seafront, just over the road from the race venue. My race began after sorting out my transition, bike roll-out, warmups and then getting to the briefing and swim acclimatisation albeit cutting it quite finely. The west-facing sea swim in the North Sea, in the harbour walls was 400m long, before a 9km 2-lap bike and 2.5km run.

I came out the swim in reasonable position mid way through the field and had a good T1 joining as the 2nd main bike group, half a lap in. I didn’t get up near the front of the group as would have been better for cornering and conserving energy and so got held up on the hill with a small crash ahead and was off the back for half a lap, then came into T2 near the back. I messed up my T2 and lost some time as my rack was against the wall and had a ledge at the bottom prohibiting me from putting my bike in forward facing; something I probably should have checked before but didn’t really think about.

It took me about half a km to find my run legs before I started picking off places but managed to make my way up to 12th Youth A, nearly 11th on the line, so I’m now 10th in the overall series rankings, only moved 2 spots from 8th. Hopefully I can learn from the things to improve on in this race, even though I still had a decent one, for my last triathlon this year at the Grand Final in the British Triathlon Super Series in Nottingham, for a final chance at some more ranking points.

Post-race: Unfortunately I was very sick the Sunday evening on the journey home and Monday after. I found out this week there were extremely high levels of E.Coli in the water. Where there was maximum 250 colonies/100ml allowed for the swim to go ahead the graph shows 3900 and a lot of the pros that raced over the weekend, as well as athletes I raced against got ill too. Hopefully it doesn’t happen again in the future and it’s learnt from as quite a few people were and are affected and still feeling the after-affects like me.

Other: I raced in a mtb race in amongst the month but had to pull out with my first puncture I can remember after being with the leader.

Training-wise I’ll just build up training gradually again and am doing easy and easier bits until feeling back to normal again.

Thanks for reading this month’s post ; )

picture w/ some pros: