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.

Cranwell Sprint and RAF Road Relays

On Wednesday the 7th July I went to RAF Cranwell for the RAF Sprint Triathlon Championships. I was a little unsure how I would go due to having recently (10 days before) raced the European Long Distance Championships. Some people don't believe that you can be competitive over all the distances in triathlon. I have a different belief, having won the RAF championships at standard distance the week before the long course and then racing well in Europe followed by winning the sprint championships at Cranwell. My race went well with a P.B in the swim, I left transition on the bike and it was a very windy day which made the bike course hard but I had a strong bike leg and made good time. A swift transition saw me out on the run and in fine form. I felt fast and was catching lots of people from earlier waves and crossed the line in 1:03:58 to take the win by 32 seconds.

A week later I raced for RAF Waddington at the RAF Road Relay Championships at RAF Wittering. I was running the first leg for our team of 4. I ran a 16:40 officially and was pleased to be part of the winning team overall.

European Championships Race Review

Saturday was race day, we left the hotel at about 06:45 by coach to travel about 18km to the start/T1 and the sun was starting to shine. The lake was stunning, clear fresh water and the view across the course was great, you could see the whole course, 1 lap of 4km. The first turn was exactly 1 mile out so plenty of time for the field to spread out although with the different wave starts it wasn´t busy anyway. I didn´t draft on the swim as people didn´t seem to be able to swim in a straight line so I spotted the bouys and chose my own line. At the first turn I felt I had paced myself well so picked up the speed a bit. After the next turn which was another 500m I was spotting the next bouy and could see a group of swimmers ahead, a couple were in orange hats which was my wave and a lot of yellow hats from the wave that had left 5 mins before us. I thought I would try and bridge the gap and this helped me to push on during the swim. I did bridge the gap and went past most of them. I exited the water in 1 hour 5, a good swim by any standard I feel but as someone who classes themself as a weak swimmer I was very pleased. The bike course was a rolling course and due to split transitions it was 1 and 3/4 laps. I would liken the course to the dambuster course to be honest, and despite the heat building I seemed to be fueling ok and taking on plenty of fluid. The last 20k of the bike was a bit dull as it was very long straight roads and I didn´t see anyone in front of me for most of the last 20k and started to think I had missed a turn on the course. Eventually I reached the town and back into the crowds to end the bike on 3 hours 23. Now here´s the thing, at this point I didn´t know it but I was at this stage in a silver medal position. I left T2 but unlike most races I didn´t feel like I was going to run fast and straight away felt I was running a steady enough pace to get round but could tell I wasn´t going to be racing. I don´t know why this was, it could have been the heat I guess or maybe i´d over done the bike. I still can´t put my finger on it but I ran the whole 30k and seemed to be hanging on to a steady sort of pace. The run course went through some country wetland sights which were very humid then back onto the streets but the only cool part of the course was the run through the arena on each lap. I ran a 2 hour 28 which is 18 mins slower than the last 2 times i´d raced this distance. The winner of my age group was only 20 mins and 1 second ahead. Had I ran my usual 2 hour 10 then I would have got a silver or bronze depending on the transition times being added. So how can I view the race, it could be seen as negative for blowing the chance of a european podium medal but i´m taking the positive outlook which is that I swam and biked to medal standard, and also that it was a great days brick training before Antwerp 70.3 in 4 weeks time. After crossing the line my body decided to shut down in a big way and I lay on the cold concrete floor for about 30 mins just shivering and unable to take on any fluids. I sat up after a while and then threw up just a water/gel combination. It was about another 30 mins then I cycled back the 5 min ride to the hotel, showered and went to bed for an hour, then tried to drink some coke, this proptly returned back up the body and was sick again. At about half nine that night I finally got a Forgoodness Shake down and kept it down but went back to bed. The day after I felt fine and after breakfast went for a gentle spin on the bike for about 40 mins. Today I did about a 24 mile bike with a very gentle 10 min run at the end before packing the bike ready for the long journey home. My next outing will be the Cranwell Sprint in about 9 days time. I hope to get some pics sorted of the race etc when I return home.

Arrived and the bike is ok :-)

Always a worry when the bike is on the plane that it will get here in one piece. Well both the bike and I are ok, the bike is now built. I opted not to bring the disc as it looks like a hilly/rolling bike course so played it safe with the cosmic carbons. The flight was delayed, they got us all on the plane, pushed back then we sat on the pan for 2 and a half hours :-( I'm tired now as I got up at 2am this morning to drive to the airport so will sleep well tonight. Race brief this evening and parade of the nations. Will register tomorrow and test the bike out. Thats all for now.

Last run out before the European Champs

Well this weekend was the last race before the European Champs, the Dambuster Triathlon. I only had an hours drive now that i'm Lincoln based so that was nice. I took my cosmic carbons and the disc wheel and had a quick wander round transition to see if others were using the disc as it was quite windy. I seen a few people with the disc so decided to "man up" and go for it. The swim was uneventful and I was a little disappointed with a 24:12, the bike was going well and I passed a lot of people all the way round especially on the climbs. I felt I was going well on the bike and tried to keep the pace as high as I could. I got in to T2 and the bike time was a 1:05:56 which was quicker than I did 2 years ago by about 1:30. A good transition and I set off on the run and pushed really hard all the way round, I felt strong and although working very hard felt it was within my limits. I ran a 33:50 about 1:30 quicker than 2 years ago and crossed the line in 2:05:56. The time was good enough for 18th overall and 1st in the RAF Championships. I got home that lunch time and in the afternoon had a 2 hour sleep as I was really tired. Felt good the day after and this morning cycled 18 mile to work at a high tempo which also felt good. Next stop Spain!!! I fly out on Thursday to take on Europe, I hope I carry the current form with me. Jase Walkley had a scary moment on Saturday but luckily for him the only damage was a flat tyre. Must have got his heart rate racing though. Glad he's ok and not suffered from it.

Back on the world wide web..........at last!

Well I should have been back on the web on Thursday last week but Virgin were being a bunch of useless gits. Still i'm back now, not really missed much anyway as i've only been training since my last race. I am racing the Dambuster Triathlon at the weekend then 5 days later I fly to Spain for the European long distance championships. Got my new GB kit as you have to have kit with the rear zip on it now and I think i'm about ready to race. Only set back is i've just had results of my blood test from last week and my white blood count is very low so I have to have another blood test tomorrow then I will hopefully find out what the problem is this time, they don't yet know if its to do with my medication so I guess I will find out next week. That's about all for now I think.

Getting there slowly

Just a quick update from the work computer. No broadband until Thursday this week, its proper rubbish not having Internet at home. Moved into the AMQ the last week of May, bit of a come down from our own house but hopefully not for to long and once ours is sold we can buy again. Raced in the Yorkshireman Triathlon on the bank holiday weekend, the swim was in the river Humber, the first time a race has been held in the river. It was an assisted swim as the tide was coming in but the slower swimmers were finding it harder as the tide started to turn. The run to transition was about 500m up a hill and some steps, you had to leave trainers at the swim exit for this bit. Bike course was fast along a dual carriageway for a lot of it with about 8 miles on normal roads and rolling. The run was up onto the Humber bridge and then 2 laps across it and back. The wind really picked up during the run which made for a tough race with the curve of the bridge. Managed to get 4th overall, with a 2hr 2min time. Next event is the Dambuster in a couple of weeks then its of to Spain for the European Champs. Trying to settle into a new routine being a Monday to Friday worker but it does help having a pool on camp which is always nice. Will hopefully get back into the blog updates later this week when the home Internet is switched on.