Catch up....

I have been a bit lazy when it comes to keeping this blog up to date but boy have I been busy! what with training hard for the looming World champs in London and racing all over the place.

Since I last blogged I have completed in the following

Fenland 25m TT - 1st Junior
The Silverstone Duathlon - 1st Junior

Box End off-road evening race series - 1st overall / Series winner

Chronos 2up 10m TT - 2nd Team

National Club Relays - 1st Open Cat Team / 7th Overall

Stowmarket 10m TT - 1st Junior / 3rd Overall
The Silverstone Duathlon - 1st Junior / Junior Series winner
Icknield 2up 10m TT - 1st Team

Here's a brief summery of some of them...


Fenland 25m TT was first in my long line up of races! We (myself and Richard) drove to St Ives where we would take on a tough 25 mile Time Trial!! We got there and found out the course was an out and back, out and back. I was going off around 10 mins ahead of Rich...

I felt strong and on top of it! I had seen Richard pass the other way a few times whilst shouting encouragement across the road to him, as soon as I hit 15 miles I really started to suffer... My legs started to go really heavy and I wasn't able to put any power through the pedals. Rich had an absolutely stonkin ride and won the event!!

So, The first Silverstone on the list. Leading into this race I have been fairly ill so set out to a good average race all around. I did get a bit carried away and started to flag at half way. I had gone out at my normal pace but couldn't sustain it. On to the cycle in 9th place and 1 min down on the leaders. After a good solid bike split I had moved up into 3rd place with Jason Moore and Phil Melling fighting it out for 1st place around 1:20 ahead of me. All of the top bike splits were all slower because of conditions; was very windy. 

I sometimes struggle on the second run of a Duathlon but I set out not expecting much after my 'not so great' first leg, but knowing that 4th place (off the bike) was around 45 seconds behind me - he was very good runner and closing in. Despite feeling a bit 'off' I relaxed into the run and was disappointed but surprised that he come past me in the final stages of the run to take 3rd. Phil came 1st, Jason 2nd and I came 4th. Not massively pleased but can't be too disappointed with it! 

The Tri Crazy Box End was the next evening. To compete in the series you have to do 3 out of the 4 races and seeing as I was away for 1 of them I had to do all the others and hope that I didn't have any slip ups and I hadn't, really, going into the final race. Because of the night before, knowing that my cycle and run splits probably won't be as good as they could be I decided to 'smash' the swim. I did just that - I went out hard and didn't stop going hard. Turns out I can go pretty much flat out for the most of a 750m swim. I came out the water in second place around 10 seconds behind Jordan Mackie and 5 seconds in front of a swimmer who is usually out 30 seconds ahead of me! Had a storming transition and went out onto the bike neck and neck with Jordan and instantly I knew my legs weren't going to work properly for the rest of the race! I clawed my way slowly away from Jordan on the first lap and got a little bit more of a gap on the second lap. Went onto the run with around a minutes advantage. Just as I imagined my legs didn't work - again. I knew that they were going to be catching me and that I just had to hold my own. With 1k to go, they (Mathew Wooten had now reeled Jordan in and they were running within a few seconds of each other) could see me, I was in there sights. I had a little glance around and new that if I didn't hurry up I was going to get caught. So I hurried up and crossed the line in 1st place to take Victory and 1st Overall male and under 23 series prize! Jordan followed shortly after with Matt hot on his heels! Matt also won the 2nd place series prize with Rob Hammond taking 3rd.

National Club Relay Championships August 2013
(reprint by Emma)

It's early Saturday morning when most 'normal' people are still sleeping or at least inside cosy and warm! Well not us, stood in the cold and rain waiting to go and beast ourselves in Nottingham! The rain didn't ease up all the way and in fact I would say it got worse. However someone was being good to us as soon as we saw the signs for Pierre Point the sun came out

It was rather an unusual start to a typical race day sitting, relaxing and eating so much (probably too much) food. After a lot of dilly-dallying (yes thats a real word) and numerous  items being lost and then found, it was finally time to get ready. The barbecue tent was soon turned into a changing room and we started to look like we ready to go!

Eventually racing time finally arrived and bikes were beginning to be racked and people donned the wetsuits making it impossible to spot anyone from the club amidst the sea of people with various hat colours on.

As soon as the hooter went and the first swimmers were off, it was hard to keep track of where everyone was as until we got to the bike legs! The Nicetri camp was very loud which made everyone cycle faster (at least if only for 200m until they were out of sight). It was during the bike legs that Nicetri Dreamers started to lead the whole race and eventually took 7 minutes out of second place! Various highlights include Sarah Shepard trying to run the opposite way out of transition (gingers eh'). It's hard to summarise a triathlon in which so many people were competing, all I can say is that everyone swam, then everyone biked and then everyone ran! I'm sure everyone has their own trials and tribulations they went through throughout the day but all in all a good afternoon of racing.

Then we get to the most important part of the day...

Due to the late finish it wasn't until late evening when we reached the pub! This, I believe,  is what fuelled the intoxicated state that many members found themselves incredibly quickly. You can always tell when people have been drinking as subject of conversation finally turns away from all things triathlon (thank God) and move on to more trivial items such as darts and cocktails that I have never heard of (Duncan and his cake mixture). The sambuccas came out and well the rest involves games that would never pass the health and safety checks!

To have 40 people racing from the club that is still considered 'small' is amazing! Well done to all involved whether you were racing, supporting, cooking or organising. It made a great club day with some awesome times and results being posted. Lets do it all again next year (maybe minus the blind darts).

My next blog will include Race Reports from NiceTri Sprint and the Aquathlon and Triathlon World Champs!

Watch this space!