After ticking off a few “bucket list” triathlons in 2018, I was lacking a bit of inspiration planning my 2019 race calendar. I’d always fancied competing at one of the ITU/ETU international races one day (for the same reason as most people I expect – I wanted a photo in the Team GB kit), but they aren’t the easiest to find information on. When I spotted the ITU Long Distance World Championships would be in Spain in 2019, I decided to look into it further. Qualification required a finish time within 10% of the age group winner at an iron or half iron-distance event, meaning my performances at Roth and Wales would be enough to secure a place.
In December this was confirmed and I booked my tickets for Pontevedra – a small town in North West Spain and the home of triathlon legend Javier Gomez. The race would be over roughly a three quarter iron distance – with 3000m swim, 113km bike and 30km run. Beyond this, race information was hard to come by – with little else available until close to the race. Although we had a “Team GB” Facebook group, this only served to reassure me that everyone was feeling equally in the dark… Rumours did emerge that the bike course was going to be extremely hilly though, which gave me a bit of encouragement.
After a big winter training block, with most of Netflix completed during long turbo sessions and dedicated weeks in Portugal and Mallorca, I headed into Pontevedra with more than double the training volume of previous years and an ill-informed sense I might have a chance at an age-group podium place. A friend had raced the same championships in Fyn, Denmark, in 2018 and suggested the field might not be as strong as you’d think at a World Championships – certainly not compared to the Ironman World Championships in Kona, where I wouldn’t dream of targeting a strong placing. However, when the start list came out I found there were at least 5 GB athletes in my age group with faster Ironman PBs than me – not to mention what the athletes from other countries might be capable of! I still kept a podium place as my private goal, but one I knew was extremely ambitious. All I could hope was my fitness was better than ever, the hilly course would play to my strengths, and a few competitors might be peaking for races later in the year.
I arrived in Pontevedra, via a one day stop in Porto, to find the swim was the big area of debate. With water temperature below 14C and air temperature of around 10C likely on race morning, our briefing informed us the distance was likely to be halved from 3,000m to 1,500m – greeted to slightly annoying cheers (surely if you sign up for triathlon you accept swimming is part of the bargain?). I tried to start up my own pantomime boo at the news, but the ITU rules are pretty clear so we just had to accept it. Swimming isn’t particularly my strength, I just felt it was a shame not to complete the full distance we’d all trained for.
Post-briefing I had time for a gentle ride of the bike course – this would be three laps, mostly up or down hill but with no steep gradients or sharp corners. I was looking forward to the climbs, but a bit nervous how the descents would be on what would be a congested course.
Race morning arrived with the surprise luxury of an indoor sports hall to wait for the swim start. The international field were in good spirits and all enjoying the novelty of wearing our national jerseys, with plenty of photos of the different countries together. We then headed down to the tidal-fed river and watched the elite athletes start, noticing how little forward progress they seemed to be making against the current, as if they were on a swimming treadmill. It was our turn next, as we completed what must have been everyone’s slowest ever 1,500m. I found myself at the front of a mid-pack group – unable to bridge the gap to the fastest swimmers whilst permanently having my feet tapped by better tactical swimmers drafting behind me.
The water hadn’t seemed too cold at first, but by the end my face was pretty numb and I silently revised my opinion on the shortened swim. Arriving into T1, I tried to stay as relaxed as possible to avoid cramps whilst changing. Just as I mentally congratulated myself on a job well done, a calf muscle seized rock solid putting my second shoe on. I swore loudly, to the obvious confusion of athletes around me, and hobbled out to my bike.
Once cycling, I tried to regain some composure – I’d suffered worse cramps at Challenge Roth, they didn’t affect my cycling and by the time I had to run they’d eased a fair bit. Time to focus on the job at hand and in a few hours things might look different. This would be my first race with a power meter, and I found it a big help in managing my effort – avoiding going too hard uphill and knowing pretty well what would be sustainable. I found myself moving up the field during the climbs, then losing ground on the descents, and soon started to recognise a few athletes I was in close competition with.
The course did get busy, but I never really got stuck. In fact, with people’s names and nationality printed on their trisuits, I enjoyed being able to warn people personally that I was about to overtake, followed by “thank you” in their native language (I’m no linguist, but enjoyed pretending to be as I dusted off my single-word Spanish, Portugese, French, Italian and Japanese)! Towards the end, I set some modest personal speed records on the fast descent into Pontevedra and heard a shout from my parents that I was in second place arriving into T2.
Knowing my position, I didn’t even bother with sun cream in T2 – saving 20 precious seconds my shoulders would later regret. The pressure was on for my first couple of steps off the bike, but was pleased to find my calf was back to functioning 90%. I set off on the run alongside an elite athlete from New Zealand (on his second lap) and after a few adrenaline-fuelled minutes impressed at my ability to keep up checked my pace and realised this would not end well.
I settled in behind another elite athlete from Spain, and enjoyed how each pocket of supporters went wild for their home athlete before quietening to slow, polite (verging on sarcastic) applause for the Brit behind. I smiled and waved regardless. I was having a great time and running stronger than any race before, so was surprised when a Slovenian in my age group came storming past as if I wasn’t there. With 20km still to go – and already pushing my limit – I realised there was no point trying to chase him down and updated my race position to third. About 10 minutes later, a Spaniard came past – again from my age group – and I knew I was now in fourth and out of the medals. I tried to hold on for a couple of minutes, but with so far still to go realised it wasn’t possible and reluctantly settled back into running my own race.
As we went around the final lap I counted off behind me the various GB athletes in my age group who I’d expected to beat me, and felt a mixture of pride at a strong performance that had exceeded expectations and frustration that it would be just short of a medal. For no real reason, I put everything into the last mile, sprinting to the athletics stadium and my disappointment melted away as I went over the finish line – proud of a race well run.
It was about 20 minutes later, after a big feed in the recovery area (offering only a strict doughnuts and oranges diet) that I found I’d actually finished third in my age group, and that I was fourth overall! I’d put in the fastest bike split of the day and in fact started the run second overall but first in my age group, meaning I would still get my moment on the podium at the awards ceremony that evening.
To not only represent the GB age group team, but win a world championship medal – even if only an amateur one – was an incredible feeling. Congratulations to fastest Brit Neil Eddy who won the entire amateur race, along with Tine and Xavier in my age group who comprehensively out-ran me and pushed me to my limit with their friendly competition. It’s a strange feeling to have my main and longest distance race over so early in the season, but grateful it went so well. Now looking forward to giving it everything at three hilly half ironman races over the summer.
