That's London done and dusted and I feel a bit bad, I hadn't seen Tony for one of my much needed regular massages for a week or so and the first question he asked was 'so are you happy with your result?' I have to say it took me a while to figure out what he was talking about! I have had a busy time as well as being at London I had competed at the St Neots NiceTri Sprint just before and came away with what I suppose was my 1st 'adult' win. I also had my mind on the up and coming busy weekend. The Brownlee Super Sprint on Saturday and an Standard European Qualifier on the Sunday. Both distances I just don't do!
London. I had been entered, since I had qualified at Box End (without my knowledge) into the Aquathlon on the Wednesday. I figured that not being a swimmer or a runner why would I want to do the Aquathlon? As it happened thanks to me upping my running and some great lead up sessions from Adam of GreenlightPT, my swim coach, I was ready(ish). It was also good to get a heads up on the venue, and have a bit of a splash in the Serpentine and have a recce of the run route.
On Aquathlon race day I was in the first wave with mate David Glossy of Corley Cycles going off 20 minutes later. At one point, as I was in the stands posing with David for a few snaps, it was pointed out to me that 'they are all in the holding pen - ready to go!' sure enough looking over my shoulder my wave were 'all ready to go' - suits on, hats on, goggles; the lot!. Time for a pre-race sprint and the reverse of wetsuit off! still, made the start in time (just) perhaps I was a little too relaxed for that one! I finished 2nd Brit and 10th in my age group, not too shabby and not bad for a 'cyclist'! I then had a couple of days until my main race on Friday, the forecast looked rubbish, but it was going to be rubbish for everyone I told myself. Besides 'rubbish' is often what I train in so no major worries, in fact all my Mum and Dad were concerned about was how it was going to be horrible for them and the family to support me. I must say it was great to see Uncle Rob, Grandma, Grandpa, Nan and Sam there supporting me, it meant a lot to me, thank you.
I took a bit of time on Thursday and hired a Boris bike or Barclay bike and 'rode' the route as best as I could, spotting my brake and turn points, all good 'homework' that paid off. I did get some strange looks and a few 'go GB' shouts while doing this! (I was in my GB jacket!) On the Triathlon race day I was in the first wave again. This time I was very much more focussed, I knew where I had to be and at what times, to be early for everything! I met up with Adam Tapley who was looking very nervous whilst being held in the holding pen for such a long time! We hung back to try and get a spot as close as we could to the outer edge, but for some reason - the other guys weren't listening to the official asking everyone to move along the pontoon and decided to stop in our way, so I moved slightly more into the middle, but Adam pushed his way into a great spot for swimming! We were asked to slide into the water and were given 1 minute, 30 seconds, 10 second... I had learnt from doing the Aquathlon that it was all about not getting left behind at the first buoy which was only 250m or so away, if you got there late you would drop a huge amount of time. Then the horn sounded. It was madness, in the first few strokes I was hit in the face and swum over but I was adamant to have a good start. I had a great swim and exited the water in a time of 10.51, good for me.
Running into transition my Dad said to me '2 minutes, all easily catch-able!' and I knew from that the next 30 minutes were going to be hard! I got onto the bike course and straight away started to overtake people! It was only when I got to the top end of the park and saw the leaders coming the back the other way - I could see they were drafting along with pretty much everyone else.
Now I know that many Age Groupers have a thing about drafting or cheating, I'm one of them, If it's a non drafting race, don't draft. If it's a draft legal race, draft. Simples. I don't draft. If you can't see what's wrong with drafting in a non drafting race in simple terms the bloke at the front is doing all the hard work and smashing his legs while the 'cheat' is drafting, is saving his legs for the run by having an easy ride (in the draft you save up to 33% energy or something like that!)
Here we have one of the many photos I have of one of the many 'well drilled' packs on there way out and below on there way back. Drafting? you decide!
By the start of the 3rd (last) lap I was in 3rd place hunting down the last 2 guys. I managed to catch both of them with 4k to go. I overtook them convincingly, so when I looked behind me a few 'kms' later I was disappointed to see these two guys tagging onto my wheel. I mean - blatantly drafting me!
They then had the audacity to come by me in the final 500m. I wasn't having that so I went past them once again with 100m to go, frantically undid my shoes and was off running into transition in 1st place! No one in my wave was done for drafting, I suspect it was a too difficult a rule to enforce so the officials turn a blind eye.
Straight away those two guys came zooming past on the run - it was always going to happen as they had 'fresh legs' one of them went onto win it and in the end I finished in 12th place and 3rd brit! I am very pleased with my performance on the day. Automatic Qualification for Canada 2014 - now just need to sus out a way of funding it! Looking at the results afterwards I spotted that not only did I have the fastest bike split in my age-group but had the fastest bike split of the whole day out of 1,845 international athletes with my mate Dan Bigham (age 20-24) just 11 seconds back on that!
Also hats off to fellow Nicetri club mates who also did their utmost. For a small club we sure had great representation.
Emma Ritchie Ian Turner Richard Hancock Chris Ritchie Mick Lawrence Me In Summary - A great venue with some awesome support all around the course! It was great to see the Elite Juniors, Men and Women race, but especially great to see the ParaTriathletes racing! Well done to my mate George Peasgood who got the bronze medal in the TRI-5 category! Another great international, amazing experience, It seemed like the whole of the World was represented, one to remember, if only I had when asked 'so are you happy with your result?
