Sat 25th Sept 2021 - Valencia
Intro
After 6 months of focused training I went to the European Triathlon in Valencia. It was an amazing experience, and as a lot of you kind people have asked me about it I thought I would do a quick report from my race.
This is the first time I’ve qualified for Great Britain as an age group athlete and I was competing in the 35-39 age group. The event was made even more special as my mother-in-law Jane also qualified for her age group too, so we made a family holiday out of the event.
Swim
It was an early start and the sun was rising in the marina for the start of the race. The water temperature was so warm that wetsuits were banned so it was my first non-wetsuit swim. I knew this was likely to be the case so I had been practicing trying to get my ‘sinking legs’ higher!
The other difference for this race was that it was an optional dive start (like at the Olympics). All of the athletes in my wave decided to dive so I got stuck in too!
It was a beautiful place to swim and I settled in to a pace I could maintain. I was never going to be fast without a wetsuit but it felt controlled and strong.
Distance 750m, Time 14:14, Pace 1:54m/100m
Bike
This was a strange looking course around the Marina and into the City. It was full of sharp turns, chicanes and U-Turns which made it very technical. There was also some water on the road from some rain the night before so it had to be ridden well. There were some serious crashes and luckily I was not involved with any.
I was going well on the 1st lap when all of a sudden I saw the end of the bike course! - somehow I had missed the sign for the 2nd lap!! I quickly turned around and saw a couple of others had done the same. Luckily we got back on track and didn’t lose too much time.
With the slight detour and all the corners I was still very close to hitting my target speed of 38kph average.
Distance 20k, Time 32:16, Speed 37.2kph
Run
My main target here was to go sub 20. The heat was building up and I knew going under 4 mins every km would be a good challenge after the bike.
I settled in to a good pace early and keep focusing on increasing my cadence. I knew if I turned my legs fast enough and kept a good form I would run well as I was always going to give 100%
I had a perfectly paced run and even finished with 3:38 on the last 1km!
Distance 5k, Time 19:33, Pace 3:55/km
Summary
My overall time was 1:08:22 and this put me 18th out of 27 in my age group. As I have never competed at this level before I am really pleased with that, and I have to say that it felt very good to don the GB Tri Suit!
This was my last event of the year and my next big event is having our 2nd baby! So over the winter months i’ll keep the training ticking over when I can, and just train because I love it.
Finally, I am happy to say that next year I have qualified for the World Triathlon! There are 2 separate events - one is Montreal and one in Abu Dhabi.
Decisions, Decisions ….