Another hurdle cleared: Swim – Run; Serpentine & Hyde Park

I’ve just checked the British Triathlon age group website and I have a Q1 next to my name, meaning that I have officially qualified for the ITU Aquathlon world championships in Hyde Park in September. So at least I will be racing on the Wednesday, 11 September in London.

 

The long term outcome of the London marathon was a very sore right Achilles tendon and, consequently, a painful right calf. I only had two weeks before the qualifying race, the Box End Aquathlon in Bedford so it was no running, physio appointments, massage and strengthening exercises to try and get it ok for the Aquathlon. It seemed to work as I managed to get around the 5km run course without it hindering me. Although I haven’t actually done any running for about 5 weeks (obviously excluding the 42.2km of the VLM) so I found the run hard. I think I’m now quite a bit off my 5km PB set in February this year. However it was a great day for the Box End race with it being warm and the sun shining. Water temp was barely 14C which made getting in the water not the most pleasant of experiences, especially putting the face in open water for the first time of the year.  But with a wet suit on it soon felt ok and I was quite happy with my swim. In fact when the results were out I was happy with all my splits and I actually did one of the fastest transitions. My times were an improvement on last year and I narrowed the gap to the AG’s who beat me last year and extended it from those behind me.

When I checked the British Tri website and saw the Q1 against my name I was a bit surprised that only three of us had Q against their name (me and the two guys who were in front of me) as I think there were at least 10 in the AG who had registered for the world champs and there were seven qualifying spots available. Then I realised that the others hadn’t made the 115% of the AG winners cut off time. I’d forgotten about this qualifying criteria for the world champs. I calculated I was about 106% of the AG 1^st place but shows the quality of our AG winner, who actually was a previous Aquathlon world champs gold medallist. I had a slightly faster swim time than him so it shows that I have to keep concentrating on my running.

I had entered a hilly triathlon race this Sunday but have pulled out to try and give my Achilles another weeks rest. I can see this being a constant battle through the summer. So my next race is 19^th May Llanelli sprint tri where I was brought up. It’s a great feeling to know every inch of the course. Even the swim is in the old North Dock, where I used to spend hours messing around, jumping off the dock gates and getting up to no good. Happy times!