Bournemouth Triathlon - A race Review
Posted by william newbery on Sunday, July 7, 2013
I have done The Bournemouth International triathlon 5 times before today. Some times the weather has been amazing and other times it was pretty shocking. Today, race number six in ten seasons, was a cracker. Still sea conditions, little or no wind and nice and warm.
After my qualification for the London World Championships at Dambuster 2 weeks ago training has just been ticking along. Bit of riding, small amount of running and some good swimming. It's hard to motivate yourself when your A race has gone, but you need to get back on it and crack on with the hard training if you want to do well.
I got ready with minimal fuss and had a quick warm up - the sea was nice and clear and really quite warm. Once the briefing was over we were off. Myself and two others made it to the first buoy together, we then singled out with me at the back. The person in second was obviously a bit tired and slowed massively. This meant I missed the tow of the first swimmer, but for the rest of the swim kept the gap to ten meters or so. We came out of transition together and by the top of the steep hill past the BIC I was in the lead.
I felt absolutely amazing on the bike. It always feels comfortable but today was one of those days that just clicks. By the turnaround I had a four minute gap and I started to push on the way back - a slight downhill. As I came into T2 I felt good. It was starting to get hot and I had left a frozen water bottle by my run shoes. That was such a good feeling to have an ice cold drink. I set off and felt good. I was possibly running a bit conservatively due to not wanting a repeat of the stitch from the Dambuster run. My legs felt good, but they didn't feel amazing. I was running steady but felt I couldn't up it if I wanted or needed to. This is probably due to the lack of running and something that I will have to work on before London. I need to stop running on the memories of last year when I was running so well and need to get the running mileage up. It will happen I know.
I ended up taking the win by 8 and a bit minutes. The only person to go under 2 hours, my 4th time. I am over the moon to have won this iconic race. It may not hold the same kudos as previously, but it means alot to me. It was one of the last and only races my Dad came to watch. I am sure he was looking down today, smiling.
Thanks as usual to H2Pro, Primera, Zone 3, Compressport and Scott Running for supporting me.