I'd be racing in the 45-49 year category having hit 45 just prior to the event, so i was at least a young gun in this category if nowhere else.
Onto the bike and transition was ok. I was not the fastest as i stopped to swig some water, but i wasn't far off the pace. My potentially ball breaking bike mount thankfully worked out well, with a full set of 10/10 from the four judges. This saved me a fair few seconds as i saw lots of other athletes stopping to mount the bikes and clip into the pedals.
Transition had been moved off the beach and into town due to a storm and the last minute change of instructions meant i hadn't been 100% sure of the directional route of entering and exiting T1 & T2. There was no need for the panic in the end as during the race, the marshals and other competitors made it pretty easy to figure it all out.
I was feeling pretty wiped out after running above threshold for a good 10 minutes towards the end of the run, and so the first 5k on the bike was horrid. I pressed the accelerate pedal to no response, none. I was passed by a few riders and couldn't push out more than 200 watts. The first 5k was into a headwind and up a gradual climb too, so all in all, this wasn't looking too clever at the moment.
At the turn, i was able to tuck in, and concentrate on my position rather than battle the bike, and I started to up my pace and pick some riders off.
Lap two of four saw me increase pace and feel a bit more human. Lap three and I was flying. 300 watts and above. All situations normal. I had now passed many riders. It was tough to work out who they were and whether they were in my category by now, as the younger guys and the girls had merged with us on this four lap course. Nevertheless, i thought that by passing as many riders as I could, I was bound to catch up with a few oldies at some point.
At the start of the final climb, I noticed a shadow behind me, another rider. The rules are strict and no drafting in another riders slipstream is permitted. I waited a few seconds before looking back again. Two red suited Spaniards, directly on my wheel. I remembered passing them on lap three.
They looked about the same age as me, so a few expletives were thrown at them to no avail. I was sure that a draft busting judge would side with the locals on this one if it came to it, and so I slowed up after a few attempts to snake away from them to shake them off.
One came past and shouted something. I saw red and rode to a stop, forcing the smaller of the two to also come past me. Once they were gone (by now we were on the fast last 5k down to T2), i built up my speed and burnt a huge match to speed past them again. This was not something I thought I'd need to be doing in this race!
Approaching T2 and as I slowed to take my feet out of my shoes, the Spaniards came past me and into T2 ahead! I actually had a good T2, and came out just behind them. As anyone who's done a Duathlon will tell you, your legs simply do not work at the start on run two. You have to waddle out of transition and wait for them to come good. It took mine about half a kilometre before i started to catch people up. I got into a good stride and ended up having a much more consistent run that the first 10k.
It was tough though, as I'm sure it was for everyone. I did notice the 'Spanish two' coming into view as I approached the last kilometre. I managed to pass one, the one that mattered as he was also in my age category. I also passed a few other runners as I approached the line, for what was probably my fastest 1km split of the day. Theresa held out the Ddraig Goch on the finish straight and i though it would be rude not to grab it and hold it aloft as I came across the line in the once in my lifetime experience.
After finishing, we were treated like pro athletes, with a recovery area, supplying melon quarters, orange halves and sandwiches, plus recovery drinks. I wish there had been a photographer there as a few of us just sat against the fence, eating melons, and staring into space for what seemed ages.
Eventually i picked myself up and headed back to Theresa and to the nearest cafe for a well earned shandy - actual shandy which i ordered by mistake but was definitely the best choice of drink at that time.
I later discovered that I'd come 5th in my age group, for ahead of the 13th that I'd aimed for, and also 29th overall, out of all age categories. This result was pretty satisfying as it was not expected at all. I was just under two minutes away from a bronze medal, gladly, as i think i'd have cried if it was only a handful of seconds. I'll now have to study the splits, do some homework and see if those two minutes can be gained back, possibly from that dodgy first run.
This was a thoroughly good experience which i feel almost anyone could qualify for. I am just an average club rider/runner. Picking the best distance and event to suit your abilities and talents, choose your qualifying event, do your homework on your competitors and most importantly train HARD, and you could be the next athlete at the World or Euro Multisport Championships.
Just to recap on the journey so far, four athletes from Ceredigion had qualified for this week of multisport European Championship events, with a fifth joining us late on, Gareth Hodgson of Kona IronMan fame. Gareth had decided to throw a couple of late season events into his schedule after a very successful IronMan Wales in September where he came 11th overall. Actually a sixth local also joined the party late on - Ollie Thorogood, from the Thorogood sporting dynasty who was doing the Aquathon. The other lads were Dylan Lewis (Cross Duathlon), Steffan Owens & Andrew Poole who would join Gareth in competing in the Long Course Triathlon event. At the time of writing, all these event were later in the week, as I was already on the way home after my Standard Distance Duathlon which had been on day 2 of the competition.
