I've mentioned in a couple of my previous blogs this year that one of my
aims was to qualify for the World Age Group Triathlon championships in London
this coming September. I missed out in the first attempt in Chester, didn't
manage to get an entry for the second attempt in Dambuster, so this left the
third and final attempt in Liverpool. (this triathlon was almost a month ago
now, but I've only just round to posting the report)
My cycling has always been my weakest discipline so, given this, and a
knee injury that has limited me to running only 15 miles a week, I’ve upped the
mileage on the bike. Since the Chester triathlon at the beginning of June, I’ve
been going out before or after work and clocking up about 30 miles a number of
times during the week. Together with a longer ride (60+ miles) each weekend;
this has allowed me to increase the speed on the bike that I feel comfortable
at.
I arrived in Liverpool feeling ready and off the back of week’s cycling
around the Channel Islands and northern France. Having registered the day
before, I woke at 4:30am in order to make my wave start time of 7:15am.
The swim course was in Albert Dock where visibility was fairly poor and
the water was not far off tasting of cheese Doritos; lovely. I find it hard to
sprint off at the start of the swim and consequently soon found myself deep in
splash, getting kicked and generally lacking getting any sort of rhythm. I
decided the best tactic was to take an outside line and work through the field
and away from the carnage, this way I avoided having to waste energy getting
caught up in the rest of the swimmers. The course wound its way through the
dock and I think I came out of the water in the top 15, having been close to
the back of the field after the first 100m.
The bike course was fast, 4 mostly flat laps up and down a highway and
fairly representative of what to expect at the age group championships in Hyde
Park. There was a small incline over a flyover but, aside from that, there was
little reason to come off the time-trial bars. Given I was in the third wave,
the number of bikes on the course at the start was low and it was relatively
easy to spot the other riders in my wave. I hit it hard, trying my very best to
keep the speed over 25mph and reaping the benefits of the newly added
time-trial bars. I was conscious of not drafting others and kept working my way
past other riders as the course became busier. I had Will Jones from Serpentine
(a very strong swimmer and sometimes trains at New River track) to aim for and
was gradually reeling him up to 1 mile to go, at which point I took on a gel,
some water, and gave myself a short recovery before heading out on the run.
I started the run with Will in what must have been about 12th. The run
consisted of two flat 5km laps up through the docks and this would be where I
had to make progress through the field. By the time I was on the run course,
there were already a number of runners from the previous waves, so I used the
first out and back to check exactly the runners that I needed to chase down. I
felt good on the run and my legs soon adjusted to turning over at fair pace.
Today it was all about finishing in the top 7 so, each time I went past
someone, I immediately made it my goal to chase down the next person. Whilst it
gave me a boost gradually working through the field, I felt as though I could
never relinquish my pace through fear of finishing in that frustrating 8th
position. I crossed the line in 1:57, soon found out that put me in 6th and
thus gave me a place in Hyde Park. Roll on 15th September!
