Following my first race in Cremona, Italy (sprint distance), I had a slight knee injury that was looking to delay my training however it was good to have physio Alex Price arrive at the NSWIS European base of Vitoria. I have been working with him for quiet some time now and he knows what works for me/ how my body responds to treatment and the injury is now under control.
I was fortunate enough to get an invite to the British Triathlon GE Money Super sprint race in Canary Wharf, London. It was a different format than usual and consisted of a 400m swim, 10km bike (9 laps) and 2km run. The field was split into two heats of 20 athletes with the top 8 qualify for the final and the 4 fastest losers from the heats also making the final. (20 athletes for the final). Another exciting and new element put in was a 7.00pm heat start.
Canary Wharf (from what we were told) is the business mecca for London and apparently Thursday (night of the race) is the night everyone stays back after work for a beer so it made for an awesome atmosphere for the heats/final. I was in the second heat and manage to have a great swim exiting in 2rd. This put me in a good position in the front pack of 8 athletes on the bike but entering T2 I seen an official at my transition spot with a yellow card. This meant that I would have to stop for 15seconds (seemed like a lifetime in the short race) and serve my penalty (they said I mounted my bike too early exiting T1 - questionable in my books!). I Lost numerous places with my penalty but finished 9th in my heat so I was very anxious to find out the times for qualification but in the end, made the cut.
It was a 9:20pm start for the final and glow sticks had to be worn on our wetsuits for the swim for safety reasons (who doesn’t love wearing glow sticks?! ;-)). I had another good swim exiting in 3rd and made sure I was meters past the mount line to jump on my bike. The intensity of the bike was much higher and strung the front group out but I was sitting nicely. Unfortunately on the 3rd lap I had a small incident with another athlete who swerved stupidly and resulted in me hitting a 1m tall witch’s hat at good speed – crash time! DNF for me … disappointed, as I wanted to see where my run was at coming off the first race.
Following the London effort was my first French Grand Prix for TCG79 Parthenay racing in front of the Eiffel tower – fantastic venue! The team ended up finishing 7th but I was disappointed with my result. Think of a small sock in a washing machine and that was the swim. I have never swallowed so much water (didn’t help the stomach on the bike and run) in such a crazy 750m swim. After the 3rd of 4 laps on the bike, 60 athletes come together on the wet and slightly slippery (few crashes) rectangular course and it was made for a running race. When I got in to the run, I just didn’t have the speed I wanted to match it with some of the top guys and finished further back then I anticipated!
Back to Vitoria for more training and the European summer! ☺