Myself, Dylan and Pooley have been generously supported in our preparations by two local businesses - Safety Net Services and Alexanders Estate Agents. Their financial input has contributed towards paying for the compulsory Team GB race wear, the entry fee and the travel costs. We've all discovered (as Team GB Age-Group first timers) that this level of competition is a very expensive business!
We'd also received some extra help from Cambrian Tyres (Continental race tyres for the bikes), and Ceredigion County Council (free passes for use of leisure facilities for all of 2018).
Frankly my main concern was not to embarrass myself on the day. I missed automatic selection by not quite gaining a top four position in my qualifying race back at the end of 2017, but scraped in by being best runner-up of the three separate qualifying races. This meant that on paper at least, i was 'not the bookies favourite'.
I had a look at some of my twenty six fellow British, Spanish and Dutch competitors previous results and it did look a tough ask and so i set myself a hard but achievable goal of coming in the top half of the results - so 13th place would be ok by me.
The race would see a mass start of 250 or so athletes, structured in age and sex related waves. I'd be off with all the other males between the ages of 40+. I believe there was an 84 year old in there somewhere! The 39 years and younger would start 4 minutes before us, which was a neat way of splitting things up to avoid a congested 10k run course.
Rolling back to the start of the trip, family responsibilities and flight options meant that we'd arrive almost a week before race day, and leave the morning after the race. Not ideal in terms of a couple of days to relax afterwards, but as it turned out, we enjoyed ourselves and relaxed a lot during the build up. Our accommodation was, by pure luck, pretty central to the race course and so we decided not to hire a car and got everywhere by bike and a few times by taxi.
A couple of days of long bike rides (with the obligatory cafe stops), followed by a recce day of the bike and run course and then a rest day lead right up to the day of the Sprint distance competition. We made sure we got to see this as the transition area would be the same as our Standard distance race the following day and this was essential viewing for Mr 'In one ear, out the other' to see exactly where the entry and exit points were. I had possibly neglected my running a little during the week, managing just three 3 mile potters with some token strides thrown in for good measure.
Onto the race and all the usual prep had been done on the day. My start time was an unusual 3.34pm. Most events back home start in the morning or no later than lunchtime, so a small spanner in the pre-race prep works was to factor in a second meal to top up the morning's porridge and banana. The choice - scrambled egg on toast, washed down with some black coffee.
I decided to do the race 'dry'. This basically meant no water bottle on the bike. I'd reduced the among of clutter on my bike to try and get as aerodynamic as possible. No gizmo's on the handlebars, no bottle cage on the frame, and the only accessory avoiding the cull was a small saddlebag containing a spare tube, levers and a Co2 canister in case i punctured.
Sod's law reared its head and gave us the hottest day of the week. Gone were the intermittent grey clouds and bursts of rain, replaced by 26 degree sun. Looking around and i saw almost everyone with either a handlebar mounted drinks bottle or one on the frame. Breaking this down to justify my choice, i had 37 odd minutes of the initial 10k run ahead, with 8 water station options. I then had a bottle in transition to take a swig from in T1 before a waterless 1 hour bike ride. For T2, i could grab the remaining bottle and take it with me on the 5k run, which itself had 4 chances of taking on water.
I'm a tad old school on this subject, often running 16-20 mile training runs on no liquid or food (just a gel or two), same goes for my immediate training partners back home in Aber. My only concern was the heat. The race would take around two hours to complete. All the other competitors were going overkill on hydration or were they...?
The first 10k was my winning hand, or so i thought. After a weird year of running, where i was posting some pretty virus affected slow times all the way up to around 6 weeks prior to race day, finally cracked with an 'out of body' 5k PB at the local Parkrun, and a decent 6 minute mile paced Oulton Park Duathlon, things seemed back on course.
Unfortunately I'd gone off too fast, or at least at the top end of my pace strategy. The heat soon got to me, as did the twisty (yet very flat) course and the seven dead turns started to take their toll. The map below says it all (mile splits from start to finish fltr).
I had had a cheeky eye on a 10k PB here, but as things worked out, it was more like a late 37 (the actual course was 0.2 miles short).
Sod's law reared its head and gave us the hottest day of the week. Gone were the intermittent grey clouds and bursts of rain, replaced by 26 degree sun. Looking around and i saw almost everyone with either a handlebar mounted drinks bottle or one on the frame. Breaking this down to justify my choice, i had 37 odd minutes of the initial 10k run ahead, with 8 water station options. I then had a bottle in transition to take a swig from in T1 before a waterless 1 hour bike ride. For T2, i could grab the remaining bottle and take it with me on the 5k run, which itself had 4 chances of taking on water.
I'm a tad old school on this subject, often running 16-20 mile training runs on no liquid or food (just a gel or two), same goes for my immediate training partners back home in Aber. My only concern was the heat. The race would take around two hours to complete. All the other competitors were going overkill on hydration or were they...?
