It was the day he had been waiting for… also, the day he had been training for. The winter base and subsequent months of training would be the equivalent of this race, the Dambuster.
The Dambuster Triathlon, one of the best pioneering events, would be my first Olympic distance event. Not only that, it would be the qualifier for the world championships later this year in Hamburg Germany. How badly did you want to qualify? Bad enough that I had written the date in my diary and made sure nothing was going to happen in the two weeks leading up to the event so I could progress my set-up without any interruption!
Set in some of the most spectacular scenery in Leicestershire, with the center point at a Dammed Loch in Rutland, you would never have dreamed of the grueling challenge that lay ahead.
Arriving at Rutland Water on Friday (22nd), my dad and I, who I might add always travels with me to all my events, camped near the lake before heading off field. We had already driven the famous ‘Rutland Ripple’ on the trail, a set of uphill drag punishments that seemed to keep repeating themselves just when you thought they were over. My dad, of course, always keeping a level head reminded me that “For every uphill, there’s always a down!”, a comment that would stick with me as I skirted those hills the next day. The swim was a diamond type route, 1500m around 5 buoys, fantastic! There is nothing worse for me than swimming back and forth, it looks so far! In the transition to find out that I actually had my own named transition area separated with a little decal, I would have felt like a pro if I hadn’t done the same for everyone else. Still a great touch, pacemaker well done! The race route would take me and all the other potential qualifiers around the lake and down to the dam where an interval guy would run back and forth across the dam twice before returning to the start which would complete the 10km With everything planned, we went back to the store in search of food!
A typical camp, with groups of men/women all together, is expected to be noisy for most of the night. One of the things that I love about triathletes and that would seem peculiar to anyone who is not used to the sport is that we all need sleep, and we know it! Half past ten and the camp was dead to the world, not even a whisper! Fair enough when the first wave of swimmers left at 06:40! In fact, even if you weren’t in the first wave, you still had to be in transition at 06:00, that meant getting up at 5:00 for an early breakfast!
Oatmeal and bananas, that’s what I’ve found to work best for me over the last year or so. Still feeling full after a mountain of pasta the night before, I had to keep breakfast reasonably light. I decided to put on my triathlon suit early, why not be prepared? I’m the kind of person who needs to have everything planned out, probably due to the fact that I have to live my life by schedule to fit all the training into 3 sports. Also, I have a girlfriend, Rachael, probably the most understanding person in my life, who is always by my side with my sport, but I would hate to take more of her time than necessary. Hence all the schedules; to make sure I’m doing everything at times when it doesn’t affect anyone or anything, this usually means mornings!
After accumulating I applied the baby oil and put on the wetsuit. It was 06:30, so I headed to the water.
The massive swim start was brutal, I didn’t want to come out ahead because I didn’t think I was fast enough, there were 90 of us in the 18-24 category and I was in the middle of the pack. After taking a few kicks and delivering a few, I found some space and swam parallel to another guy, who I followed because I recognized his Orca wetsuit. Normally when I swim I spend my time counting my strokes by length, in open water there are no lengths… the swim seemed endless! 26 minutes to be exact, 4 minutes over my pool time. I couldn’t believe it, to qualify I needed to be in the top 4, I was 50° out of the water!
After a reasonably quick transition I jumped on my bike and started pedaling…there was a problem, I was spinning more than a washing machine…my chain was broken. What a chance, the biggest race of the year and my chain fell off! After solving the problem, I knew I had a lot of time to make up, it was just a matter of putting my head down and pedaling. After about 6 miles we got to Rutland Ripple, I say us because it was almost like a traffic queue up the hill. This was where I could get my time back, I was used to hills, I train on hills so I decided to stay in the saddle and go up the hills. It hurt, the expression on my face in the photos says so, but I managed to overtake quite a few cyclists until, on the second hill, halfway up the chain, the chain came loose again…..I can’t say the words that came out of my mouth! But it had happened, so I jumped in, turned it back on, and continued the fight!
By the time I had completed 22.5 miles and coming back into transition I had a pretty quick time of 1 hour 12 minutes for 26.6 miles. My legs felt good and I had receded in several places. Now I was in the race, I ran off the bike quickly, with my dad running parallel yelling advice. The race was mostly track, but also a bit of cross country. The lake backdrop was great if you wanted to take your mind off the race. I decided to run the first 2km at a 20min 5k pace. I was so keen to get to under 40 minutes for the race, that I originally opted for 36 minutes. I can run 17 minutes and 5 km and therefore 36 minutes per 10 km would work. I immediately knew that was out of the question. Still, I stuck to my plan for 2km and then cooled down a bit for the next 4km. Running out and across the dam meant he could see the opposition coming back in the opposite direction. They were fast, some wearing GB trisuits. What was he trying to do? Qualify against these guys… still, anything was possible. I tried to run hard for the last 4 km but I was already too far behind. I finished the race in 40 minutes and 30 seconds. Not fast enough, but still a 10K personal best.
I finished 17th in my age group and that’s why I didn’t qualify for the Worlds. Disappointed… yes, but coming back from 50 to 17 is something I’m personally proud of. I have the Wakefield triathlon in a couple of weeks, last change to qualify. Although it will also be the national age group championships, so the race will not be easy. I just hope that since there are 8 spots ranked by age group, I have a better chance of getting a spot!