European Half IM Championship Challenge Rimini
Triathlon Training Blog, Monday, July 6th, 2015This one started badly and ended up worse. It was ,like sweden a B race. All my training had been low intensity stuff so it was basically a bench mark race to see how i was going in a kona year. The build up started off with another relationship failure , Quite spectacular. Show stopping shit pot. It got worse within an hour of flying in Bolognoa.
I’m driving along in my automobile and things are ok then i look across and tears are streaming down her face. Fucking great. This is going to be one hell of a week.Like a fucking wake.One facebook message from one to the other and boom . I deserved it she didnt .she deserved her holiday at least.
We find the apartment ok and settle in. Go shopping, going through the motions. unpack everything. its….shall we say….TENSE.
We are here now. She doesnt want to leave so just make the best of it.
First morning and meet Brent perkins who turned into a bit of a legend and Nick . Whose a likeable cheeky chappie. The bike ride quickly degenerated into a dick swinging contest and there’s some handy boys about. At the swim it got a bit embarrassing . Like Nick had already said some of these people come to be baby sat. Some of them sounded like they had never done a triathlon in their lives . How they had got this far was a mystery.
In walks Chris Dixon and his family. Brilliant. We had a lot of fun with these guys and they made the trip.Chris was very supportive as i’d pretty much forgotten everything and the expo was shit and u couldnt buy half the things i’d left behind.Chris gave me some of his stuff whether he could spare it or not .
Home life still including the full range of human emotions on a half hour cycle.
Mum and my eldest sister turned up and had a better apartment than me closer to t1. i suggested a swap but that seemed to fall on deaf ears. Family!
Went for a good little run with chris 6 miles or so on the friday i think it was.
On the friday the sea where the swim was was a seething cauldron of adriatic spew. Talk of a duathlon.Great. i hate running it became obsolete when we started riding horses. We saunter out into what can only be described as a storm to the pasta party. Which is shit and on the end of a pier . We may as well swam out there . we were soaked. I started talking to one of the british team. young lad , fletcher i think his name was. It was pretty clear he didnt want to talk to me and i think he turned his back on me mid sentence. Good for team spirit. I think i was dismissed. He better be fast. Sacked that off and swam back home.
Racked the bikes saturday race day tomorrow. I needed some co2 canisters and race force owed me a favour so i went and asked them if they had any. They said they had sold out. But the girl said she would have a look in the back of the van. As she was rooting around in the van Mr Fletcher turns up and asks the same question. He got my fucking canister . The last one in the world. SHe just gave it to him in front of me.U cannot make this shit up. He better be fast. I looked at Andy and asked him wtf . It was done.No canister for me.
race day starts late when its only a half. Chris and i are herded into our pens and we watch the pros swim out to the first turn. Except they dont. They hit middle channel and the current just sweeps them right , a long way. As we watch we are pretty sure they didnt bother going back. Great.
The swim , went ok and the sea was a bit choppy but found clear water pretty soon. The currents were pulling us all over the place and a 32 min swim was slow. As i came out of the water 2 gb boys were ambling down the beacg chatting. I made a huge effort to be friends pushed out the way and said ‘ this isn’t a fucking jamboree girls’ how to make friends. I was quite pleased to c all the gb bikes still racked from my age group as i left t1. The bike. It rained . I smashed the bike to be fair. Went way too hard i thought. Was looking for normalised power of 240/5 got 262. ha. fuck the run. Started picking people off all the way and was soon up with the leader in my age group a big tall italian . Who was cheating . Being drafted by two of his mates who werent racing.As i got to the turn which included two climbs that featured in the giro. At this point an irish guy called duffy and an italian guy went passed me and were drafting. Now i didnt mind the song’begging u for mercy’ by duffy and i enjoyed singing it in my head maybe the first 500 times but then it started to drag a bit. I caught them back and dropped them and mentioned something about ‘can u two queers stop holding hands now’ The descents were fast and amazing that i stayed upright. smashed the back 28 miles . No fucker anywhere near me now. Into t2 .Its pretty much empty 12 bikes there. Mum and Phil tell me i am third in the british team and i head out for the 13 mile run.
This is a first for me. I’ve seen videos of athletes leaving t2 like they have some sort of motor neuron disease but this is the first time its happened to me. Next emotion . despair /fear. I knew i had gone hard on the bike but fuck me. Legs just not working. Cool head walk, jog see if u can run it off. 1 mile in some semblance of a shuffle mile 3 it could be called running . End of first lap actually running. There’s no fucker here on the run course. As i start the back leg of the 2nd lap the rest of the gb team start to appear. They all look pretty agog at whose running towards them. This always surprises me why alot of people write me off as an idiot. And then i see MR Fletcher. Not so smug , not so fast either sunshine. every dog has its day .And today , as far as u are concerned, is mine.I see chris he’s not looking too happy. Turns out he had a rough swim and couldnt stop spewing. truly gutted for him. This was a big race for him and he had done the work.
Adam Tanner . Final lap and i had been closing on him each lap. He was second placed GB athlete . I caught him with 2 miles to go. I just knew he would respond and he did. He went again and i tried to go with him. He was too strong and finished 20 meters ahead. Fair and square. Turned out i was third GB athlete home and 4th in my age group. Missed the podium by 35 seconds. Gutted. 8th overall. So not too shabby.
The after party was bedlam with some confusion whether i got third or not. I didn’t . So i got hammered with My sister and the rest of the GB squad.
Mum and Phillipa went home we went to san marino. Anwen has never been too good after a few beers and this amazing hilltop principality wasnt quite prepared to witness her being sick in its streets for the afternoon. Although Chris and i thought it was quite funny.
Head fucked back to reality, no let up
