April 2013

What a roller coaster of a month!

It all started with Halesowen Triathlon which is a local pool sprint and a good early season event to get that first one out of the way. The weather had been absolutely freezing leading up to it and I honestly thought they might cancel but, no, it went ahead as planned. Annoyingly the week before the race I started to feel awful and ended up in bed for a couple of days. I don't know what it was but thankfully I felt better just in time.

It was about 3 degrees when I woke up on race day and I was so happy that I had a late start at 10.20am. John Batchelor at Halesowen Tri club really knows how to organise an event and this year was especially good with sponsorship from Lidl, a T-shirt that actually fitted me and friendly, efficient marshals.

Halesowen pool is not my favourite as it is 33metres which seems huge but I was pleased with my time of 6:33 - a big thank you to Graham, all those 16 x 100 m sets are paying off! Then it was off onto the bike - bloody hell was it cold! The course is hilly and technical though so I soon warmed up. The Boardman TT was as good as ever, flying up the hills.  Had one small problem when I had to stop behind a horse box on a narrow lane but only lost a couple of seconds. Then it was the run - I have to say that my On Cloudracers are amazing. I definitely run faster in them. Bit surprised that I got to the turn point so quickly though and didn't realise until the end that the run was about a km short!

Great race and very pleased to win the overall women's race in 1:09:35. Another great part of the event is that they give out prize money - in cash! This is not something you see much of these days and I wonder why, if small clubs like Halesowen Tri can do it, why can't the bigger events?

Then it was all about preparation for the European Duathlon champs in Holland - one of my big goals for this year. I have been looking forward to this event as my least favourite part of triathlon is the swim. My running is strong at the moment, although I have had a few niggly injuries this winter. My bike training has been good all winter but has peaked with some recent help from Jamie Jenkins of Success Cycling. He has put together some amazing turbo training DVD's using real video footage from rides he has done and with great music it all makes the very painful training a little bit easier. The duathlon bike course looked very technical as it went through the local town twice and this suits me as I love a bit of cornering at speed so I was hopeful of a good result.

Unfortunately I came down with a cold the week before the race and spent the next 5 days resting and desperately trying to get better - it wasn't until the day before the race that I really felt back to normal so it was a bit of a panicky week!

I was racing along with my team mate and friend Sam Anderson who competes in the 25-29 age group and is a very strong contender this year for a medal. But she has been very poorly recently so she hasn't had the best preparation. Still, Sam is one of the most determined people I know so I was sure she would race her heart out!

So off we all set in our van with Sam's mum Nina, her boyfriend Chris and my husband Mark. 4 bikes, 5 suitcases, 4 helmets (2 aero) and bags of food - we were bursting at the seams. After a very long drive we arrived in Holland ready to have a look at the run and bike courses. What a great place! the whole town had been taken over by the event, which also holds the long distance Powerman duathlon (the womens race was eventually won by Lucy Gossage). The roads were closed all around the town and there was a huge stage marquee set up in the square with music and entertainment. The opening ceremony was a bit odd though - I have never seen a pole dancer at one before (not really family entertainent!).

Race day came and Sam and I managed to get near to the front as all 400 of us were being set off together. It was a bit of a crush on the start line and the race went off really fast. I mean really fast! I managed to hang in there just trying to breathe and after the first half a kilometre I settled into a good pace. I flew into T1 knowing that I had passed my closest opposition (Anke Lakies from Germany) so hoped I had a good lead on her going into  the bike section. Mark, Chris and Nina were brilliant, shouting their support.

 I loved the bike but it was a bit dangerous as we rode through the town and there were some very nervous cyclists. I managed to weave my way past, smiling as I left behind a lot of male competitors who would probably be much faster than me on a straighter course. The bike went really quickly but I did get some cramping in my calves which wasn't pleasant.

Then disaster as I came into T2. Mark had told me that I was leading my age group so I was feeling good but as I put my trainers on the cramp came back in my right calf and I have never experienced pain like it. I screamed so loudly an official ran over and started to take my trainers off so I ended up having a fight with him as I wanted to start running. Eventually I hobbled out of transition and luckily the cramp eased as I started the run. I knew Anke was probably catching me so I buried myself to keep going hard to the line. As I finished I was fairly sure that I had won my age group and it was great to go over the line holding my GB flag (thank you Joan, GB team manager).

Sam came in just behind me and I knew she had not had a good race as she usually beats me. Sadly she had stomach cramps throughout the whole race but she battled on and came a fantastic 4th - bitterly disappointed as she should have got the bronze. I am sure she will get a medal next time though when we race at the European Triathlon champs in Turkey, she just needs to be fit and well on race day.

The results were then confirmed, I had won my age group so I have now added European Duathlon champion to my triathlon title that I won in Eilat last year. Very pleased with that. I was even more pleased when I found out my first run split was a PB of 17:59! I thought we had gone off fast! I am convinced that it is down to my On Cloudracers that I am managing to still get a PB at the age of 46.

Another great weekend away racing for Team GB - the team and the support was as big as ever and, as usual, we met loads of lovely people.

Thank you to On Running, Fred Williams Cycles, Success Cycling, and all my friends at TRiKS for their support.  Thank you to Nina and Chris for their support and good company in Holland and to Sam for her friendship and support. Your postive outlook on life, especially when things are not going well, is inspirational (and she has also helped me with settting up this blog). Lastly a huge big thank you to Mark for driving all the way to Holland and back, for cooking two lovely pre-race meals, for helping Chris to get his cycling Mojo back and for just believing in me (and putting up with me) all the time. Love you all.

The year is going well so far.....just need to keep it going all the way to Turkey in June.