I qualified for Clearwater!!!!!! but i'm not going :-(

Sunday saw me take part in the Antwerp 70.3 triathlon and world championship qualifier. When I entered the event back in December I stated my intention was to qualify for Clearwater. Mission accomplished!!! So why am I not going? Well I went to the slot allocation ceremony as i've never been close at the full Ironman distance but seen as I was 8th in my age group in Antwerp and there was 4 slots available I thought I had a very good chance. I was offered the 3rd of the 4 slots and felt quite emotional as I didn't take it. At the end of the day it all boils down to cost. The truth is racing in Spain last month and then in Belgium at the weekend on top of all the other costs for this years season means I simply can't afford it. When I entered we planned to go on holiday as a family if I qualified but that was last year. Everything changed this year when Anthea got in the police and I got a posting. Beth went off to boarding school and we moved in to married quarters and put our house on the market which left us paying a mortgage on an empty house and rent on another along with Beths school fees!!! It is such a shame but that's life. If I took the slot it was 270 euros on the night to pay the entry and even if I went on my own I reckon I would of been at least another grand for travel and accommodation in the states plus any spends on food etc. So enough of my moaning and sulking how was the race?

The swim was in a lake and I have to admit its the most beat up i've been in a swim since Ironman South Africa. I didn't ever find any room in the water despite it being started in waves as we were only 3 minutes apart so we were catching slower swimmers from earlier waves before half way. I exited the water on 28 mins but crossed the timing mat on 29:16. A good swim and I was pleased with that. The run to transition and out the other side was long but there were no dramas and I got on the bike and started to get into a good rhythm on the bike. After about 3km you go under the river through a huge tunnel (as big as the tyne tunnel for those who have driven through that) a really fast decent and a nice climb back out. The disc wheel sounded awesome in the tunnel :-) The bike course is fairly straight forward for the first 30 km with a few tram lines to cross. The back of the course you do 2 laps of and its quite technical with some very tight corners. I was feeling good on the bike and fueling well, making up lots of places but getting very angry by the amount of blatant drafting going on. You would get overtaken so sit up for a couple of seconds to let the gap get draft legal and then a train of riders would come past leaving you with a line of 8-10 riders to go back past. Occasionally you would see groups of 30 + riders and wonder where the race officials are and if they are paying any attention. As you come back into town you spend the last 5k or so on cobbles which really take it out of you after the previous 85k. I clocked a 2:19:56 on the bike. Into transition the legs felt ok and after putting on the socks and trainers I left transition. This is the only point in which my race didn't go to plan, about 500 meters into the run 1 of my 2 gels I was planning to fuel with fell out of my belt. I wasn't stopping for it which left me with 1 gel as the fuel stations were giving out power bar gels which I hate. So 1 gel and 21k of running left me with no choice. I was to take the gel on the 10k mark and that's what I did, the only other thing I took on was a couple of mouth fulls of water. The pace I was running was good until 17k when I slowed a little. As I hit 20k I did a time check and realised if I gunned it I could go sub 4:20 which was my objective, I turned up the cobbled street towards the square and onto the finish line carpet crossing the line in 4:19:23 with a half marathon time of 1:26:26. All in a great day, chuffed to bits with the time, the position of 64th overall (including the elites) and the fact I qualified for Clearwater!!!!!!!!! Happy days.