My trip started on Wednesday afternoon after my last hard training session, as I travelled home and packed my new Evoc Bike Bag, which Mum had collected from Leisure Lakes Bikes, with all my race kit for the weekend away. It was then time to get my head down for a few hours before a 4am start in order to make the hour (ish) drive to Manchester Airport to check in for my 7.30am flight. The check-in and four-hour flight all went smoothly and I arrived at my Hotel mid-afternoon on Thursday. I had a wander round, got some cash from an ATM, found the local shops and had a look on the beach, and an easy 15 minute swim in the sea which was cool but not cold. The next two days were both easy as my taper meant I was resting up for the race, so I focused on hydration and getting plenty of sleep! I planned to get my runs in first thing in the morning before the heat of the day, but it was 25/26°C by 8am, so I was a bit worried as to how my race would be at 3pm in the afternoon!
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| Time for a bit of sunbathing, too! |
On race morning I had a bit of a lie in, and after breakfast chilled out in my room, reading Can't Sleep, Can't Train, Can't Stop, fellow COLT Andy Holgate's entertaining second book about his misadventures in Ironman. Just before lunchtime I went for a 10 minute jog and felt fairly loose, and relaxed enough on a couple of 50m bursts I put in. I collected my race kit together, and headed down to the race venue, around 1-1.5km down the beach, and stopped at a cafe on the way for some pasta for lunch.
Eventually we assembled on the burning hot shingle beach, thankful for the non-wetsuit decision, as despite the 31°C air temperature, the water temperature was borderline for wetsuit. The race started and 70 pumped up guys surged forward into a mass of white water and flailing arms and legs, and made for the first turn buoy about 300m out from shore. I got out fairly well and was slightly ahead of the few people either side, but as the buoy approached everything squeezed in from both sides and I encountered many arms, hands, legs and bodies swimming over me, and was no longer sure where I was in the group! It took me around 700m of being battered from all sides to get any space to swim as we started the second 750m lap. I moved through a few people on the second lap, feeling relatively strong, but looking up round the last buoy I could see past the few swimmers directly ahead of me and a decent gap to the front group of swimmers. I moved through in the last part to emerge from the water 21st, and right at the front of the second pack. I had a clear run through transition and got out onto the bike course and quickly slipped my feet into my new Specialized Trivent shoes, before starting to work with a few of the athletes around me on chasing the lead pack. A few guys contributed to the work on the front of the group during the first of eight 5km laps, before realising there was around 30 other guys sat on the back having an easy ride. After quite a bit of shouting at people, almost everybody stopped working, myself included, not wanting to tire my own legs out while others sat in the group resting up for the run! A very easy 40km passed without incident, and we saw the gap grow from around 30/40 seconds to almost 5 minutes by the end of the 40km! I focused on positioning myself sensibly in the group, and taking my two energy gels and plenty of water and carbohydrate/electrolyte drink in order to hit T2 in the best possible shape.
I managed to hold a position fairly close to the front of the group for the dismount and run into T2, and quickly racked my bike and got my trainers on, before whipping my helmet off and mindlessly putting it on the floor next to my bike. I then headed out onto the run in the first 5 or 6 from the group, the legs not feeling too bad and getting going almost straight away. I ran a decent 10km, in 34.09 to finish a very pleasing 31st position, with a strong finish to pull back a place in the last couple of hundred metres - full results here. I also had to stop for 15 seconds on my third lap (of four) in order to serve a penalty for not putting my helmet in my transition box; hopefully I'll learn from that one! As a debut at a Senior European Cup I was very happy with how the race went, and while I would've hoped to swim a bit faster and make the front pack, it gives me a good platform to build from throughout the season. Now I'm already looking forward to next weekend where I'll race in the BUCS Sprint Distance Triathlon Champs, hoping for a podium position!
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| Crossing the finish line; photo c/o Chris Carter. |
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