I always read a lot into my first race of the season. To me, it sets the tone for how things are likely to go for the rest of the year and is the real test of how the last 6 months of training has actually gone. If I haven’t improved, it’s too late to do much about it… Last year, winning in Ibiza set the tone for a great year, but things were a little bit different this time around. Whilst I’d had a brilliant winter up until the start of March – setting multiple running PBs – a hip injury had since kept me off run training for around 2 months. I had to miss a few run races as I put my efforts into rehabbing for the start of the triathlon season, but it wasn’t until 10 days before race day that my physio finally gave me the all clear to start running anything close to properly again. Going into the race I knew my swim and bike were in good shape, but I didn’t know either how fast I could still run or how much of a risk trying to find out would pose.
Challenge’s “The Championship” is a qualification-only half iron distance race. It brings together people who’ve finished in the top few of their age group at one of Challenge’s other events during the previous year, meaning the standard would be pretty high. It’s based at the X-bionic Sphere in Slovakia, an Olympic training centre most famous for its large horse sculpture which it’s obligatory for all visiting triathletes to get a photo underneath. It’s become so synonymous with this race that as part of registration we were heavily promoted T-shirts with the slogan “TRAIN LIKE A HORSE” emblazoned across the front. In the last 2 months I’d spent most of my time on an indoor bike trainer, so safe to say I hadn’t followed this advice.
After a dramatic thunderstorm on the day of our arrival, race morning arrived with bright sunshine and athletes seeking shade by the Danube canal to avoid cooking in their wetsuits. Age groups were being set off 10 minutes apart, so I wouldn’t know how the overall race was going, but I positioned myself at the front of my age group wave ready to sprint down a sandy bank and into the (much-hyped) cold water. One guy really committed to this part and got an early lead, but I managed to close it. Once I got on his feet the pace felt pretty easy and after 300m another person came past so I put another sprint in to follow his move. These faster feet guided me to the turning buoy at 1300m, after which we started to catch the back end of the wave who’d started before us. Whilst I hadn’t found the cold too bad, I noticed my hands were starting to get a bit numb and clumsy. Perhaps a combination of this, a few extra bodies to navigate and the lead swimmer upping the pace meant I lost his feet in the final stretch. A bit disappointing, but I still exited the water second from my wave in 25:53. Not a record breaking swim, but tactically good.
Despite spending some time practising transitions over winter, I hadn’t yet worked out how to do a flying mount or avoid blisters riding without socks, so I lost the usual chunk of time. Only about 30 seconds to most people around me, but enough to drop a few positions before setting off the flattest and straightest bike course I’ve ridden.
With extra bike volume replacing my missing run training, I’d come into the race cycling as well as ever. Combined with the uncertainty around my run, I’d decided to push pretty hard on the bike – targeting an average power of 300 watts and a sub-2 hour time. The course really was very fast, with good tarmac and less congestion from the wave in front than I’d expected. I overtook a French athlete called Ludovic around the 15 mile mark who I didn’t realise at the time was in the same age group as me (and was one of the people I’d beaten in the swim but been overtaken by in T1). He was able to tag along behind me, at a respectful but still beneficial distance, and without any hills I found it impossible to shift his white and red tri suit from my rear view mirror for the rest of the ride.
The bike was very uneventful, but I held my target power and aero position well, despite my shoulders crying out towards the end. The weather forecast had suggested we’d have a tailwind for the home stretch, so it was disappointing to hit a bit of a headwind which scuppered what had looked like being a really fast time. Nevertheless, I hit my time and power goals (1:58:38) and even managed my first ever flying dismount. I’m not sure it saved me much time on this occasion, as I was so nervous about getting my feet out of my shoes before the dismount line I ended up doing it way too early, allowing Ludovic the opportunity to come past me and enter transition just in front.
With socks already on, I managed a quicker T2 and was out on the run course back in front of Ludovic in what I hoped was the age group lead. We passed an aid station in the first 500m but I was just trying to find my rhythm so ignored it, knowing these would be every 2km. Whilst it was nice the race had started at the more sociable time of 9am, this did mean we were now running under the hot midday sun. The run course was a twisting route of 4.5 laps round the X-bionic sphere, with mixed terrain and a confusing enough route that the main advice was to count how many times you’d seen the horse sculpture to follow your progress. I knew it wouldn’t be a particularly fast run course but set off at what I thought would be a respectable 1:16-1:17 split and back off drastically if I felt any hip pain.
I joined the main course just as pro athlete Jesper Svensson was starting his final lap, and as we were running a similar speed he helped to pace me round my first lap before he turned onto the red carpet to finish in 8th place. That first lap seemed to last forever, with each demoralising glance at the watch confirming I hadn’t gone nearly as far as I thought. This was going to be a long slog. Having not run anything near this fast or far since my injury, I’d not only missed the physical conditioning but also the mental preparation for how tough running can be.
Morale wasn’t helped by a creeping sense of dehydration as the regular aid stations promised didn’t materialise. Ridiculously, the two water points were about 500m apart, meaning you had to make the most of both before taking on the long, barren stretch in between. I took sips from every cup I could grab, but knew things were getting worse. Once I lost Jesper’s company my pace started to slip as my temperature continued to rise.
The course had several out-and-backs, which showed me Ludovic had been holding a steady position 10 seconds behind me. Now, on lap 2, he caught me and my plans to stick with him were dashed almost immediately as he gradually moved ahead. At this point I thought the age group race was slipping away, but my hip still felt OK so I counted my blessings and was enjoying the ability to push myself and race. I was losing a bit of time to him at every aid station, but stuffing the wet sponges on offer into my tri suit turned out to be a bit of a game changer and those soggy shoulder pads started to revive me.
I managed to hold a constant deficit of 20 seconds to Ludovic on lap 3 and decided on the last lap I would try to bridge up and attack. I’ve never had much luck with sprint finishes (and wasn’t sure any sort of sprinting would be a good idea today) so I planned to make my move with 3 miles to go and see if he could respond. After the first mile I’d pulled level. After the second I’d opened a small gap. And in the final oneI managed to speed up again and finish a decent way clear with a run split of 1:15:29 – without doubt the best I could possibly have asked for going into the event.
I’d been so focused on the fun battle with Ludovic, and pleased to come out on top of it, that I didn’t check the actual results for a bit of time. I was pleased to see my time of 3:45:18 had indeed won my age group, but have to admit being a bit annoyed to see I’d finished just 2 seconds behind the overall age group winner Will Grace from the wave in front. The overall competition hadn’t really been on my mind during the race, it was just the tiny margin – and the fact we hadn’t been able to race head to head – that touched an ungrateful nerve after what had been a fabulously fun day of racing which I didn’t think I’d be able to have.
I’ve managed not to dwell on where I could have shaved 2 seconds off – it’s never that simple as other aspects of the race would have panned out differently too. I’m comfortable knowing I gave it my absolute best all the way to the line, and that I massively exceeded my main aim of simply finishing without aggravating my hip. There’s a good chance I’ll see Will at another race this season and hopefully we can have another close battle, this time racing side by side!
