Update By Nick Beer
Legs are sore and arms are aching this evening as i am
writing this blog... was a tough day of racing at the London triathlon
yesterday. My first ever attempt at it was last year and i threw myself into
the deep end and raced elite. I did the same this year, but with 100 times more
confidence. It was a stacked field and most notably Courtney Atkinson making
his London debut before Hyde Park in two weeks time. The race was always going
to be on... with 80 men down on start list and the British Triathlon Series to
complete, it was going to be tough! The swim is 700m up, 50m round the buoy and
straight back to the Excel centre. Probably the most boring swim i have raced
and i had to continually tell myself to keep the tempo there, otherwise i would
have got pulled under!I Came out in a strong position and had to take my wetsuit
off and put it into a bag before sprinting up the stairs into transition.
The transition was really long and I didn’t get a good ranking as they left
me off the start list for some unknown reason and it was a last minute rush to
put me on. This meant I had a long way to travel running with my bike… a good
minute and a half in fact. On the bike there was a break away of 5 that
included Will Clarke, Atkinson, Hayes and a few others. I was in the big group
of chasers with Don, Allen and Jenkins, but unfortunately we did not work well
as a group and lost 2mins in to the leaders. Disgraceful really considering we
had about 15 guys in th group, but just couldnt get organised, who knows why really, but that was the situation and we had to
expect it and do our best to get a good bike in. The bike didn’t feel too bad
in fact, probably the best it has felt all year, which is very encouraging.
Once completed, we dismounted and again the transition was long. Probably
between 600-800m meters long… it definitely felt longer though! Shoes on and
off I went. The run felt good and strong, but sadly my top speed at the moment isn’t
quite there to be mega competitive, but I held my own and came in a respectable
22nd place. My overall time was 10mins quicker than last year and
the way I raced it was much better as well, so everything is moving in the
right direction… just got to be patient and keep on believing! But... did finish in the top 10 overall for the series, so every cloud!!!
The plan now is 3 races left till my end of season break, however, the 23rd
of August is proving a tricky one. I have a 5km on the track for my county, the
TRI triathlon or national relays… tricky! Next stop is the Great Yorkshire 10km
on 7th September where I have an elite start… fingers crossed for a
fast time and finally ending the season in Betton for my final French race!
Good luck to everyone in their final races!
Posted on
Mon, August 3, 2009
by Nick Beer