A bit of a catch up this one, soooo busy, just coming to the end of college, just a little bit of work experience for a couple of months, landed on my feet here, managed to get a spot working with Adam, my swim coach, a personal trainer from GreenlightPt. He knows the amount of training I do, we fit the 'experience' in with the training - so works well.
I have also set up a bit of a monster with iPrintStuff, who would know there was such a demand for bespoke printing on kit that was reasonably priced ;) I set the business up to get money to fund my tri, in fact every penny I make is ploughed straight back in. It does mean that I have to juggle a lot of stuff around, especially now that my 'racing' season has started in earnest. Who said it would be easy? If it were easy, everyone would be doing it! To find out my about getting your kit printed up with names, sponsors etc follow this link.
Talent Backer
In 2013 I qualified and raced for GB at the European and World Triathlon Champs in Turkey and here in London. This year I have qualified six times to represent GB.
· Duathlon - Horst, Netherlands
· World Duathlon - Spain
· Euro Triathlon (Sprint) - Kitzbuhel, Austria
· Euro Triathlon (Standard) - Kitzbuhel, Austria
· World Aquathlon - Edmonton, Canada
· Worlds Triathlon - Edmonton, Canada
Even with iPrintStuff going well I would not be able to fund all of these so I turned to Talent Backer, a 'crowd' funding website. I had a campaign with them for 30 days trying to fund Canada and Spain, just these two would be over £2,500 just for flights and accommodation!
To say the campaign went well is an understatement, I've been truly humbled by the donations. Mainly from people I know and out of them loads of fellow triathletes and club members. With two weeks of the campaign to go I reached my target and by the end had exceeded it by £600! It seems people were ok with me eating at these events as well! In all seriousness, a massive thank you to everyone that is helping me compete this year - I really couldn't have done it without your generous support - a cliche but true!
Horst - European Duathlon Championships
First off... This was not a race I was targeting, bigger fish to fry and all that and I wasn't in great shape at all for this race. At my tri club, NiceTri, we had outstanding GB representation at this event, with some 14 club members going. Team-mate Kye Liddle thought it would be good if we pooled our resourses and hired a mini bus, word got out and before we knew it Kye had sorted a massive 38 seater coach with some 29 seats taken (more wanted to go but we needed the space for our luggage, the bike boxes filled the 'hold').
It was a great weekend and maybe a bit too much fun was had by all ;)
In the actual race I have to go back to this 'drafting' thing. The stuff you see on the telly with the likes of the Brownlees and Gomez all working together on the bike is OKfor them but in the races we do this is cheating in a non-drafting race. For clarification: It's OK to draft in the swim and the run, but NOT the bike. You would be surprised just how many competitors don't get this.... or are they deliberately cheating? Surly not... As a commentator said on telly while talking about not being on the front you can save about 30% of energy. Anyway I couldn't shake off my tail on the bike and came in 2nd in the end.
NiceTri Sprint Triathlon #1 (1 of 3 in the series)
My local and one of my favourites, not only is it a fantastically well organised event it also brings in a great group of competitors, it's a great atmosphere. A lot of this is due to the volunteer marshals that turn out time and time again for these, 2nd to none... Thanks guys.
I know this race well and wanted to do well, so I pushed hard throughout and had a storm of a race and finished on top spot on the podium (well I would have if they had one!) BOOM - WIN!
Posing with my new 2014 Trek Speed Concept!
UK - Quadrathlon World Championships
For the first time in their history this 'little known sport with a big heart' (Not sure who came up with that strap line? ... I prefer the 'when three disciplines aren't enough!) Came to the UK, In Brigg and hosted by Lincsquad who did a brilliant job. This quad by the way was a 1500m river out and back swim, a 7k out and back kayak, a 38k bike leg finished with a two lap 10k run. Race report from the BQA and WQF here, mentions something about a 'machine on a bike'.
I finished 2nd overall by 14 seconds... The winner Steve King, who I was gaining on, looked round and sprinted... So it was game over for me!
Well done to everyone that raced that day and a massive hats off to the Lincsquad boy and girls that allowed for some great racing.
I did become world U23 quadrathlon champion that day so... BOOM - WIN!
Spain - World Duathlon Championships
Spain, Spain, Spain... What an awesome experience!! Went out with mates and team mates Dean Watson and Kurt Sanders... I met some pretty awesome people out there, including other Brits and loads of foreigners!!
As far as the race goes... It went well! Probably the best Duathlon I've ever raced anyway! Started off with a 5k run around the streets of Pontevedra (awesome place - must go again some time!) which was a bit hilly and twisty, but nonetheless a sweet run course... Came off the run in around 20th place with a high 16... I got to the bike and the pain/fun began! I overtook 16 people in the first 4k of the 20k bike and was left chasing the remaining 3... I managed to catch and overtake the 3 leaders and came in off the bike in 1st place and (it's unofficial at the moment) took the fastest bike split of the day too... SAWEEET! Anyway, at this point, I was in 1st place overall, but was quickly overtaken by the fast 30-34 age-groupers... Anyway, along with my fastest bike split, I became U20 World Duathlon Champion... BOOM - WIN! Pleased with that... And just for the record, I would of also become 20-24 world champ and 25-29 champ if I were in those Age groups... Although there was only 3 seconds splitting us!! :D
It's been a hectic few months, what with working with Adam at GreenlightPT and working at my own iPrintStuff - printing suits and what not, but I managed to get 2 world champion titles in 8 days... Can't say I am too disappointed with that!
Iwould just like to big up my sponsors; GreenlightPT, Tony at the Sport Injury Clinic, NiceTri Events, the guys at Insight Nutrition and my team Corley Cycles/Body Limits Transition!
I promise the next blog will be smaller... I'll try and post little and often :)
Next races:
Brownlee Sprint Triathlon
Kitzbuhel European Sprint Triathlon Champs
Canada World Sprint Triathlon Champs
Chow for now...