I've been very lazy on the blog front lately so settle in, probably best to get a brew and I'll bring you up to date.
First up - Antwerp 70.3
The short version, slower but faster!
I took Anthea and Beth with me to Belgium for the race this year and we camped at a site about 40km from Antwerp. This was nice as it kept the race and race atmosphere away from the family and as a result we could enjoy the trip as a family holiday as well as a race weekend. Saturday we just popped into Antwerp to register and then headed back to the campsite. We got a nice backpack as part of our race pack up and even better a bottle of sparkling Jacobs Creek wine.
Antwerp 70.3 starts at a more sociable 11am so I had a good sleep Saturday night and enjoyed a slow time breakfast Sunday. We drove into town for the race and I cycled off to T1 while Anthea and Beth had a steady walk through. I caught up with friends Daz Cole and Haldane Van Horan and had time for a quick chat before the race. The time came for us to enter the water and I went to the front right of the pack to try and get some clear water, as the whistle sounded I set off fast and managed to keep the clear water all the way round. I exited after what felt like a good swim on 29 minutes and ran the 150 - 200 meters to my bike and did a good job of stripping off the wetsuit. I had a good transition and set off on the bike but it was very clear that it would not be a p.b day as it was incredibly windy from the off. The course was different from last year with the ride out to the industrial area as normal but 3 shorter laps instead of the 2 long laps. I was pushing hard on the bike and felt good as I entered T2 but was slower than last years bike split but knew it was harder for everyone. Another smooth transition including putting on socks for the run and I was off. I felt good all the way round the run and was overtaking a lot of people and managed to pull a 1:23 half marathon out of the bag to cross the line in 4 hrs 25.
Initially I was a bit disappointed as I wanted to beat last years 4 hr 19 but given the wind I guess it was a good time, the proof was in the results as I was 50th overall but remove the elites and I was the 36th age grouper to finish and the 4th British athlete. I finished 6th in my age group and had the opportunity to take a slot at Vegas 70.3 World Championships but this wasn't on my calendar or in my budget for this year so once again for the second year running I turned down the slot.
3 days Later and its the Inter-Service race at Belvoir Castle.
Race day at Belvior I didn't know what to expect having no time to recover from Antwerp but it was better than working so I raced anyway. The swim was a bit of a fight with the shallow water, lack of space and before I knew it my goggles were knocked off, I stood up in the knee deep water, got the goggles back on, but within a 150 meters they were full of water again so I had to stop and re-seat them again. These delays had set me up with a 27 minute swim (my worst of the year by a long way). I got up to transition and set off on the bike, being further down the field meant I ended up having to battle with some small groups of cyclists who either didn't know the rules or had decided to draft for the sake of it but it was frustrating as every time I would pass them they sat on my wheel, worked together then all came back past. Very annoying to say the least, but my day was to get worse as approximately half way round the second lap I could feel the front tyre going down and I had no spares with me. With about 5 or 6 miles to go my tyre was flat and I knew my race was now a training day. I nursed the flat tyre back to transition with the intention of trying to run strong off the bike but had lost about 6 minutes on the competitive end of the field. I flew through transition and chased hard on the run. I managed to pull a 34 minute dead run out of the bag on a hilly course which I knew was an accurate 10k as it was gps measured the day before. Not a bad run just 3 days after a 70.3!!!
Next stop Finland.
This was billed as my "A" race for the year with a very realistic chance of a medal. Unfortunately I didn't!!!! Things got off to a bad start with a bike failure while packing the day before I flew to the race. I had been having problems with the front mech and it became apparent what the problem was and that it was not going to be getting fixed for the race. The mech had been dropping at the back end and catching on the chain ring in the big ring and whilst trying to resolve it I found that the mech braze on was not tight and the bolt holding it to the frame wouldn't tighten. With no time to get it fixed and no way of using the big ring I knew that the TT bike wasn't going to Finland. This was a problem for me, I've used this bike all last year and all season this year and now I was going to have to take the road bike. I'd gone from a TT bike with a 53 tooth rotor ring to my road bike with a 50 tooth compact chainset. I also had no tri bars but was lucky to borrow a set from Pete Norris. I arrived in Finland feeling stressed and concerned about the bike situation, not a great start. I set up the bike with the clip on tri bars and got the best position I could but although a fairly good position was achieved it was far from perfect. We went out for a couple of hours on Thursday afternoon and the bike was comfy but I felt slower than Pete, Frank and Mark all looking incredibly aero.
On Race day I entered the water the same way I'd done all week with a forward somersault before we lined up ready to start. The race started and the first 300 meters was a bit of punching and kicking but I soon found space and at the halfway point I felt strong so increased the speed and exited the water in 1 hour and 38 seconds, a new 4k p.b in the bag.
I ran into transition had a gel, glasses and helmet on and I was ready to do the 120k on the wrong bike, I tried not to think too much about it but I could tell I was not going as fast as I would be on the race bike. Towards the end of the bike leg I got passed by someone and looked behind to see a small peleton of about 15 coming past. A little frustrated I shouted the obligatory abuse then thought it would be a good time to stop for a pee, this would save stopping on the run and let the group go so I didn't risk being innocently picked up for drafting.
I got into T2 and socks and trainers done I set off on the run, as I left the stadium the GB team manager told me I was in 8th in my AG. (Last year I was third by the end of the bike) I think this is where the race started to go down the pan for me, looking back now I probably ran to hard on the first 2 laps due to the frustration of being down in 8th and by the 4th and final lap I'd blown up. I was still running but not anywhere near the pace I normally would be and got overtaken with about 3k to go by a lad I'd passed on the first lap. I didn't know at the time because on a 4 lap run you can't work out who's on what lap but I had been in 3rd place until this lad passed me. He went on to put 1 min 49 seconds into me and I was disappointed to find out I was 4th in my age group and effectively let the medal go past me.
It's taken a week to blog this race as I've had lots of ups and downs this week, even had a little cry to myself. I'd spent the last 8 months training and racing for this event, I'd planned my whole season around it and seen my dreams disappear with less than 3k to go. The questions I've asked myself time and time again this week are did the broken bike the day before I flew cost me the race, the wrong bike I feel has cost me at least 5 minutes in which case I'd have been battling for the silver not the bronze, was it frustration that cost me the medal causing me to run to hard early on and blowing up towards the end or was it a combination of lots of things.
I'm slowly picking out the positives from the race, these are as follows,
1. P.B on the swim
2. P.B for the whole race distance
3. My highest finish at a European or World Championship as part of Team GB.
Cest la vie, time to move on and start thinking of next year.