As it turned out, my throat did run a bit dry towards the end of the bike leg, but the bottle in T2 sorted this out and i didn't even take the emergency gel I'd also stored. Hopefully the missing bottle saved me a few seconds on the climbs and on the fast descents!
The first 10k was my winning hand, or so i thought. After a weird year of running, where i was posting some pretty virus affected slow times all the way up to around 6 weeks prior to race day, finally cracked with an 'out of body' 5k PB at the local Parkrun, and a decent 6 minute mile paced Oulton Park Duathlon, things seemed back on course.
Unfortunately I'd gone off too fast, or at least at the top end of my pace strategy. The heat soon got to me, as did the twisty (yet very flat) course and the seven dead turns started to take their toll. The map below says it all (mile splits from start to finish fltr).
I had had a cheeky eye on a 10k PB here, but as things worked out, it was more like a late 37 (the actual course was 0.2 miles short).
Onto the bike and transition was ok. I was not the fastest as i stopped to swig some water, but i wasn't far off the pace. My potentially ball breaking bike mount thankfully worked out well, with a full set of 10/10 from the four judges. This saved me a fair few seconds as i saw lots of other athletes stopping to mount the bikes and clip into the pedals.
Transition had been moved off the beach and into town due to a storm and the last minute change of instructions meant i hadn't been 100% sure of the directional route of entering and exiting T1 & T2. There was no need for the panic in the end as during the race, the marshals and other competitors made it pretty easy to figure it all out.
I was feeling pretty wiped out after running above threshold for a good 10 minutes towards the end of the run, and so the first 5k on the bike was horrid. I pressed the accelerate pedal to no response, none. I was passed by a few riders and couldn't push out more than 200 watts. The first 5k was into a headwind and up a gradual climb too, so all in all, this wasn't looking too clever at the moment.
At the turn, i was able to tuck in, and concentrate on my position rather than battle the bike, and I started to up my pace and pick some riders off.
Lap two of four saw me increase pace and feel a bit more human. Lap three and I was flying. 300 watts and above. All situations normal. I had now passed many riders. It was tough to work out who they were and whether they were in my category by now, as the younger guys and the girls had merged with us on this four lap course. Nevertheless, i thought that by passing as many riders as I could, I was bound to catch up with a few oldies at some point.
At the start of the final climb, I noticed a shadow behind me, another rider. The rules are strict and no drafting in another riders slipstream is permitted. I waited a few seconds before looking back again. Two red suited Spaniards, directly on my wheel. I remembered passing them on lap three.
One came past and shouted something. I saw red and rode to a stop, forcing the smaller of the two to also come past me. Once they were gone (by now we were on the fast last 5k down to T2), i built up my speed and burnt a huge match to speed past them again. This was not something I thought I'd need to be doing in this race!
Approaching T2 and as I slowed to take my feet out of my shoes, the Spaniards came past me and into T2 ahead! I actually had a good T2, and came out just behind them. As anyone who's done a Duathlon will tell you, your legs simply do not work at the start on run two. You have to waddle out of transition and wait for them to come good. It took mine about half a kilometre before i started to catch people up. I got into a good stride and ended up having a much more consistent run that the first 10k.
It was tough though, as I'm sure it was for everyone. I did notice the 'Spanish two' coming into view as I approached the last kilometre. I managed to pass one, the one that mattered as he was also in my age category. I also passed a few other runners as I approached the line, for what was probably my fastest 1km split of the day. Theresa held out the Ddraig Goch on the finish straight and i though it would be rude not to grab it and hold it aloft as I came across the line in the once in my lifetime experience.
After finishing, we were treated like pro athletes, with a recovery area, supplying melon quarters, orange halves and sandwiches, plus recovery drinks. I wish there had been a photographer there as a few of us just sat against the fence, eating melons, and staring into space for what seemed ages.
Eventually i picked myself up and headed back to Theresa and to the nearest cafe for a well earned shandy - actual shandy which i ordered by mistake but was definitely the best choice of drink at that time.
I later discovered that I'd come 5th in my age group, for ahead of the 13th that I'd aimed for, and also 29th overall, out of all age categories. This result was pretty satisfying as it was not expected at all. I was just under two minutes away from a bronze medal, gladly, as i think i'd have cried if it was only a handful of seconds. I'll now have to study the splits, do some homework and see if those two minutes can be gained back, possibly from that dodgy first run.
This was a thoroughly good experience which i feel almost anyone could qualify for. I am just an average club rider/runner. Picking the best distance and event to suit your abilities and talents, choose your qualifying event, do your homework on your competitors and most importantly train HARD, and you could be the next athlete at the World or Euro Multisport Championships.
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