Challenge Weymouth

Race Report

This was my key aim for the 2nd part of the season and I really wanted to win this race. I actually did my first Triathlon in Weymouth the Bustinskins middle distance so it was nice to go back to where it all started!

On the morning of the race we were told that the swim was going to be half the distance due to the conditions, at first I thought it was a bit of a soft call as it didn’t seem any windier then what it was yesterday so I said to Laura lets just go and have a look at the sea and see what it’s actually like, when I saw it I was like bloody hell fair call as it was much worse then what I expected!

The swim for me went really trouble free because he conditions were so bad it seemed as though it was everyone for themselves and there were no packs that formed just everyone doing there own thing. I excited the water in 8th I think, the important thing was that I was 3m 30 behind first place (Steven Bayliss).

My plan for the bike was to ride around 290-300w although if it became a tactical race I didn’t want to waste effort for the sake of it and tow everyone along only to have them run away from me. After a few miles at the top of the first climb I caught Craig Twigg and two others. Me and Craig took turns on the front until the out and back section but we weren’t getting any help from the others in the group so we ended up pretty much free wheeling and making the others have a go at set the pace. One of the athletes wasn’t to bad as although he wasn’t contributing to the pace he was keeping 10 meters behind so fair dos, however the other was drafting to the max and didn’t want to contribute at all. I called him a cheat and a drafter and he said I understand English like I was bothered I said you’re a drafting little cheat. He said I’m keeping 7 meters, I said it’s supposed to be 10 meters but he wouldn’t have any of it! Maybe he should have attended the race briefing.

Anyway a little while later and Joel came past, he then set the pace reeling in Steven Bayliss at around the 40 mile mark. At this point I was actually getting a bit bored but also excited as the current effort felt very easy but I didn’t want to waste energy, if I was going to use energy it was going to be a decisive move so I was counting down the miles to the 2K climb as my plan was to go up this very hard in order to distance the others or tire them out so that they would struggle later on. I new hat if they were to come with me on the hill they would be working pretty much just as hard.

So when we hit the climb after 55 miles I set the pace at around 390-400w for 6-7 minutes, it felt pretty hard but I knew it was an important time to make the move. Once we got to the top of the climb there was only me, Steve, and Joel left. We kept the pace ticking along nicely for about another 15 miles but then I could tell the power was going down and I thought the others were feeling tired plus I didn’t want to start the run with the Joel and Steven if I didn’t have to. Coming into a round-about with 20 miles to go I put in another big dig, I sprinted past Steven and took the round-about fast I then came out of it very fast and managed to get a gap on the other two. When I looked over my shoulder I saw I had over 40 meters, I wasn’t sure of the exact distance but I knew they weren’t in my slipstream, this motivated me and for the last 40 minutes I averaged 300w which managed to get me a 3 minute 30 lead starting the run.

Out onto the run and I started at a pretty hard pace as I had no idea at the time what my lead was and I didn’t want Joel and Steven to think they were catching me as I knew this would motivate them to keep pushing. I ran the first 5-6 miles at around 5m55 minutes per mile, after this I think my pace slowed to around 6m05 for the next 10 or so miles.

ith around 6-7 miles to go I knew I had a lead of around 6-7 minutes so unless anything dreadful happened I would get the win, however although I thought something dreadful would have to happen for me to blow it 6-7 minutes can soon go if you start to cramp up or bonk so you still have to keep taking on nutrition and making sure you don’t do anything silly which could blow it.

7 miles later and I crossed the line victorious in my first world class Triathlon! I was absolutely delighted to have finally won a really big race, I’ve thought I had been capable of it for a while but it’s just actually being able to do it and now I’ve finally managed to win one!

At the finish line seeing in some of the later finishes and getting a picture here with the Just Racing team and Womans winner Elenear Haresign.