Friday 22nd August 2008 - Road Trip!
So I finally got round to renting one of these newly-built old-style Type 2 VW campers from Danbury Motorcaravans, and took it up to Glasgow for the British and Scottish Sprint Tri Champs in Strathclyde Park. It's a great race vehicle, with plenty of space for bikes and kit. Not quite so perfect for lengthy motorway driving, requiring some extra care and attention to keep going in a straight line. There are no concessions to modern driving - wind-up windows, no air-conditioning and a very long gear-stick; I can understand that this appeals to those seeking the full retro experience. Personally I'd be quite happy to keep the exterior the same and bring the driving experience more up-to-date. In this respect maybe the California is more what I'm looking for, but I don't think it looks nearly as good.
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Saturday 26th July 2008 - TRI Challenge Team Triathlon
A team race like the Nottingham Relays, but a bit lower-key and more fun. There were a lot of teams from the big investment banks (UBS, Morgan Stanley etc.) preparing for their Arch-to-Arc Enduro challenge, plus some good teams from North Devon Tri (on a lengthy day trip to Dorney Lake!). After Matt McDermott, Barney Randle and I had each swum 400m we were in second place, about a minute down on North Devon. On the first 20k bike leg, Matt recouped this deficit with a bit to spare, then Barney and I increased the gap to 2 minutes. Again Matt put a minute into his opposite number on the (5k) run, leaving us a comfortable cushion, and by the end the difference was 4 minutes 40.
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We didn't know what to expect in terms of prizes - a congratulatory handshake would have done - but in fact received £450 in vouchers for Up & Running. Other race organisers take note! There were prizes only for first places - the Ful-On Tri girls won a weekend stay and complimentary dinner at a swish hotel in Windsor ... though I think they'd have preferred the vouchers. No competition for vets, which Phil, Greg and Simon would have won; nevertheless they took fourth overall. A great event for building club spirit and a rare opportunity to race triathlon in a team. Thoroughly recommended.
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Sat-Sun 19-20th July 2008 - Two Races in One Weekend
A windy weekend at Dorney Lake, and one where an already long season seems to be catching up with me a bit (not to mention accidentally running for three hours on two consecutive evenings after locking myself out). Saturday's Eton Standard Distance was billed as the inaugural London and South East Regional Championships and was also part of the Ful-On Tri club championship. I swam well and biked OK, but felt very heavy-legged on the run. Sharkie Jaggard from Thames Valley took the overall race win and the South East Championship, with me in second and London Region Champion. So job done, even if it wasn't very stylishly executed. This should also be enough to win the Ful-On club championship. Can I have a rest now?
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On Sunday the weather was the same but the racing slightly different as I joined Katherine and Emily in their Bananaman Team Time Trial team (three athletes all racing together in time trial formation over 800m swim, 30k bike, 7.5k run). I think the girls were happy to get some shelter behind me on the bike, and on the run my blonde wig got us some extra attention and injected a bit of fun into proceedings. Official results show us as third placed female team ...
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Sunday 15th June 2008 - Victory at Nokia Royal Windsor Triathlon
I nearly pulled out of Windsor when I discovered that Sarah-Anne and Warren's wedding was going to be the previous day. Sipping pink champagne in an Elvis suit at 10pm is not generally the best preparation for a race the following morning, but it certainly takes the pressure off. My main goal for this one was to get a decent score for the Ful-On Tri club championships, and I put in what I thought was a respectable performance with 2:05:19 (I did 2:03:13 in 2006). However, a quick trip to the timing tent brought the surprising news that no-one else in any age group had gone faster. In retrospect it seems to be the strong currents in the swim that made the difference - most people were a couple of minutes down on previous swim times, whereas mine was about the same. I don't think we should draw any conclusions about pre-race carbo-loading at wedding receptions; nevertheless I do like the look of this result list.
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Sunday 11th May 2008 - European Triathlon Championships, Lisbon
I've been chasing a medal at the Europeans for a few years now, with a couple of 6th places. Conditions in Lisbon were cloudy, windy and cool, and our hotel room was full of second-hand smoke. Preparation was also less than ideal - team manager told us we could get back into transition half an hour before race start; in fact transition was totally closed, though we were allowed to get into the water nice and early! So I got a marshal to set up my shoes, bottle etc. and just crossed my fingers - tyres hadn't been pumped since arrival two days before. Adrenaline helped me to a PB sub-20min swim, then transition was unsurprisingly a bit slow. Bike had a fiddly section on the wet cobbles then 10k into a headwind, plus an extra 1k of hill at the end. Downhill with the wind behind all the way back, and another lap of the same for a 44k bike leg.
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My running prep this winter was disrupted by various setbacks (notably a pulled adductor from swimming breaststroke and a busted big toe from the worst transition ever), so I held back a little on the first half of the 10k, then raised the pace at the mid-point. I was gradually gaining on a British athlete who had come tanking past me on the bike, but didn't really know how I was doing in the race. Towards the end I caught a Portugese athlete who told me "We are second!". Thinking "you're not, you're third" I headed on past him and ended up 30s behind the winner (Richard Wilder) in 2:09:10. Delighted to have snared that European medal at last.
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Last updated: 11th September 2008
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