Last Wednesday was the RAF Sprint Championship held at RAF Cranwell. The event was the last in the sprint series and I was keen to win. I had won this event in 2010 and 2011 and wanted to win for a third time, this however meant I was putting pressure on myself and I was nervous before the race. As my wave was about to start I got into the water in my new posh RAF team kit made by ZeroD. I have to say it felt fast in the water and despite a hold up in the first 50 meters by a slower swimmer from the wave in front I still managed to climb out the water on 5:40 just 5 seconds behind Brad Goggin, Joe Dale and Paul Cassels. The new transition location meant quite a long run to the bike and my official swim was 6:33, I had a good transition and was out on the bike chasing the others from my wave. I caught Paul quickly and passed Brad and Joe after about 2km of the bike and opened the gap nicely, on the return leg of the bike I passed Reg Swallow who had started 4 minutes ahead on the earlier wave, and was soon on my way back into transition with the fastest bike split of the day by just over 30 seconds. I set off on the run and could see Mike Taylor from the earlier wave not to far in front, I didn't seem to be closing him down despite trying hard but then in the last 2km I suddenly started catching him quite quickly and passed him with about 200 meters to go. I crossed the line to take the win by 1 minute 31 seconds with the fastest run of the day too which was nice as I didn't feel comfortable on the run from the brick session I'd done the day before. I was the RAF Sprint Champion for 2012 and also won the series scoring 299 from a possible 300 points.
This weekend is the Cowman Middle Distance National Championships which I'm looking forward to and then its only 3 weeks until the World Championships. Lets hope for lots of rain in Spain as I've had lots of practise of riding in the rain thanks to the great British summer!
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