WIN at Wirral Sprint Triathlon
The last 8 weeks of training have been big and focused around specific training towards Helvellyn Triathlon, I wanted to get some race sharpness leading into Helvellyn and the Wirral Triathlon landed nicely the week before my target race, I had started to back to training off to freshen up and went into the race feeling like the legs had started to freshen up and was looking forward to doing a race I hadn’t competed in before. Epic Events are a local North West company who at the time of my dads tragic accident had the time to share some nice words pre race about him, this was very touching at the time so to be racing one of there events was nice. Race Morning Needing to register at 6am meant a 4:15am wake up which isn’t really a shock with triathlon racing, I didn’t get much sleep and woke not feeling to great with a bad stomach, I managed the usual pre race breakfast of porridge and arrived at the race venue at West Kirby with plenty of time to register and get transition sorted, my stomach at this point was on the decline and after numerous trips to the dreaded portaloo I had done a little jog, some swim warm up exercises and was stood listening to the race brief, at this point according to my mum, I had turned a funny colour and I was feeling light headed, I wasn’t keen on pulling out of the race so thought I’d just see how I go.
Swim Into the water and as you can see from the above photo the water was as still as it could be, I never really enjoy swimming in salt water but with it being a sprint distance of 750m I was out and in transition in 9:43, I didn’t feel like I could push the swim so want sure how stage two of this race would go, I was out of the water in second position but the gap was minimal on the leading athlete.
Bike I hadn’t performed well on the bike in my last race so was keen to build some confidence back, I have been hitting good numbers in training so with this race being a sprint I want to go hard from the start and see how the legs felt.
I really liked the course, it was quite technical and although the weather was dry I hadn’t recce’d the route and the road surface was damp making being slightly cautious a must. The legs felt good on the bike and I was soon into first position and happy that I was clear enough at the front to keep the effort under control enough to manage my ill stomach. Run Off the bike and I was welcomed by some great support lining the road, this is great and sets you off on the run on a high and able to forget about the usual off the bike jelly legs.
The run was two laps of the lake and very open to be able to visually see the chasing athletes, I knew I had at least a second cushion after seeing the second and third place athletes coming in off the bike, straight away on the run I could feel the stomach wasn’t in a good place, I was pushing but keeping relaxed and balancing the effort enough to get to the finish to notch the win.
Post Race I would definitely do the race again, the result and performance is a nice boost to take into my final few races of the season. Result
As always a big thanks to my team ChampionSystem/vcuk and sponsors for providing some awesome equipment to help achieve the results. SharkComposites frames Pro-lite wheels VeloChampion.co.uk ChampionSystem Clothing SorryMate.com Limar Helmets Kenda Tyres KMC Chains Jagwire Cables YourSportsFuel.com Carter Rigging Mark Lomax Chartered Accountants